Birds have historic Opening Day win

With Thursday’s now seemingly traditional Opening Day walk off victory, the Baltimore Orioles are undefeated, in first place (OK, so it’s a three-way tie for first) in the American League East Division and are on pace to win 162 games!

The Birds started the season looking like a contender, at least in the pitching department. Dylan Bundy engaged in a pitching duel with the Twins’ Jake Odorizzi, with both hurlers tossing shutout ball (Odorizzi left the game after six innings and Bundy exited after seven).

The Birds scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh and reliever Darren O’Day held the Twins scoreless in the eighth before giving way to Brad Brach to close out the ninth.

If only.

I was already getting a bad feeling, because I was watching the game in an establishment where the “fans” were already bashing players, second-guessing management and otherwise putting down the home team (it always amazes me when a bunch of guys are bellied up to a bar, guzzling beer and talking like they know more than the professionals who have been in the baseball industry for decades, but that’s a story for another day).

The folks who weren’t bashing the Birds were already putting the game in the win column and looking toward Saturday night’s game. Such talk always makes me cringe. It ain’t over ’til it’s over, and I get quite superstitious when watching one of pro sports’ most superstitious games.

And sure enough, Brach had a meltdown that saw a precarious two-run lead disappear.

Brach had a horrible outing, loading the bases and giving up two runs to tie the game. He recorded just two outs and was yanked in favor of Mychal Givens, who finally ended the painful inning with no additional damage and return to toss a scoreless 10th.

Richard Bleier got the nod to pitch the 11th, recorded three scoreless outs and found himself the Opening Day winner when outfielder Adam Jones sent the first pitch of the bottom of the 11th into the left field seats for a 3-2 win over the Twins.

Jones’ walk off homer continued a streak of Opening Day dramatic wins for the Birds. Fans might remember last year’s walk off home run by Mark Trumbo, and catcher Matt Wieters hit a single to bat in the winning run in the 2016 opener. Coincidentally, Trumbo’s homer also came in the 11th inning, resulting in a 3-2 win over the Blue Jays.

The three consecutive walk off victories, an MLB record, will undoubtedly be fodder for sports trivia quizzes in the future.

Obviously, I was being facetious in saying the Birds are on pace to win 162 games, but part of the glory of a new baseball season is to dream and dream big.

So, remember to cheer FOR the home team, let the professionals do their jobs and don’t put the game in the win column (or the loss column, for that matter) until the final out is recorded.

Let’s go O’s!

Opening Day and hope springs eternal!

It’s Opening Day in Baltimore — that much-looked-forward-to day when the Birds take the field at Camden Yards with a clean slate and fresh hopes.

True Baltimore baseball fans have suffered through way too many losing seasons, with the last World Series title coming in 1983 and, before the Buck Showalter era, way too many years had lapsed since the team made a playoff appearance (maybe 1997?).

But during manager Showalter’s tenure, the Orioles have enjoyed several winning seasons and a couple of playoff appearances, despite the absence of a notable pitching staff. The Three B’s kept the Birds competitive — Bats, Bench and the Bullpen's relievers.

As a result, it again became fashionable to be a Birds backer and Orioles gear became almost as popular as that of the Ravens. Younger fans came on board and the town was once again proud of the boys of summer.

But the wheels came off the bus last year, as some big, well-paid bats went silent and the bullpen, simply asked to pitch way too many innings, lost its edge.

This baseball cap, a fan giveaway many years ago when the Orioles called Memorial Stadium home, is weighed down with more than 30 years of Orioles history as played out on pins and buttons.

We ended the season with the first losing record of Showalter’s tenure and a last-place finish in the American League East Division. For the first time in six years, the lack of a pitching staff just couldn’t be overcome. We were grateful for the young stars on the team, and had hopes the big bats would come back in the spring well-rest and rejuvenated, but we also knew this was the winter something absolutely needed to be done in the pitching department.

As recently as six weeks ago, it appeared that we were going to come out of the off-season with nothing done to improve the team’s pitching staff. And then, bam! Word trickled out about the acquisition of Andrew Cashner and, more recently, the signing of Alex Cobb. All of a sudden, we have a pitching staff, with the two veterans joining Kevin Gausman, Dylan Bundy and Chris Tillman, the former ace of the staff who's hoping to rebound from an abysmal 2017 season. Cobb is still in Sarasota, having a private spring training because of his late signing, and is expected to join the team sometime next month.

Bundy, a 25-year-old pitcher who was the fourth overall draft pick in the 2011 Major League Baseball draft, gets the honor of starting today’s home opener.

Manny Machado — who will be found this year at shortstop instead of third base —Trey Mancini and Jonathan Schoop enjoyed productive spring training sessions and we can only hope that Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo (who’s starting the season on the disabled list) can reproduce past offensive successes.

So the Yard is all prepped, the Orioles have announced a Kids Cheer Free campaign which admits children ages 9 and younger for free (with the purchase of adult tickets), and Pizza John’s pizza can now be had at the ballpark (eastside fans rejoice).

We’ve got new players to “meet,” old favorites we’re pulling for and that clean 0-0 slate which allows us to dream for a while.

Play Ball!