Hello, friends.
There are now 18 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day. From now through March 23 will be near-daily exhibitions where hopefully nobody will get injured and everybody will get ready to fill the role they are needed to fill this season. This afternoon, they’ll play the Blue Jays at 1:05 in a game that will air on MASN as well as on the Orioles flagship radio stations in Baltimore. Many of your electronic devices have probably already reminded you that the “spring forward” part of Daylight Savings Time happened last night, but if they haven’t, don’t show up an hour late.
With the magic of spring training, the Orioles played two games simultaneously in two different places yesterday afternoon. At home in Sarasota, one group of Orioles beat the Twins, 3-2. Heston Kjerstad hit a two-run go-ahead home run in this game, and Coby Mayo later broke a tie with an RBI double.
A second group of Orioles was on the road to play the Braves in North Port, Florida. That game ended in a 2-2 tie. Not much of interest happened in this game. Samuel Basallo was on base twice, so at least there was that. Pitching prospect Boston Bateman got some action in and allowed two solo home runs, one to Austin Riley and one to Mike Yastrzemski. That’s some tougher competition than he’s seen in A-ball up to this point. Earlier in the game, pitching prospect Luis De León struck out those same two batters.
Within the next week, we’ll see more and more of the players who are obviously not going to make the MLB roster getting sent over to the minor league camp and there won’t be as many opportunities to see them in the major league spring games. The expected big league regulars will be playing more and more of the innings as the regular season gets closer. We’re not quite there yet, especially with there still being World Baseball Classic absences.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
“I want the fire”: Wells ready for pressure of the ‘pen (Orioles.com)
With Andrew Kittredge out, there’s a late inning waiting for Wells if he can lay claim to it.
Grant Wolfram, a spring standout, building case to be in bullpen (The Baltimore Sun)
I don’t know how much having a 0.00 ERA through four games matters, but Wolfram has got one.
Updating Holliday’s advancements in recovery from hamate bone surgery (School of Roch)
Yesterday’s development is that Holliday has progressed to swinging off a tee, with BP “within the next week or so.” They still haven’t put a timetable on his return. I’m sticking with my guess of Holliday missing a month.
Orioles option Brandon Young to minor league camp (Baltimore Baseball)
As manager Craig Albernaz said, “There is no pathway for him to break with us for Opening Day,” so the team wanted to get him over to the minor league side to build up his innings there. 67 players are still on the camp roster after this lone cut.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 2001, the Orioles announced that Albert Belle was no longer able to perform as an MLB player due to his degenerative right hip condition.
There are several former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2011 pitcher Mark Worrell, 2009 pitcher Chris Lambert, 2009 utility man Ryan Freel, 2002 infielder Mike Moriarty, and 1960-62 infielder Marv Breeding.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: composer Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (1714), Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841), baseball Hall of Famers Dick Allen (1942) and Jim Rice (1953), sports broadcaster Kenny Smith (1965), and actor James Van Der Beek (1977).
On this day in history…
In 1801, during the War of the Second Coalition (against Napoleon), the British successfully landed an expeditionary force in Egypt with a victory in the Battle of Abukir. Within six months, the French who had invaded the territory surrendered.
In 1917, protests made on International Women’s Day in Petrograd, Russia launched the February Revolution that, over the next eight days, overthrew the monarchy. If you’re wondering why the February Revolution happened in March, it’s because Russia at this time was still using the Julian calendar so for them it was February 23.
In 1979, electronics company Philips made the first demonstration of the compact disc.
A random Orioles trivia question
I received a random book of Orioles trivia questions for Christmas. I’ll ask a question in this space each time it’s my turn until I run out of questions or forget. Though the book gives multiple choice answers, I’m not giving you those because that would be too easy. Here’s today’s question:
The team’s combined no-hitter in 1991 against the Athletics saw three relievers pitch: Mike Flanagan, Mark Williamson, and Gregg Olson. Who was the starting pitcher in this game?
If you are answering the question early in the day, please be considerate of those coming later and place your answer in spoiler text in the comments. Thank you!
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on March 8. Have a safe Sunday.
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