Worldwide Sports News

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

The good vibes of the Orioles’ sweep of the first-place Rays did not carry into their next series, at least not for the opener. The O’s slipped back to five games under .500 with their 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays, as their offense, which had plated 26 runs in three games against Tampa Bay, was held to nothing more than a Coby Mayo solo homer by graybeard Patrick Corbin and three Blue Jays relievers.

It was a very winnable game, thanks to one of Chris Bassitt’s strongest outings of the year, but a lot of little things went wrong. The O’s didn’t capitalize on some scoring opportunities, both through bad luck — such as scorching liners by Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson that went directly into infielders’ gloves — and dumb baseball, most notably Pete Alonso getting picked off first base to quash an eighth-inning rally. Craig Albernaz’s bizarre decision to eschew his best reliever, Rico Garcia, and instead turn to the struggling Anthony Nunez to face the top of the Jays’ lineup in the eighth turned out predictably poorly. Check out Mark Brown’s recap of all the action.

Oh well. You can’t win ’em all, and the Orioles are still 5-2 on this homestand. But they can’t rest on their laurels anytime soon. They’ve still got a bit of a hole to climb out of to get back to the .500 mark, and they’re facing nothing but division opponents for the next nine games, including the Blue Jays six more times and the Red Sox thrice. The Birds have been playing better baseball of late, and they’ve at least avoided tanking their season by Memorial Day like last year’s Orioles did, but it’s going to take a longer stretch of success before we can take them seriously as contenders.

Even after dropping the opener, the Orioles have a chance to make a statement against the defending AL champions, struggling as they may be. A series win is still on the table, but we’d settle for a split. Let’s see the O’s offense come back to life, and most of all, we need to see the Trevor Rogers of 2025 instead of whatever this 2026 monstrosity is. He’s on the mound tonight, and there’s no time like the present for Rogers to start turning his season around.

Links

Jon Meoli: A change in philosophy jump-started the O’s pitching development just in time – The Baltimore Banner

The O’s are changing the way they draft and develop pitchers. I would hold off on saying it’s “jump-started” their pitching development, though. Let’s see a few of these guys have sustained success in the majors first.

Bassitt keeps rotation on roll in Orioles’ 2-1 loss (updated) – School of Roch

My random thought from watching Bassitt last night: this guy really stretches the limits of the pitch clock, huh? On pretty much every pitch he starts his delivery with like half a second left on the clock, yet he manages never to get any violations. Bassitt likes to live dangerously, I suppose.

Questions about Orioles’ bullpen| MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com

For once, I agree with one of the readers. Why is Keegan Akin still on the team?

For O’s Taylor Ward, is lower bat speed impacting his home run totals? – Steve Melewski

Ward’s power outage has been one of the more surprising developments of the season. Melewski delves into what might be going on.

Luck strikes twice! O’s fan snags two balls in two innings – MLB.com

At least there’s one fan who had more luck than the Orioles did last night.

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Five former Orioles were born on this day: utility guys Tyler Nevin (29) and Jerry Hairston Jr. (50), outfielder Eric Davis (64), and right-handers Fred Holdsworth (74) and Dyar Miller (80).

On this date in 1970, Mike Cuellar became the first — and still only — Orioles pitcher to strike out four batters in one inning. In the bottom of the fourth against the California Angels, Cuellar started the inning with a strikeout of Alex Johnson, but a passed ball by Elrod Hendricks allowed him to reach first. Cuellar then racked up Ks of Ken McMullen, Tommie Reynolds, and Jim Spencer. At the time, Cuellar was only the fourth pitcher in American League history to accomplish the feat, but it has since been done 45 more times by AL pitchers, including 18 in the past 10 years. Yet somehow no other Oriole has done it.

And in 2013, the O’s gave up three homers in one game to the Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman — but still won, 9-6, thanks to four homers of their own, including two by Chris Davis.

Random Orioles game of the day

On May 29, 2015, the Orioles pulled off a walkoff win over the Rays, 2-1. In front of a sellout crowd of 45,505 at Camden Yards, starter Miguel González delivered an incredible outing, going eight innings and giving up just one run — with a Steven Souza second-inning homer his only blemish — but the O’s offense didn’t answer quickly enough to get him a win. The Birds trailed for most of the game, getting shut out through six by future Oriole Nate Karns, before Chris Davis launched a game-tying homer in the seventh.

In the bottom of the ninth, singles by Travis Snider and Davis set up J.J. Hardy, who grounded a base hit through the left side to score pinch-runner Everth Cabrera and send the fans home happy. The win was Buck Showalter’s 400th as Orioles manager.

Columbus Clippers 10, Toledo Mud Hens 3 (box)

The Hens pitching staff was shelled on Thursday, while the offense couldn’t capitalize much on six walks given up by the Clippers.

Troy Watson got the start and was clobbered for four runs and knocked out of the game with one out in the second inning. Yoniel Curet took over and settled things down through the third inning in a nice performance. Curet arguably has the best stuff on the staff and is still actually a prospect still 23 years old, so outings without walks are a step in the right direction for him.

The Hens got on the board in the bottom of the third when Ben Malgeri drew a two-out walk and stole second base. Max Clark pulled a grounder through Clippers’ first baseman Ralphy Velazquez to drive in Malgeri and make it a 4-1 game.

Woo-Suk Go took over from Curet and kept the Clippers off the board in the fourth. In the bottom half, Eduardo Valenica led off with a single. Jace Jung struck out, but Corey Julks walked and Tyler Gentry singled to load the bases. Cal Stevenson grounded out, scoring Valencia, and Andrew Navigato smoked a line drive single to center field to make it 4-3 Clippers, but that was all they’d get.

Go cruised through the fifth, but they tried to squeeze a third inning out of him and he immediately gave up back-to-back doubles and a walk before Jack Little took over. Little allowed two more of Go’s runners to score for a 7-3 Clippers lead.

Little and then Luke Ritter gave up three more runs in the late innings while the Hens offense missed a few opportunities.

Clark: 1-3, RBI, 2 BB, K, SB

Malgeri: 1-4, R, BB, K, SB

Watson (L, 1-1): 1.1 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, K

Go: 2.0 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a 7:05 p.m. ET start on Friday night in Toledo.

Chesapeake Baysox 12, Erie SeaWolves 3 (box)

Kenny Serwa and Tanner Kohlhepp were the Baysox’s main victims in this one as Michigan State grad and Orioles’ second rounder last year, Joseph Dzierwa, punched out nine SeaWolves in his start.

Serwa gave up five runs, three earned through three innings of work. Kohlhepp couldnt’ miss a bat, giving up four runs in the fifth.

It was already 9-0 when the SeaWolves got on the board. Izaac Pacheco led off the fifth with a double and E.J. Exposito drew a walk. Bennett Lee and Brett Callahan struck out, but Peyton Graham lined a single that was misplayed into a double to center field to plate both runs. Callahan would later double in the seventh, and an error on the play scored Exposito to make it 9-3.

First baseman Andrew Jenkins tossed the ninth. Enough said. One of the few bright spots was reliever Moises Rodriguez, who tossed 1.1 innings of scoreless ball to keep his ERA at 2.22 on the year. Rodriguez high-powered sinker makes him the next Jason Foley, but he’s still got to improve his command to get there.

Graham: 1-5, 2 RBI, 2B, K

Callahan: 1-4, 2B, BBf, K

Serwa (L, 1-6): 3.0 IP, 5 R, 3 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 3 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a 6:05 p.m. ET start on Friday with the Baysox up 2-1 in the series.

Lansing Lugnuts 6, West Michigan Whitecaps 1 (box)

Carlos Lequerica was rocked in relief, while Andrew Sears made another rehab start with the Whitecaps in yet another loss.

The Whitecaps’ offense got speedy infielder Woody Hadeen back from the injured list, and they churned out 10 hits and drew four walks, but couldn’t come through with runners in scoring position. At least that’s a change from watching their bullpen blow leads.

Things were promising early on. Samuel Gil tripled with two outs in the first and Bryce Rainer pulled a ground ball through the right side for a 1-0 lead. In the second, Cristian Santana walked but was cut down at the plate trying to score on a Junior Tilien double.

Sears wasn’t real sharp in terms of command, but he didn’t have much trouble with the Lugnuts until giving up an RBI double in the third that tied the game 1-1.

Carlos Lequerica took over to get the final out of the third, but walked the first two hitters in the fourth and went on to give up five runs, capped by an Ali Camarillo three-run shot.

The Whitecaps had plenty of baserunners the rest of the way but just could not buy an RBI knock.

Lucas Elissalt’s usual start day accomodated Sears rehab outing, and the right-hander was really good, throwing four scoreless frames without a walk, striking out four.

Rainer: 3-4, RBI

Hadeen: 1-3, 2 BB

Sears: 2.2 IP, ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 2 K

Elissalt: 4.0 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 0 BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a 7:05 p.m. ET start in Lansing on Friday. The Lugnuts lead the series 2-1.

Palm Beach Cardinals 9, Lakeland Flying Tigers 3 (box)

Malachi Witherspoon was crusining early on but ran out of gas and was rocked by a pair of homers as his outing ended in this one.

Carson Rucker opened the scoring in the top of the second with a missile to center field for his sixth home run.

Witherspoon leaked a run in the third, and gave up a Trevor Haskins solo shot in the fourth. Still, he was racking up plenty of strikeouts and routine ground balls until the fifth. He gave up a solo shot, and then a single before Andrew Pogue took over. Pogue allowed the inherited runner to score and then gave up two more runs to make it a 6-1 Palm Beach lead.

In the sixth, Sergio Tapia drew a leadoff walk, and a Jude Warwick sac bunt and then a Jesus Pinto single got Tapia to third. A Beau Ankeney sacrifice fly scored Tapia to make it 6-2. Anibal Salas added a solo shot in the seventh. The bullpen leaked three more runs in the late innings.

Rucker: 1-4, R, RBI, HR, 2 K

Salas: 1-4, R, RBI, HR, 3 K

Witherspoon (L, 2-1): 4.1 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 6 K

Coming Up Next: The Cardinals are up 2-1 in the series going into a 6:30 p.m. ET start on Friday.

FCL Yankees 2, FCL Tigers 1 (box)

Jhonan Coba made an excellent, though curiously short outing, but the Tigers didn’t swing the bats well in this one. They got an early lead when Maikol Orozco was hit by pitch, and a rehabbing Jack Penney drew a walk. Cris Rodriguez singled in Orozco for a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, Jake Bushnell allowed a pair of runs in his 3.1 innings of work and the Tigers couldn’t answer back.

Penney: 1-2, 2B, BB

Rodriguez: 1-4, RBI, 3 K

Hrustich: 1-1, BB

Coba: 2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, BB, 3 K

Bushell (L, 0-1): 3.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 K

After a well-earned day off, the Yankees have their final series of May in front of them with a trip to Sacramento to visit the Athletics. The not-yet-Vegas A’s were the first team to take a series against New York way back in the first week of April, as they took two of three in the Bronx, but now they’ll get a chance to return the favor and kick the A’s while they’re down — after leading the AL West for a good amount of time, Seattle just leapfrogged them with a sweep.

To start us off today, Matt will give us the series preview of the pitching matchups we’ll see against the A’s. Sam has the Rivalry Roundup on a pretty quiet day across the American League, Jeff gives some love to a Yankee that only put on the pinstripes late in his career but was around the organization for a long time in George McQuinn, and Andrés looks into what’s going wrong with Austin Wells this year. Michael ponders who could be the next big Yankees prospects to break out, and finally I’ll be back to answer your latest mailbag questions.

Today’s Matchup:

New York Yankees at Athletics

Time: 9:40 p.m. EST

TV: YES Network, NBCSCA

Venue: Sutter Health Park, Sacramento, CA

Questions/Prompts:

1. The Yankees are 14-11 this month. After the highs and lows of May, if they could walk away with a 16-12 or 17-11 record on the month would you call it a success?

2. Is Carolina going to lock up a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals tonight, or can Montreal keep their season alive?

Imagine if they held a National League Cy Young Award race, and Paul Skenes didn’t even crack the top five.

That’s the current reality right now in the senior circuit, though conceiving of a “Cy Young race” before the calendar hits June and no more than one third of the season has elapsed is some kind of folly.

By September, we’ll have a better idea who encountered injury problems, who got figured out the second or third time around by opposing hitters and who hit the figurative wall as the weather heats up and batters exact revenge.

At the same time, what a handful of hurlers are doing in the NL defies all logic and modern convention.

In an era in which the average starting pitcher has gone from “five-and-dive” to “four-and-no-more,” Philadelphia Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez is averaging nearly seven innings per start – and riding a club-record 44 ⅔-inning scoreless streak that’s nearing the neighborhood of Orel Hershiser’s all-time mark of 59.

At a time when your garden variety redlining starting pitcher lives north of 95 mph yet never sticks around to figure in the decision, Cincinnati’s Chase Burns is on pace for 21 wins and 193 innings pitched – all with an average fastball of 98.1 mph.

After nearly a decade of disbelieving what we’re seeing from Shohei Ohtani, the most talented player in baseball history has a 0.73 ERA in eight starts and more than backed up his oh-by-the-way suggestion that he’d like to win the Cy Young one day.

And rather than associating the phrase “Most fastballs above 100 mph in the pitch-tracking era” with a flash-in-the-pan reliever or a guy soon bound for his orthopedist, Milwaukee’s 6-foot-7 wunderkind, Jacob Misiorowski, is both upright and unhittable, with 100 strikeouts in 64 innings and a 1.83 ERA.

So who’s the best of the bunch? And who figures to sit atop the heap at season's end?

No. 1: Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies

Beyond dislodging Grover Cleveland Alexander from the Phillies’ record book (don’t worry kids – an iteration still lives on in your history lessons) with 44 ⅔ consecutive shutout innings, Sánchez is leading in every important precinct of this race right now.

OK, maybe not strikeouts. He’s five behind The Miz.

Yet he’s tops among qualified starters with a 1.47 ERA across a majors-leading 79 ⅓ innings pitched. It’s that latter stat that may separate him from the flamethrowers as the season goes on: Sánchez already has 30 more innings pitched than Ohtani, essentially providing four more starts worth of coverage to the pitching staff.

Sánchez features perhaps inarguably the best changeup in the game, a pitch he throws more and more each year – now at 37.8% usage - as his conviction in it grows. Opponents are batting .153 against it, with no homers and just two doubles in 141 plate appearances.

ESPN | Jesse Rogers: One day after the MLB Players’ Association offered a soft cap and a substantial increase of the minimum salary, among other things, the owners came up with the first firm cap offer since the 1994 strike. Per the league’s offer, each organization would need to keep a minimum payroll of $171.2 million, with a maximum of $245.3 million. “Our salary cap and floor proposal levels the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50/50 as we grow the game together,” league spokesperson Glen Caplin said in a statement.

MLB.com | Bill Ladson: Ladson caught up with Yankees legend Reggie Jackson. Mr. October discussed many subjects, including his excellent shape, cutting down on sugar, his love for the Steinbrenner family, the development of Aaron Judge, his favorite ballplayers around the league, his stance on the ABS challenge system, and many more. It’s definitely worth a read if you admire the always interesting Jackson.

NJ Advance Media | Randy Miller: Yankees backup catcher J.C. Escarra, who hits from the left side of the plate, is reportedly exploring the possibility of becoming a switch-hitter in the offseason. Per Miller, he is taking five swings righty every day in batting practice and is not opposed to the idea of eventually hitting from both sides. “I’m not committed yet, but it’s been on my mind some. We’ll see where it goes. All things are possible,” he said. Escarra is hitting .200/.250/.291 with a 51 wRC+ in 60 plate appearances this year.

NY Post | Ryan Giancola: It’s not a secret to anybody that followed the Yankees in the eighties that Dave Winfield and George Steinbrenner had a complicated relationship. The former outfielder, who spent nine seasons in the Bronx, criticized the “toxic work environment” in New York while talking on the All The Smoke Baseball podcast.

“Those nine-plus years that I was there, there wasn’t one day that I felt the organization was on my side trying to help me promote me, move me forward,” Winfield said on Wednesday. “You got to go to work every day, a toxic work environment.”

He added: “One of the best things that happened for my career is when I left New York.”

Steinbrenner infamously hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Winfield, and also leaked made-up stories about him to the press, among other things.

SNY | John Flanigan: Yankees ace Gerrit Cole has already returned from the injured list, making two starts so far. Both of them resulted in at least six scoreless innings, with the most recent one, on Wednesday, also including 10 strikeouts in 6.2 frames. His velocity and command both seem all the way back, and manager Aaron Boone had nothing but good things to say about the frontline starter. “If the first start was the appetizer, this was the main course,” he said. “He had everything going.” A healthy, locked-in Cole takes the Yanks’ rotation to a whole new level.