As the Orioles begin the second-half tonight, they take the field in Texas at 58-38 and are leading the AL East by one game over the New York Yankees and 4.5 over the Boston Red Sox.

It looks like the division race could be tight all year and it’s now a three-team, not just a two-team chase.

The O’s .604 win percentage has been dragged down by the 1-5 homestand they finished on Sunday and by going 9-13 since June 21.

On June 20 they were 49-25 and a ½-game out of first in the division, playing .662 ball and on a 107-win pace.

But even in going 9-13 they gained 1.5 games on the Yankees to now lead the division as New York is 7-14 in that time. The O’s are now playing at a 98-win pace.

After a stretch of days where another MLB Draft has come and gone and we’ve seen Gunnar Henderson start the All-Star game at shortstop for the American League, it is still somewhat remarkable that the Orioles got an MVP caliber talent with the 42^nd pick in 2019.

If you look back at some picks in that 2019 draft just ahead of Henderson’s selection by the Orioles, Tampa Bay took JJ Goss, Pittsburgh selected Sammy Siani, the Yankees took T.J. Sikkema, the Twins took Matt Wallner, who at least has made the majors. With a selection at No. 40 that draft, the Rays took pitcher Seth Johnson, who is now an Oriole.

Those teams could have had Gunnar.

A few days ago in the Baltimore clubhouse, Henderson, from Selma, Ala., remembered thinking as that draft approached that he would go higher than he did.

“Yeah. I had talked to some scouts, and they made it sound like I would definitely be their (team’s) pick if I fell to them,” he said. “But I was also told draft night, always expect the worst. Stuff like that happens. It was definitely a whirlwind of a night for me.”

The latest MLB Draft has come and gone. The Orioles, since Mike Elias and his staff took over, are known for scoring well in the draft.

Once again this year they showed they tap into the college ranks much more than the high school ranks, getting 17 of 21 drafted players from college.

But that is actually twice the number of high school players the club drafted in the last two years, when they took just two high school players among 22 selections in 2022 (including Jackson Holliday) and two last year. Their first high school pick last year came in round 15 and they did not sign Qrey Lott.

This year they selected prep players in rounds six, 12, 16 and 19. They seem quite high on sixth rounder, DJ Layton, the shortstop from Charlotte. He hit .449 and also is said to have a big arm.

From 2019 to 2023, the O’s selected just nine high school players among 91 draft picks in the first 20 rounds. But a few of those nine were high picks and are premium prospects with the likes of Holliday, Gunnar Henderson and Coby Mayo. No one is putting this kid in that class, but he sounds promising. Catcher Creed Willems was another high school pick and he is a top 30 O’s prospect.

The 2024 MLB Draft resumed today shortly after 2 p.m. as the clubs began making selections in round 11. Today the three-day draft will conclude with selections in rounds 11 through 20.

The Orioles will have one pick in each round today and they selected a lefty college pitcher in round 11.

Round 11 (No. 339) - O's took Louisville senior lefty Sebastian Gongora. This season over 15 starts he went 5-4 with a 6.14 ERA. Over 77 2/3 innings he allowed 86 hits with 29 walks and 89 strikeouts. He produced a 1.481 WHIP with a 3.4 walk rate and 10.3 strikeout rate.

He had a better season in 2023 at Wright State with a 3.17 ERA in 93 2/3 innings and a 22.4 strikeout rate. He was the Horizon League Pitcher of the Year.

Gongora is ranked as this draft's No. 353 prospect on the Baseball America Top 500.

There was a lot for the Orioles to like about their second day of draft picks. They saw third rounder, USC outfielder Austin Overn, move up some draft boards when he produced a .947 OPS in the Cape Cod League.

They saw Auburn pitcher right-hander Chase Allsup, their fourth rounder, sit mid 90s with his fastball in the SEC and touch 100 mph.

They like the three catchers they selected but did not set out to draft three, it just worked out that way. They had some high school players they liked on their board but have only selected one thus far.

But the O’s sure do like that young man, DJ Layton, a sixth round pick shortstop from Charlotte Christian High School. Layton, who has a college commitment to Southern Miss, turns 18 in a few days.

“DJ is a young, very athletic, switch-hitting shortstop from Charlotte, North Carolina,” said O’s vice president of player development and domestic scouting Matt Blood. “He’s a great kid with a lot of tools and we feel like there is upside to his game when it comes to coming into our organization and helping him get stronger and helping him offensively while continuing to build his defensive skill set. Where we got him, we felt like this was a really good bet for us. I’ll give credit to our scouting department and people put a lot of work in on this kid to get to know him and his family and the coaches at his high school. The whole room was ecstatic when we were able to get him in that round.”

On the first night of the 2024 MLB Draft, the Orioles seemed to play into the strength of this draft in adding three college position players, all three from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

For the sixth straight draft since Mike Elias took over in his role with the club, the O’s did not take a pitcher in the first round. Or any among the three selections Sunday.

With their first round pick, No. 22 overall, they added center fielder Vance Honeycutt from North Carolina. The righty batter hit .318 with an OPS of 1.124 and hit 28 homers, a UNC single-season record. He also was named the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year two straight years, a first in the conference.

He was ranked the No. 13 prospect for this draft by Baseball America and No. 22 by MLB.com.

A player with some loud tools, the one area to clean up for him on the stat sheet is strikeouts. He had a 30 percent K rate as a freshman and 28 percent last season.

For the fifth time in six years since his first draft in 2019, O's executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias took a college bat with his first draft selection.

With the No. 22 overall pick in round one, the Orioles selected University of North Carolina outfielder Vance Honeycutt, a right-handed batter and thrower from Salisbury, N.C.

In 62 games this season for the Tarheels in his junior season, Honeycutt hit .318/.410/.714/1.124 with 13 doubles, two triples, 28 homers, 88 runs, 28 steals and 70 RBIs. His 28 homers is a UNC single-season record. 

He was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 13 player in this draft and was rated No. 22 by MLBPipeline.com.

In three seasons at UNC, over 176 games, he hit .293/.412/.638/1.050 with 65 homers and 170 RBIs. He hit 25 homers and stole 29 bases as a freshman. He had four multi-homer games this season.

The All-Star break for the Orioles arrives after today's series and homestand finale against the Yankees. They are not exactly charging into the break. The Birds are 0-5 this homestand and have have been outscored 31-4.

They have scored two, zero, zero, one and one run in the five games and have scored just two runs their past 42 innings. The O's have gone a season-high four straight games without a home run.

The Orioles (57-38) and Yankees (58-39) are tied for the American League East lead, which will be held at the break by the winner of today's game. Technically the O's enter this game leading the division by percentage points, playing .600 ball to the Yankees' .598.

Until the Orioles were swept by the Cardinals on May 20-22 on the road, they had gone 106 straight regular season series of at least two games without being swept. Their most recent sweep in the regular season before that St. Louis series was May 13-15, 2022 at Detroit. That was easily an O's club record and the third-longest sweepless streak in major league history. The previous O's record was 46 straight series in 1971-1972.

But after losing to the Yankees 4-1 Friday and 6-1 yesterday, a loss today would mean the Orioles have been swept in two straight series and in three of their past seven series.

After drafting with a top five pick every year from 2019 through 2022 – twice selecting No. 1 overall – Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and his staff this year will draft lower down the board for the second year in a row.

With the No. 17 pick in round one last year, they selected Vanderbilt outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., who now plays at High-A Aberdeen. Tonight, as another the three-day draft begins, they will have three selections at Nos. 22, 32 and 61.

The draft is heavy in college bats, scarce at the top in high school talent and not considered a great draft.

“It’s kind of a mess to be honest,” said MLB.com’s Jim Callis, who will be on MLB Network's coverage tonight. “This draft is kind of a slightly below average draft. The strength of the draft is college hitters. There is just not depth in terms of everything else.

“By the time we get to pick 22, there are about 10 guys on the first tier of the draft and they will all be gone. There could be 20 college hitters taken the first round. That is the strength of the draft. So that reflects the strength and that the other demographics are not particularly strong.”

The Orioles traded a National League Central opponent tonight for one in the American League East. They had won 73 percent of their division games this year. But even that wasn’t enough to get their offense going again.

After scoring two runs in being swept by the Cubs, the Orioles ended their scoreless innings streak tonight but extended a losing streak to four.

Gerrit Cole allowed one run on 106 pitches over six frames as the New York Yankees beat the Orioles 4-1 in front of 39,566 at Camden Yards in the opener of a three-game series.

But what happened in the last of the ninth will be the lasting memory of this night. Yankees closer Clay Holmes hit Heston Kjerstad with a pitch in the batting helmet and a few minutes later both dugouts emptied as O's manager Brandon Hyde had words with someone in the visiting dugout.

"I was walking back and I hear stuff from their dugout," Hyde said. "So I just reacted the way I did. Saw what they were pointing at me and the whole thing, so just reacted the way I did.

They are the top two teams in the American League East, with the Orioles (57-36) leading the Yankees (56-39) by two games atop the division. But both have been playing under .500 ball for a couple of weeks or more. 

Heading into the weekend series, the Orioles are coming off being swept three straight by the Cubs. They have lost four of five and five of their past seven games. They are 8-11 since June 21. But they have actually gained 2.5 games on the Yankees since that date as New York is 5-13 since then.

The Yankees have lost three of four and seven of their last nine games. They are 6-17 since June 15 with a -35 run differential and 5.91 team ERA in that span, allowing 40 homers in those 23 games.

Will one team get well at the expense of the other this weekend?

Both have struggled with pitching lately, although the Orioles scored just two runs in the series with the Cubs. They still are among the best pitching staffs in baseball on the stat sheet. With a 3.60 team ERA, the Yankees rank second in the AL and at 3.66, the Orioles are fourth. O's starters have a 3.54 ERA to rank third while New York is fifth in the AL with a 3.66 rotation ERA. The Yankees bullpen is second (3.55) while the O's are eighth (3.86).

When the Orioles make the No. 22 overall selection Sunday night in round one as another MLB Draft day arrives, their outlook for acquiring amateur talent is not really different than when the club was a losing and rebuilding organization.

There is no urgency, just because now the Orioles are a winning team that could go deep in the postseason, to select players for instance who could get there quicker to help the big league team in Baltimore.

“I don’t think so,” said Orioles vice president of player development and domestic scouting Matt Blood, as to whether the draft approach has changed. “Again, our job is to make the best bet we can. And our job is sort of to predict the future, which is very hard to do. We’re going to stick with our process and will try to get the best major league value that we possibly can with every single pick.”

The Orioles have four of the draft’s first 97 picks. They have selections at Nos. 22, 32, 61 and 97. The draft runs through the first two rounds and Competitive Balance Round B on Sunday night. Selections in rounds three through 10 are Monday with rounds 11 through 20 on Tuesday to wrap up the three days.

The draft begins at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday night and at 2 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday.

On Tuesday night during the All-Star game in Texas, no doubt at some point the national television audience will hear one of the broadcasters point out the two O’s starters in the game – Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson – were the first two draft picks by Mike Elias after joining the Orioles.

Rutschman was the No. 1 pick in that 2019 draft but the Orioles got Henderson at No. 42 overall. Baseball America had him at No. 30 in their pre-draft projections.

The first two picks of the new regime are now All-Stars.

“It is definitely a testament to Elias,” Henderson said in the clubhouse pregame yesterday. “I know Rutch was obviously the consensus 1/1 pick. But to take a chance on me, I can’t thank him enough for that. Just glad to be able to go out there and help the O’s win some games.”

So why was Gunnar still there at pick No. 42?

Leading the American League East by two games over the Yankees, the Orioles take the field as a first-place team tonight, but one that is looking to avoid a three-game sweep.

The Cubs have beaten the Orioles by 9-2 and 4-0 the past two nights and could hand the Orioles their first home sweep this year. Baltimore has been swept twice on the road - May 20-22 at St. Louis and June 21-23 at Houston.

The Orioles have not been swept at home in a series of at least two games since Aug. 27-29, 2021 versus Tampa Bay when they lost three straight.

With last night's loss, the O's have lost this series, falling to 20-7-3 in series play and they have lost three of their past six series.

At 57-35, the Orioles have lost three of four and four of the last six games. They are 8-10 since June 21 with a team ERA of 5.68 in this span while scoring 4.2 runs per game.

When they play the All-Star game next Tuesday night in Arlington, Texas, the O’s participants will have a homegrown flavor.

Three of the four players repping the Orioles were drafted and developed by the Orioles in Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg.

The fourth player going, pitcher Corbin Burnes, was acquired in a trade of O’s prospects they drafted and developed. They sent lefty DL Hall to Milwaukee in that deal, their first round pick (No 21 overall) in 2017. They also sent infielder Joey Ortiz, their fourth round pick in 2019 and a draft pick this year to the Brewers. They will have the No. 34 pick in this coming draft from the Burnes deal.

The first two selections Mike Elias ever made as O’s executive vice president and general in the 2019 MLB Draft were Rutschman taken No. 1 overall and Henderson at No. 42.

“That credit goes to Mike. Mike and his team,” manager Brandon Hyde said Wednesday pregame marveling at the O’s success in the draft under Elias. “What they’ve done in the draft since we’ve been here is unbelievable. To have Gunner, Adley and Jordan Westburg going to the All-Star game that just got drafted so many years ago that he drafted, that’s unbelievably rare.

Take it one day at a time. Worry about today’s game. Don’t look too far ahead or much ahead at all.

It can be a bit boring creed, but for the Orioles it is working.

Their latest example of how they quickly deal with adversity and then move past it just happened Sunday at Oakland. After giving up 19 runs the day before, they scored four in the first the next day and won. They got swept by at St. Louis in May, ending the sweepless streak and then went on a 16-4 run the next 20 games.

Guess what, more adversity last night as they allowed 14 hits in a 9-2 loss to the Cubs and Dean Kremer gave up seven runs in four innings. In their second game after allowing 19 runs, the O's allowed nine.

Now they have to overcome another down game. They've responded well to tough times most of this year. How do they do that?

He was one of six Orioles who were finalists in the American League in voting for the All-Star game. As it turned out, Gunnar Henderson will start at shortstop and Adley Rutschman as the catcher for the American League, but no other O's finalists made the team.

That group includes Ryan Mountcastle, Jordan Westburg, Ryan O’Hearn and Anthony Santander.

Westburg was on the ballot at third base, but unless he is a late add to replace someone injured, he will not be in the game on July 16.

“I understood it,” Westburg said this afternoon in the Baltimore clubhouse. “There are a lot of good players in this league and so just to be in those conversations, I was very honored. I felt blessed.

“It’s disappointing. I don’t know how many times I will get that opportunity in my career but at the end of the day, I’m not going to live and die by that decision. I’m going to enjoy the time off with my wife at our home. It will be fun.”

For 22-year-old outfielder Dylan Beavers of the Double-A Bowie Baysox, the work to get better and take his game to higher levels is ongoing daily at Prince George’s Stadium and other ballparks around the Eastern League.

Beavers is ranked as the Orioles’ No. 6 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 10 via Baseball America.

He added weight and strength over the winter and that helped him drive the ball better and hit more homers, but he also seen his batting average and OPS drop.

But on the O’s farm, the focus is always on process over results and coaches and players alike take a long-term view. A couple days or even a few weeks of struggles are understood if both sides feel that things are taking place for long-term success.

“I think there have been some positives to take away and also definitely some things to improve on, work on,” Beavers told me recently at Bowie in sizing up his 2024 season. “My power is starting to show up – feel like I am driving the ball better this year. And just kind of matching that consistency that I had last year while continuing to drive the ball.”

When he got off to a sensational start to his 2024 season, outfielder Colton Cowser was showing for the first time that he might be a good big league player. Showing it, not in minor league games, but at the big league level.

But even he had to realize it might not always go as well as it was then, or he might not be able to make it look as easy as he did then.

Named the American League Rookie of the Month for March/April, he ended that period batting .303/.372/.632/.1.004 with six homers and 18 RBIs.

He ended April ninth in the AL in FanGraphs.com Wins Above Replacement among league position players.

But struggles would follow that torrid hitting stretch. While his OPS for this year of .740 puts him 13 percent above AL average, his OPS was .580 in May, .679 in June and is .490 so far in July.

In the final game of a three-game series and six-game road trip, the Orioles (56-33) play at Oakland (34-57) today. The O's won the series-opener 3-2 Friday and lost 19-8 on Saturday. 

That game produced season-highs or really lows for the Orioles.

* It was the most runs they have allowed this season, topping the 14 from June 21 at Houston.

* It is the most runs the Orioles have allowed since a 22-7 loss on Sept. 12, 2021 against Toronto.

* The Orioles also allowed season highs in hits with 18 (the previous most was 15) and homers, allowing five, one more than the four they gave up to Texas on June 29.