BALTIMORE — There are no big games or big series this time of year.
Yes, they’re important in the way managers and players will tell you every game and series is important over the course of a long season, and you no longer play each division opponent 19 times, adding weight to every head-to-head matchup played in April and May or the final week of the six-month marathon. Still, the Orioles must navigate another 131 games to determine whether they’ll win the division and play in October for the second straight year. That’ll mean a heck of a lot more than one four-game series coinciding with the calendar turning to the second month of the season.
But if statements do exist in early May, the Orioles (20-11) certainly made one in taking three out of four from the Yankees at Camden Yards this week. They reminded New York — the club that spent most of April in first place after being regarded by many as the division favorite entering 2024 — and the rest of the American League East that Baltimore is the team to beat after winning 101 games last season.
The Orioles are a long way from being that rebuilding club that finally turned the corner two years ago or even the upstart that stunned the baseball world with the AL’s best record last season. Dating back to July 1, 2022, Brandon Hyde’s club is 60 games above .500 (169-109). There’s nothing surprising or novel about this anymore, and there’s still room to grow with a young core led by early MVP candidate Gunnar Henderson and All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman.
That was evident in this series as the Orioles overcame a shorthanded bullpen and didn’t swing the bats all that well over the first three games while still managing to outscore the Yankees — who entered Thursday with the AL’s fifth-best offense — by a 13-6 margin. New York has had the better pitching staff over the first fifth of the season, but the Orioles arms shined, including some unexpected ones.
“It’s still early. That’s a really, really good team,” manager Brandon Hyde said following Thursday’s 7-2 win. “We saw how good their pitching is this series. They’re going to win a ton of games with the lineup that’s going to score runs. And the pitching with [Clay] Holmes at the end, that’s going to be a really, really tough team to beat all year.
“It’s four of 13, so we still play them nine more times. But we got off to a good start, and we’re happy with how this series went.”
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Make no mistake, the Yankees aren’t going anywhere as long as their veteran-laden club stays healthier than it did a year ago. The losing team in each of the first three games of the series brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning or later, reminding how differently it could have played out. The Orioles appear to have the better offense, defense, and team speed, but the Yankees have a formidable rotation — even without reigning Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole to this point — and a deep bullpen with a dominant closer who has yet to allow a run this season. The Yankees also have the all-world combination of outfielders Juan Soto and Aaron Judge with the latter bound to heat up sooner than later.
Even with fair concerns about the Orioles’ bullpen depth and starter Grayson Rodriguez going to the injured list with right shoulder inflammation this week, Thursday brought the return of 2023 ace Kyle Bradish and Saturday will mark the season debut for lefty starter John Means. With Rodriguez’s status now in question, the Orioles rotation still isn’t at full strength in the way fans envisioned it when Mike Elias acquired ace Corbin Burnes in early February, but welcoming back Bradish and Means reminds how high the Orioles’ ceiling can be.
Coming out of last weekend’s disappointing series loss to Oakland, struggling closer Craig Kimbrel was ailing and the bullpen looked to be in early crisis before Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb — who twice struck out Judge in the series — recorded saves on back-to-back nights. And after the news broke about Rodriguez going to the IL and the Orioles fell 2-0 on Wednesday night, the Yankees looked like they might end up salvaging a split, especially with lefty Carlos Rodon and his 2.48 ERA taking the hill. But the returning Bradish — who looked healthy and effective with a limited pitch count over 4 2/3 innings — and the bullpen held New York in check once again and Baltimore’s bats finally broke out in the finale.
It’s still very early, of course. With both clubs facing health questions in the pitching department, there’s no telling where either will be when they next meet in the Bronx in mid-June. The rest of the division shouldn’t be counted out by any stretch either.
But the Orioles struck first in the AL East showdown so many were anticipating entering the season.
“You try not to make it more than what it is. It’s just another game in April and May,” veteran catcher James McCann said. “But come September, it’s very easy to look back and say, ‘If only we’d have won that game or if only we’d have done this.’ We don’t want to do that, so we’re very happy to leave that series winning three of four.”
