The Jays begin a nine game road trip with a visit to Camden Yards.
The Orioles, on the off chance you hadn't noticed, are really good. In fact, just one team in the majors has a better record and it's just the Orioles' bad luck that they play in the same division.
This is not a new development. On May 20 of last year, the Orioles sported a 16-24 record. Business as usual. And on the next day, Adley Rutschman made his major league debut. The Orioles went 67-55 (.549) the rest of the way.
They've been quite a bit better than that this year, but we should note that they've fattened their record by playing lots of games against the four worst teams in the AL (Oakland, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City) and the worst team in the NL. The Orioles have played those five teams 22 times already, and gone a very slick 18-4. The Blue Jays have kicked the crap out of those teams as well (8-2), but they've only made 10 appearances on the Toronto schedule.
They're good at scoring runs. Camden Yards has been playing as something of a pitcher's park in 2023 (the Orioles are scoring and allowing more runs on the road) - but only two AL teams (Texas and Tampa Bay) are scoring more frequently. We can be happy, I suppose, that the Orioles will be without one of their best players, centre fielder Cedric Mullins, who's been out for the last ten days with a groin strain. The Baltimores found Aaron Hicks lying on the scrap heap where the Yankees had unceremoniously dumped him. Someone seems to have surgically removed the fork that was sticking out of his back - Hicks has taken over for Mullins in centre field and hit .345/.472/.586 in his first 10 games as an Oriole.
And as always there's Ryan Mountcastle, who has actually been one of the Orioles' weaker bats this season (notwithstanding the fact that he leads the squad in HRs and RBIs.) Mountcastle was out of the lineup this past weekend with an illness, but we may be sure that the appearance of the Blue Jays on the schedule will have him feeling better in a hurry. Mountcastle came into this season with a lifetime mark of .322/.381/.634 against Toronto, with 14 HRs in just 42 games. He'd hit three of those homers against Yusei Kikuchi in just nine at bats. And in the first meeting between the two teams this season, they matched up again. Kikuchi wisely walked him in the first inning (two out, no one on base), but two innings later Mountcastle came up to bat with a couple of runners aboard. Kikuchi tried to get him out, with the usual result - a three run homer.
And then - a miracle happened. Mountcastle went hitless the rest of the day, he went 0-4 the next day, and 0-5 in the series finale. Is it possible that the Jays have finally figured out something? Or is it just the inevitable swing of the pendulum?
Who the hell knows. But be ready for Thursday afternoon... Mountcastle vs Kikuchi. Yet again. Be there or be square.
The Story So Far
Fri 19 May: Baltimore 6 Toronto 2 - Mountcastle's three run homer off Kikuchi staked the Orioles to a 3-1 lead in the third inning. A solo shot from Santander in the sixth (off Richards) and a two run homer by Frazier (off Swanson) in the ninth did the rest of the damage. Kyle Gibson pitched seven strong innings, scattering five hits and holding the Jays to just a single run.
Sat 20 May: Baltimore 6 Toronto 5 - An interesting, and ultimately frustrating game. This was the game when John Schneider finally broke up the Manoah-Kirk combination that had been in place for almost all of Manoah's major league career. And it seemed to work - Manoah, with Danny Jansen behind the plate, actually looked like a competent major league pitcher once again. Manoah pitched into the sixth, and came out of the game largely because his manager had come out to the mound having forgotten that the pitching coach had already made a mound visit that inning. Naturally Jansen hurt himself and went on the IL before Manoah's turn came around again, and after going 0-3, 14.73 in his next three starts, Manoah was sent back to the shop for Major Fixes. As for the rest of the game - the Jays took a 5-2 lead into the eighth inning, with homers from Springer and Jansen leading the attack. But in the eighth, the Orioles put a couple of men on against Erik Swanson. Schneider summoned Jordan Romano for a five out save. Romano got one out, but Ryan O'Hearn tied the game with a three run homer. The Orioles cashed the Zombie Runner in their half of the tenth and Felix Bautista struck out the side to nail it down.
Sun 21 May: Baltimore 8 Toronto 3 - This was a close, absorbing game for most of the afternoon. A Chapman homer staked the Jays to an early lead, but the Orioles cashed a pair in the third. Ortiz led off with a double, Mullins followed with a single, and they both came around to score on a groundout and a failed fielder's choice. The Jays eventually tied it up against reliever Mychal Givens and we went to extras. The Orioles immediately cashed the Zombie Runner against Nate Pearson in their half of the tenth, but the Jays quickly did likewise in their half. So Yimi Garcia came out for the eleventh. He struck out Mountcastle, which seemed a promising start - it was Mountcastle, after all. Garcia then gave up base hits to each of the next four batters, allowing three runs to score, and after getting a second out, concluded his disastrous day by giving up a two run double to Mullins. And the Orioles had completed the sweep.
In our house.
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