The below-.500 Orioles have yet to win consecutive games this season.
Hello, friends.
We are now 5.6% of the way into the 2025 Orioles season. The O’s helped us feel better about them for at least a little while with a win over the Royals yesterday to improve to 4-5 on the season. Tomoyuki Sugano collected his first MLB win after going 5.1 innings, Jackson Holliday led the way with three hits, and the O’s beat the Royals, 8-1. Check out Tyler Young’s recap of the game for more of the lovely totals.
One question for today is going to be: Can the Orioles do that again? The O’s have yet to have back-to-back games with a strong offensive output. Related to that, the Orioles have also yet to win back-to-back games this season. That is going to need to change for the O’s to start heading somewhere good this year. For now, they sit in the basement of the American League East, the only team in the division that’s currently below a .500 record.
A number of players in the lineup have hit pretty well so far, so you’d think there might be a better record overall. It hasn’t worked out that way. Once the bat gets going for the recently-returned Gunnar Henderson, that will be a big help. After two games, it’s not there yet. Ryan Mountcastle hasn’t found the power stroke yet. And so far the entire bench isn’t hitting.
It’s a 2:10 scheduled start time as the Orioles and Royals look to settle who wins this three-game set this afternoon. Win and the Orioles are .500 again. Lose and it’s two series losses in a row and everyone will have to continue wondering what the heck is going wrong with this team.
Cade Povich is the O’s starter for this afternoon’s series finale. He showed some promising flashes in his first start of the season, though the overall results were not very good. Royals starter Kris Bubic tossed six shutout innings in his own first outing of the year. Let’s get that ERA well above 0, fellas.
Around the blogO’sphere
Notes on throwing to the right bases, Pérez’s early struggles, and more (School of Roch)
There have been a number of instances of Orioles outfielders not throwing to the right base in this young season. Manager Brandon Hyde expects better.
Gunnar Henderson is back, but Orioles bats are still missing (The Baltimore Banner)
Yesterday’s win has not chased away the feeling from the second half of last year that these guys aren’t doing enough on a regular basis to send the team to good places.
Domínguez percolating in Baltimore — with his prized coffee machine (Orioles.com)
Apparently, the secret to coffee in Seranthony Domínguez’s hometown in the Dominican Republic is adding a little nutmeg.
Orioles trade Triple-A utilityman Nick Gordon to Royals for cash (The Baltimore Sun)
If you were even aware of the Orioles having Nick Gordon on the Triple-A roster, give yourself an Orioles sicko point.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1992, Oriole Park at Camden Yards hosted its first game as the team began the season against the then-Indians. Rick Sutcliffe pitched a complete game shutout as the Orioles came out on top, 2-0. More people were reported in attendance for the 2025 home opener than this game (45,002 to 44,568).
The most recent year in which the Orioles won a game on April 6 was seven years ago. The 2018 team played 14 innings against the Yankees and came out on top, 7-3, with a Pedro Álvarez grand slam making the difference as the team improved to 3-5 on the young season. The O’s ended up winning three of four games in this series and things got rapidly worse from there.
There is one lone former Oriole who was born on this day: Danny Clyburn, an outfielder who appeared in 13 games across the 1997 and 1998 seasons for the O’s. He passed away in 2012 at age 37.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: economist James Mill (1773), baseball Hall of Famers Joe Williams (1886) and Mickey Cochrane (1903), musician Merle Haggard (1937), actor Billy Dee Williams (1937), Baltimore-born writer/director Barry Levinson (1942), baseball Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven (1951), and actor Paul Rudd (1969).
On this day in history…
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar led an army to victory in the Battle of Thapsus in modern-day Tunisia. One noteworthy thing about this battle is the forces against Caesar included about 60 war elephants, and this was the last significant battle in history to use elephants on a large scale.
In 1453 AD, Ottoman sultan Mehmed II began a siege of the city of Constantinople. Upon its capture by the end of the following month, it was renamed to its present name: Istanbul.
In 1812, the British and Portuguese led by the Earl (later Duke) of Wellington stormed the French-held Spanish fortress of Badajoz after a three week siege. Its capture allowed the anti-Napoleon coalition to advance further into Spain during the Peninsular War.
In 1896, the first modern Olympic games opened in Athens, Greece. There were 43 events, with the United States of America winning the most gold medals (11).
In 1917, the United States formally entered World War I by declaring war on Germany.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on April 6. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!