Hello, friends.

The Orioles just can’t let us feel good about them for long, huh? The vibes were great yesterday afternoon around the Shane Baz contract extension, with excitement for the near future of the team from the front office and from a good number of the players. If only they could have sustained those good vibes through even one more game after that. Instead, the Orioles turned in a stinker of a 4-1 loss to the Twins to fall to 1-1 on the year. Check out my recap of the game for more of the not-so-lovely totals.

Anybody who is my age or younger has been prepared for this kind of thing by a lifetime of being Orioles fans. Nothing good lasts for long and plenty of times things have come along within 24 hours to squash fun vibes. This is only the latest example. Baz has the opportunity to bring the good vibes back here this afternoon, if he can turn in a good outing in his first game in an Orioles uniform.

It’s still kind of wild for me to think about, but Baz got that contract extension before ever throwing a pitch for the team. Mike Elias really likes this guy. This is not a guarantee of success. Sometimes Elias likes guys based on thinking they’ll be better than they have been and it doesn’t work out that way. Sometimes he likes guys based on thinking they’ll be about what they have been in the past and that doesn’t work out either. The guy has a solid track record overall, but there are glaring gaps and one of those is building a quality starting rotation.

Getting Baz locked up could be the first sign of starting to bring some stability into that group. Getting way ahead of ourselves, just based on who has major league experience and will still be available to the Orioles next year, they’ve got Kyle Bradish, Baz, and Dean Kremer. That’s potentially not a bad 60% of a rotation. If one of the team’s pitching prospects can fill a spot better than the previous wave’s guys like Cade Povich and Brandon Young did, then there’s only one hole to fill. That’s a whole lot better than having to sign two guys and trade for a third guy every winter.

Of course, two games into this 2026 season, there hasn’t been too much cause for worrying about the rotation yet. It’s an offense that’s not looking like much has changed from the last season and a half worth of Orioles baseball that feels like a problem. You can make excuses for this if you want, particularly yesterday when it was the 10th-coldest game start temperature in Oriole Park at Camden Yards history. Warmer weather is coming as soon as today, so this excuse pretty much expired already. Until they do enough to change the story, it’s the same story.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

You know who wants to talk some about the Shane Baz press conference? Everybody whose job it is to cover the Orioles on a regular basis.

More extensions coming? Rubenstein says O’s are ‘open for business’ (Orioles.com)
Orioles celebrate Shane Baz extension (School of Roch)
Baz says Orioles extension was ‘no-brainer’ (Baltimore Baseball)
After Baz, Basallo, who could be next? (The Baltimore Sun)
Different days in Birdland: Baz extension followed Basallo, Alonso contracts (Steve on Baseball)
By doubling down on Shane Baz, the Orioles can turn their rotation into a long-term strength (The Baltimore Banner)

There really is a lot to digest about it. Yes, it’s a further sign that something different is happening now than we got accustomed to with contracts before Rubenstein took over. It shows that the Orioles might actually invest in their rotation. There is hope for extensions for any non-Boras client who the O’s deem worth it. It seems like there is excitement both in the Orioles clubhouse and front office for these things happening. That’s all cool. It would just be a lot more cool if they built on these good feelings with how they played on the field yesterday.

Joseph Dzierwa headlines the Orioles next wave of pitching prospects (Baseball America)
Subscription required for this one. The pitcher had a phenomenal appearance in the Spring Breakout game and if he carries that forward into the minor league season, that’s going to get mighty interesting in a hurry.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

The Orioles last won a game on this day just last year, when they beat the Blue Jays, 9-5, to improve to 2-1 for the season. Just four of the seventeen players who appeared for the Orioles that day are on the 26-man roster right now. Jordan Westburg had four hits, including a pair of homers.

One lone former Oriole was born on this day: 1989-91 infielder Juan Bell. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 48.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: 10th president John Tyler (1790), baseball Hall of Famer Cy Young (1867), actress Amy Sedaris (1961), model Elle Macpherson (1964), and actress Lucy Lawless (1968).

On this day in history…

In 1461, the two sides of England’s Wars of the Roses fought the Battle of Towton. The York contingent, led by Edward, defeated the Lancastrian force of Queen Margaret, leading to Edward being crowned as Edward IV and the wars being interrupted for nine years.

In 1847, during the Mexican-American War, American military forces captured the city of Veracruz following a siege.

In 1961, upon ratification by the state of Ohio, the Twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution, which grants electoral votes to the District of Columbia, took effect. Maryland was seventh to ratify, about two months earlier.

In 1971, Lt. William Calley was convicted of 22 counts of premeditated murder for his role in the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam three years earlier. He served three days in prison before being released to house arrest under order of President Nixon, and ultimately served three years of house arrest for these murders.

In 1984, the Mayflower vans pulled out from the Baltimore Colts facility, marking the end of the Baltimore Colts and the beginning of the Indianapolis team that bears the same name.

A random Orioles trivia question

I received a random book of Orioles trivia questions for Christmas. I’ll ask a question each time it’s my turn in this space until I run out of questions or forget. It’s probably going to be run out of questions. Since I’m skipping stupid questions, repeat questions, and questions about the St. Louis Browns (it’s not a good book of trivia), we’re already up to 77, which is this:

Who had the lowest earned run average on the 1970 Orioles staff?

I will add the hint that this is inclusive of relievers.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on March 29. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!

Somewhere, at some point, Bob Uecker would have been proud of that game yesterday.

Except for that whole getting a second hit thing in the ninth inning. Thanks, Alec, for ruining my joke for today. And, you know, the rest of the team for making it a ballgame.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• Harry Kalas’ widow is very upset about the name change on the team’s old restaurant. She wants some money for it, too ($).
• I know you’re all very worried about it, but Garrett Stubbs is choosing to stay in Lehigh Valley. He’ll report this weekend.
• The team needed some infield depth in the minor leagues, so they signed Sergio Alcantara to help out.

MLB news:

• Nico Hoerner’s new contract extension has some details now, his deal calling for $141 million over those six new years.
• The Curtis Mead transaction train continues rolling. Now, he’s been traded to the Nationals in a small deal.
• The Dodgers’ owner Mark Walters made some comments about “parity” in MLB. With a lockout possible, those comments matter.
• Jackson Chourio had to hit the injured list with a fractured hand.

Three games, three wins! It’s hard to do much better than that, the Yankees starting off their season with a sweep for the second year in a row. The shape of the sweep was much different this time around though, as this season’s Yankees have used phenomenal pitching to quell the Giants, while the 2025 squad absolutely pummeled the Brewers into submission. The team is in a groove, but the thing about the early season is that it can take a moment for the schedule to get rolling; the Yankees have their second off-day of the year today, and they’ll have three breathers interspersed through the first six days of the season. So rest up, before we head to Seattle for a few late nights with the Mariners.

On the site today, Peter has you handled for the Rivalry Roundup, and he also has the next entry in our Yankees Birthday series, profiling pitcher Herb McQuaid. Also, in the afternoon John spins around opening week on Yankees social media.

Today’s Matchup

Off-day.

Questions/Prompts:

1. Will Ryan Weathers keep up this Yankees pitching excellence tomorrow in Seattle?

2. Anyone have their Final Four still intact in their bracket?

The Athletic | Chris Kirschner: The streak came to an end after the Giants scored in the third inning on Saturday, but the Yankees opened the season with 20 consecutive scoreless innings, including two shutouts in the first two games. Even missing some of the most important pieces through injury, Yankees’ pitching — from Max Fried and Cam Schlittler to the bullpen — made a historic start to the 2026 season.

Newsday | Erik Boland: Camilo Doval was one of a couple relievers acquired by the Yankees at the trade deadline in 2025, as they tried to remake a struggling bullpen. He was a bit of a disappointment on that front last year, but so far this year, he’s looked the pitcher the Yankees were looking to acquire.

NJ.com | Randy Miller: The Yankees’ opening series of the season against the Giants brought a reunion with the team’s former center fielder Harrison Bader. Despite a solid playoff run in 2022, Bader’s stint in the Bronx did not go as he or the team wanted, leading to them eventually waiving him in 2023. However, Bader still carries with him lessons he learned in the Bronx, specifically from captain Aaron Judge.

New York Post | Joel Sherman: Heading into the 2026 season — barring horrible injuries or unforeseen sudden dropoffs — Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt seem like the only future Hall of Fame locks on the 2026 Yankees. However, Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole are knocking on the door too, and then could improve their cases with good seasons and a ring in 2026.

SAN FRANCISCO — Before the automated ball-strike system came into play in real games that counted, the Yankees spent plenty of mornings this spring talking about it.

“We had too many meetings about it, in my opinion,” Aaron Judge said with a grin.

Judge was at least partly joking — “It’s all good stuff,” he later added — but the early returns have been strong.

In their season-opening sweep of the Giants, the Yankees went 5-for-6 in ABS challenges, including 3-for-3 on Saturday, with each of them coming in key moments in a 3-1 win at Oracle Park.

The first came in Trent Grisham’s at-bat with one out in the third inning, when Tyler Mahle threw a 2-2 pitch that home plate umpire Chad Whitson called strike three.

But Grisham challenged the pitch and it proved to be high, turning into ball three on the way to a walk, allowing him to later score on Ben Rice’s two-out, two-run double.

“That sets up a lot right there,” manager Aaron Boone said.

Austin Wells was responsible for the other two, helping out his relievers. In the seventh inning of a 3-1 game, Jake Bird threw an 0-1 pitch to Casey Schmitt that Whitson called a ball. But Wells challenged it, turning it into a strike and one pitch later, Schmitt struck out.

Tim Hill then entered to face Jung Hoo Lee and threw an 0-2 pitch that Whitson deemed a ball, only for Wells to challenge it and get a called third strike that ended the frame.

“I love what I’m seeing from Austin Wells back there, overturning a couple big calls to shift the momentum onto our side,” Aaron Judge said.

Carlos Rodón is expected to make his next outing back in Tampa on Sunday or Monday, another live batting practice (or extended spring game) as he continues his buildup from October surgery to shave down a bone spur and remove loose bodies.

The left-hander threw three innings and about 40 pitches on Tuesday, so he could build to about 50 pitches in his next outing.

It seems plausible that his next start after that would be on a rehab assignment, though Boone was not yet ready to make that official on Saturday.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

Gerrit Cole is also expected to throw live back in Tampa in the coming days, though he noted after his last start on Tuesday in Arizona that he expects to go through a deload period before starting his own rehab assignment.

The win marked Boone’s 700th as manager, making him the seventh Yankees manager to reach that milestone, joining Joe McCarthy, Joe Torre, Casey Stengel, Miller Huggins, Ralph Houk and Joe Girardi.

The Mariners picked up their first singles of the season but couldn’t get much action until too late.

The Mariners entered the ninth inning Saturday with six hits and six walks and just two runs to show for it. They trailed the Guardians 3-2 when Cole Young leadoff the inning by plopping a a soft liner down the left field line for a double. Ryan Bliss tried to bunt him over for some reason but couldn’t get it down and struck out. Cal Raleigh struck out behind him.

That brought Julio Rodríguez to the plate. He fell behind 1-2 against dominant Guardians’ closer Cade Smith. Then he got a fastball up and in and laced his first hit of the season back up the middle to tie the game.

The Mariners would go on to lose 6-5.

Dan Wilson turned to Andrés Muñoz in the 10th to preserve the new tie. Steven Kwan laid down a sacrifice bunt up the third base line; Brendan Donovan charged, scooped, and threw the ball into right field, scoring the Manfred Man from second and allowing Kwan to replace him there. Rookie Chase DeLauter stepped to the plate and crushed his fourth homer of the year the other way, giving the Guardians a 6-3 lead.

Luke Raley answered in the bottom of the inning. With the Manfred Man on and one out, he got a fastball up and away and pulled it into the right-center stands for his third home run of the year, cutting the lead to 6-5.

Leo Rivas and Young each struck out to end the game.

The Mariners lineup entered the day having yet to hit a single — the only team in MLB history without a single through their first two games. That changed Saturday, picking up six singles, two doubles, and the Raley homer to go with seven walks. It was a solid performance overall, but they couldn’t quite string their hits together to capitalize.

In the second, Randy Arozarena struck out looking with a full count. He immediately challenged and began taking off his gear as the T-Mobile Park video board flashed the ABS decision: Ball four. Donovan quickly replaced him at first with a fielder’s choice. Victor Robles, in his first plate appearance of the season, yanked a double down the left field line, scoring Donovan all the way from first. That was all they’d get in the inning.

It was a good sign from Donovan — both beating out the fielder’s choice and coming around to score — as he’d whacked his knees against the left field stands making a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch in the first inning. He appeared to be OK. 

The Mariners picked up their first single of 2026 in the third inning. Cal Raleigh, the three true outcome king himself, dunked a soft liner up the middle. He was 0-for-8 on the season with eight strikeouts (and a walk) entering the at bat, and he flashed a big grin after getting to first base. He immediately stole second, and Julio Rodríguez walked behind him, but the Mariners couldn’t cash in.

In the fourth, Arozarena lead off with a single on a dribbler down the third base line that catcher David Fry should have let roll foul but didn’t. Donovan followed with a single to put runners on first and second. Robles advanced Arozarena to third with a fly out to deep right. Leo Rivas worked a long at bat before watching ball four sail to the backstop, allowing Arozarena to trot home. But after chasing Guardians’ starting pitcher Joey Cantillo in the fourth inning at 91 pitches, they couldn’t push across any more.

In the sixth, Donovan and Robles each picked up one-out singles and then advanced on a double steal. But Rivas grounded out to short with the infield drawn in and Donovan was nailed at the plate. In the seventh, they got two on with a pair of walks but couldn’t tie the game. They got another walk in the eighth but again couldn’t tie the game again.

Despite the bizarre sequencing to start to the season, the Mariners have a 126 wRC+ in three games — sixth best in the majors.

The Mariners were in the game to the end because Bryan Woo picked up right where he left off in his first start of 2026. He gave up two runs and four hits over six innings while striking out nine. He pumped his signature four-seam fastball over and over and over and the Guardians struggled to make solid contact, whiffing 11 times on 37 swings against the fastball. He cruised through the first five innings, as the Mariners held a 2-0 lead.

But he struggled in the sixth. His fastball velocity was down a touch, and his command was just off.  He issued a leadoff walk, then after getting two quick outs, appeared to issue another walk to José Ramírez. The Mariners, however, challenged the call. When they were proven correct, Ramírez returned to the box and laced his 400th career double to score the Guardians’ first run. Kyle Manzardo followed with a single to the tie game at two.

Eduard Bazardo allowed the Guardians to break the tie in the seventh with a pair of two-out walks and an RBI single to Kwan to make the game 3-2. Gabe Speier came in to get the final out of the inning and preserve the narrow deficit. Wilson after the game defended his decision to stick with Bazardo against the lefty Kwan even after the two walks.

“Zardo is a guy we really trust, and Kwan was just able to flip that ball into left field and get the big hit. So you’re hoping you can get him through there, and then Gabe has got the next inning. But it was just one of those tough ones tonight.”

Woo was hard on himself after the game, in a way that, if you don’t mind a bit of editorializing, wasn’t quite fair given how well he pitched most of the night.

“I think…just…undisciplined, is the best way I can put it,” he said of his mini-blowup in the sixth. “I have to be better about coming out, especially as you get later into games. You’ve got to up your focus even more, and that just can’t happen.

“Even though a lot of things took place, I still feel like this game was on me. I feel like if I do my job and limit the damage, even if I just give up one in that inning, just to get out of it with a lead…when a team is, when you get them down like that, you’ve got to keep them down. You can’t give them anything, especially a scrappy team like that. You give them any breath of life, they’ll take it and run with it. So I’ve got to do a better job of keeping teams down when they’re down.”

The Guardians were aggressive against Woo, swinging at more than half his pitches. Woo was aggressive right back, pumping heaters in the zone all six innings. He said he doesn’t change his approach between or within games. It’s just a matter of committing to his game plan.

“Teams have come out with different strategies against me, whether it’s being patient and trying to work counts or coming out swinging, it doesn’t really change my plan of attack. I still want to get ahead, I still want to be aggressive. I’m still trying to attack the zone early and stick to my game plan. Worked out in my favor for the majority of the game, but didn’t change what I was doing.”

Woo entered the day with 392 career strikeouts. With his strikeout of DeLauter in the sixth, he picked up career K number 400.

“Hopefully I’ll find the ball somewhere, maybe put it on my wall,” he said, “and then on to 500.”