Happy Thursday, Camden Chatters!

The Orioles played another uninspiring game of baseball down in Texas last night. They got just five hits and only two off Rangers’ starter Nathan Eovaldi. Tomoyuki Sugano had another bad night. He failed to complete five innings and gave up six runs on ten hits. The once stalwart of the Orioles’ rotation is on a pretty bad run right now. You can read all the depressing details in John Beers’s recap.

The team is off today and tomorrow starts a series in Atlanta for the weekend. The Braves have underachieved this year and have just two more wins than the Orioles. Let’s all hope that the weekend is better than this week was.

The biggest news of yesterday, of course, is that Ryan O’Hearn was voted into the All-Star Game at DH. What an incredible accomplishment for O’Hearn, who struggled for years in Kansas City before coming to Baltimore. The Orioles got him for cash in January 2023 and he turned his career around.

I spent most of 2023 thinking O’Hearn was a nice one-year surprise, but I didn’t expect much beyond that. He proved me (and probably a lot of people) wrong with another successful year in 2024. And even as the Orioles have floundered this year, O’Hearn has gotten even better. Going into last night’s game, O’Hearn’s hitting line was .295/.383/.471.

O’Hearn met with media yesterday before the game and was all smiles. From O’Hearn:

Like I said, I’m over the moon. I can’t wait to tell my dad. My mom’s freaking out. It’s been such a journey in my career, and for the majority of it, I never thought something like this was in the cards, so still kind of in shock. Just humbled.

I never thought it was going to happen. I thought that was probably a pipe dream and something that just wasn’t in the cards for me. And I was completely OK with it. I think that’s why I’m shocked right now. I spent a lot of time just trying to keep my head above the water in the big leagues and just stick around as long as I possibly could. To be able to say I’m a major league All-Star, I’m blown away.

O’Hearn has cooled down a bit since his scorching hot start, but he is absolutely deserving of the honor and it’s really cool to see his career turnaround. Plus, it’s always nice to have an Oriole voted into the All Star Game.

Jackson Holliday, who was on the final ballot for second base, was outvoted by Gleyber Torres of the Tigers, and rightly so. Holliday still has a good chance to make the team as a reserve. The full rosters will be announced on Sunday.

Links

This is how Tony Mansolino wants the Orioles to be aggressive – The Baltimore Banner
The Orioles are attempting a lot of stolen bases lately. It’s all part of the plan. It kind of frustrates me, to be honest.

Akin placed on injured list, Cano recalled from Triple-A Norfolk – MASN Sports
Another day, another injury.

Esteban Mejia Joins Top 100, Tantalizes With High-Octane Arsenal – Baseball America
Esteban Mejia is an 18-year-old pitcher in the Florida Coast League for the Orioles. He was just named to the Baseball America Top 100 at #84. His fastball has topped out at 102.

Birthdays and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have three Orioles birthday buddies. Tommy Hunter turns 39 years old today. Hunter came to the Orioles in July 2011 along with Chris Davis in a trade with the Texas Rangers. He spent six seasons with the Orioles with varying levels of success. He had a 16-season Major League career.

Also born on this day in history are 1979 one-gamer Jeff Rineer (70) and Alan Pilarcik (b. 1930, d. 2010), who was a lefty outfielder for the Orioles from 1957-60.

There isn’t a lot of Orioles history to write about today, but one year ago today they defeated the Seattle Mariners, 4-1. Dean Kremer only lasted five innings, but he struck out eight and didn’t allow a run on two hits. Ryan O’Hearn doubled, homered, and had three RBI.