Sunday Bird Droppings: The Orioles try to send Phillies fans home unhappy
Sunday Bird Droppings: The Orioles try to send Phillies fans home unhappy
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
The Orioles-Phillies showdown this weekend has lived up to the hype so far. And they’re saving the best for last.
After an action-packed opener that the Phillies won in 11 innings, the O’s returned serve with a well-played 6-2 win yesterday, which featured star turns from Grayson Rodriguez — who worked a season-high seven innings, allowing only two runs — and Anthony Santander, who crushed his second and third homers of the series. Check out Mark Brown’s recap for all the lovely details.
And now for the main event. With the series victory on the line, each team will send a bona fide ace to the mound in the rubber game. The Orioles’ Corbin Burnes and the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler, the first- and second-place finishers in the extremely close 2021 NL Cy Young vote, will go head-to-head in today’s finale. Both have been almost identically stupendous this season, with Burnes carrying a 2.08 ERA (fifth-lowest in MLB) and Wheeler a 2.16 (seventh-lowest) in 14 starts each. Wheeler has racked up a few more strikeouts than Burnes and has been better at limiting hits (a league-best 5.6 H/9), while Burnes’s walk rate is slightly better than Wheeler’s (2.3 BB/9 to 2.8). If both pitchers are on their game, this will be an epic matchup.
The action begins at 1:35, and hopefully the ratio of Orioles fans to Phillies fans at Camden Yards will be better than yesterday, when it seemed Phils fans outnumbered their counterparts. They were certainly louder, at any rate...until, of course, their team lost. All’s well that ends well. The O’s will try to send the Phillies fans home unhappy one more time this afternoon.
Links
Grayson Rodriguez logs seven strong innings in Orioles’ win over Phillies - MLB.com
And to think, for the first two innings this looked like it was going to be one of Grayson’s shakier outings. It certainly took a turn for the better after that.
Orioles’ Craig Kimbrel unfazed by boos from Phillies fans - The Baltimore Sun
Craig Kimbrel isn’t surprised that Phillies fans traveled en masse to Baltimore to boo him. He responded in the best way possible: by shutting down the Phils for two scoreless innings in the series. Boo that!
Orioles’ Means believes he can pitch again after 2nd Tommy John surgery - BaltimoreBaseball.com
I certainly hope John Means is right that he’ll pitch in the majors again. Whether it’s with the Orioles or another team, the guy deserves the chance to continue his career if he’s able.
Orioles waiting to learn more about Bradish’s injury before determining next step - School of Roch
The Orioles don’t want to use the “s” word with Kyle Bradish just yet. ...Uh, to be clear, the “s” word in this case is “surgery.” I’m sure they said the other “s” word plenty of times when they realized Bradish was hurt again.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! It’s the 43th birthday of 2012 postseason legend Joe Saunders, who memorably outdueled Yu Darvish in the Wild Card Game in Texas in the Orioles’ first playoff game in 15 years. Saunders later returned for a second, less successful stint in Baltimore in 2014. Other former Orioles with June 16 birthdays are infielder Chris Gomez (53) and the late right-hander Ernie Johnson (b. 1924, d. 2011).
On this date in 1986, the Orioles traded right-hander Dennis Martínez, who’d spent his first 10 MLB seasons with the Birds, to the Montreal Expos. Martínez had pitched 319 games for the O’s, including 69 complete games, and won a World Series in 1983, but the Orioles figured the 32-year-old was nearing the end of his career. Yeah, not so much. El Presidente went on to pitch for another 12 seasons until he was 44, becoming a four-time All-Star and setting a record at the time for the most wins by a Latin American pitcher (245).
And on this day in 2015, the O’s crushed a team-record eight home runs in a 19-3 drubbing of the Phillies at Camden Yards. Right fielder Chris Parmelee, making his Orioles debut, smacked two home runs as part of a 4-for-6 introduction, and Manny Machado also had a two-dinger day. Chris Davis, Jimmy Paredes, David Lough, and Ryan Flaherty completed the home run bonanza with one roundtripper apiece. You know, the Orioles play the Phillies again today. Now’s as good a time as any to break that eight-homer record. (Yeah, I know, Zack Wheeler is pitching. But don’t ruin my fun.)