HOUSTON – As the Orioles look to salvage one game in their three-game series at Houston and avoid being swept today, they face a tough lefty in Houston’s Framber Valdez (5-5, 3.91 ERA).

He finished 11^th for the American League Cy Young Award in 2020, was fifth in 2022 and ninth last year.

In these past two years he has gone 29-17 with a 3.13 ERA over 399 1/3 innings. But in those two years, as he has had high Cy Young vote finishes, he faced the Orioles once each season and they fared well against him. In the two games, they scored 13 runs off Valdez (10 earned) in a combined 12 1/3 innings.

In an interview with local media today, O’s offensive strategy coach Cody Asche talked about the challenge of facing Valdez today and how the O’s batters might approach it.

“I think a lot of our guys will kind of lean on their experiences last year," he said. " I thought we had really good at-bats last year at Camden. And I think even two years ago, we kind of ended that quality-starts streak against him.

HOUSTON – When Orioles right-hander Albert Suárez took the mound to face the New York Yankees on Tuesday night, he was a pitcher on a real roll.

He was 3-0 with a 1.61 ERA and had an ERA of 1.08 over his previous nine games. He had been big for the Orioles, both out of the bullpen and in the rotation.

But that night in the Bronx was not his normal day.

He walked five Yankees and gave up three runs over 3 2/3 innings as the Orioles lost the series opener. It was his shortest start of the season and a season high in walks.

As he got ready to make his next start, which comes today at Houston, Suárez felt what went wrong in that game in New York can be a quick fix.

HOUSTON – Today in Game 2 of this series for the Orioles at Houston a hot offense meets a pitcher having a big year.

Right-hander Ronel Blanco (7-2, 2.43 ERA), who pitched a no-hitter April 1 and who threw seven no-hit innings in his last start pitches for Houston. Righty Corbin Burnes (8-2, 2.14 ERA) starts for Baltimore. 

Blanco will face a Baltimore lineup that has scored 28 runs the last two games, 35 the past three and 51 in the last six. An attack that leads the major leagues in homers, extra-base hits and slugging while scoring 5.35 runs per game.

“Blanco is one of those great major league baseball stories that we are fortunate to have in our game," said O's manager Brandon Hyde. "Guy has come out of nowhere a little bit and threw that no-hitter early in the year. He’s been pitching like an All-Star." 

Blanco has allowed just 44 hits in his 77 2/3 innings for a .164 opponent batting average, which is the best in the American League. He also ranks second in opponent OPS (.544), third in slugging against (.294), and fourth in ERA (minimum of 70 innings pitched).

HOUSTON - Coming off a 14-11 loss Friday in which O's pitching allowed a season-high 14 runs and saw its team ERA jump from 3.13 to 3.28, it's a good time today to send their ace pitcher to the mound. 

They do just that as right-hander Corbin Burnes (8-2, 2.14 ERA) makes his 16th start. Burnes begins today tied for first in the American League in ERA with Boston's Tanner Houck.

But heading into this outing, Burnes has a streak of 10 straight quality starts riding. In that span he is 5-2 with a 1.85 ERA and .561 OPS against since April 26.

The Orioles are 11-4 when Burnes starts, winning his last six games in a row.

In his past four games Burnes has allowed, in order, zero, one, zero and two earned runs. In those games he is 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA and a .190 batting average against.

HOUSTON – Outfielder Colton Cowser is returning home this weekend as the Orioles play at Houston's Minute Maid Park. It’s a ballpark he has been in as both a fan and a player.

“Feels like home. Hot,” he said Friday afternoon in the Baltimore clubhouse.

Born in Houston, Cowser still lives in the area. He attended Cypress Ranch High School in Cypress, Texas, about 26 miles northwest of Houston and led his team to the 6A state playoffs as a senior in 2018. He played his college ball at Sam Houston State, which is about 68 miles north of Houston.

A few local TV reporters wanted to talk with him yesterday ahead of the series opener. Cowser estimates he saw about 30 games in Minute Maid Park over the years.

“Lots of memories coming to this ballpark growing up," he said. "Came to a lot of games and really cool, really excited. My mom, talked to her last night and my parents are excited.

It's going to be an exciting weekend of baseball in Baltimore. Big crowds - sellout crowds expected for at least two of the three games between the Orioles (45-23) and the Philadelphia Phillies (46-22). It is the start of a six-game stretch featuring three each with the Phillies and Yankees with an off-day on Monday.

While Baltimore and Philadelphia are separated by just one game, the Phillies lead the National League East by nine games over the Atlanta Braves. The Orioles are in second in the American League East, and are 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees.

New York (49-22, .690) has the best record in the majors with Philadelphia second (.676), the Orioles third (.662) and Cleveland fourth (.652).

The Orioles lost the series finale to Atlanta 6-3 on Thursday. But they have won six of the last seven, 11 of 15 and 16 of their past 21 games. They are 23-12 at home and their pitching recently allowed just nine runs during a six-game win streak.

A stat sheet can show us some key reasons that the Orioles, Yankees and Phillies are three of baseball's best to this point.

The Orioles have five series sweeps this year, three of three games and two sweeps of four-game series. They look to add their latest sweep today.

After 4-0 and 4-2 wins over Atlanta (35-30), the Orioles (45-22) can sweep this series this afternoon at Oriole Park.

With last night's win the Orioles are 26-27 all-time versus the Braves in interleague play since 1997. 

Atlanta has lost five in a row and 12 of its past 18 games. Since starting the year at 26-13, the Braves are 9-17.

Atlanta now has what is for them a very rare five-game losing streak. In fact, the Braves have lost five straight games in a single season for the first time since losing six in a row from Sept. 25-30, 2017. The 934-game streak without dropping five straight games was the second-longest of its kind in major league history, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

After an eight-game road trip – ending with a four-game sweep in St. Petersburg against Tampa Bay and a 6-2 record – the Orioles' next homestand begins tonight. 

It will be a challenging one as they face Atlanta (35-28) and Philadelphia (45-20)- the clubs with the fourth-best and best records in the National League.

This year the Orioles are 8-9 versus National League teams, going 2-3-1 in those series. In order, they went 1-2 at Pittsburgh and then 2-1 at home against Milwaukee. They were 3-0 at Cincinnati and 1-1 at Washington. They were 2-1 in Baltimore against Arizona and 0-3 at St. Louis.

The Orioles improved to 6-1 this season against Tampa Bay with their four-game sweep, their first-ever four-game road sweep of the Rays. Baltimore won those games by a combined 25-7 score. The O's produced 42 hits, including eight doubles, four triples and nine home runs. In their past 10 games they have hit 25 homers, including hitting two or more eight times. They are 30-4 in 2024 when hitting two or more home runs.

With their earlier four-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox, the Orioles have two four-game sweeps in one season for the first time since 1987. The Tampa Bay sweep was their fifth this season of three games or more.

After a satisfying win in the series-opener on Friday night - they hit well with three more homers and pitched well, allowing just two earned runs - the Orioles look for another win this afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays.

In the latest solid outing for Baltimore pitchers, lefty Cole Irvin allowed two earned runs over 5 2/3 innings on 85 pitches. He is now 6-2 with a 2.87 ERA. Irvin now has enough innings to qualify for the American League leaders, and he ranks 10th in the AL in ERA while teammate Corbin Burnes is fifth at 2.26.

To qualify, a pitcher needs one inning per team game, so with the O's having played 62 games, Irvin just makes it today with 62 2/3.

The Orioles' team ERA is now 3.27, second-best in the American League and fourth-best in the majors.

The O's are really on a pitching roll over the past 35 games, with a team ERA of 2.80 that is third in the majors in that span behind the Yankees (2.51) and Phillies (2.55). The O's are 23-12 in this stretch of games.

It was the starting pitching performance that had manager Brandon Hyde raving about his right-hander after the game in Toronto and even more the next day.

It was the work on Monday night of Grayson Rodriguez against the Blue Jays. And not because he blew hitters away or piled up strikeouts, or put up a scoreless outing, but because he got outs quickly. He was both good and very pitch-efficient.

Rodriguez went 6 2/3 innings at Rogers Centre, allowing seven hits and one earned run, a very solid outing with no walks and four strikeouts on 86 pitches. He was pitch-efficient especially early on that game, throwing 10 pitches in the first, 13 in the second and 13 more in the third inning to get his day started, needing just 36 pitches through three.

The skipper was a big fan of that outing.

“For me, he has taken enormous strides forward," Hyde said of Rodriguez. "Just from his fastball command, understanding how to pitch. You know the early, weak contact was just fantastic. He pitched with his fastball commanding it, not just overpowering people. You didn’t see 98 to 100 (mph), but he was throwing the ball where he wanted to with plenty of fastball. He is really starting to understand how to pitch and set up hitters to get guys early in the count to allow himself to go deeper in the game.

TORONTO – Lefty Cade Povich’s big league debut began in fine fashion on a sunny afternoon in downtown Toronto. He retired the first three batters he faced on just nine pitches. He fanned his first batter, left fielder Davis Schneider, swinging at an elevated 92 mph fastball.

Facing a Toronto Blue Jays lineup not as feared as it once was, Povich - ranked as the Orioles No. 8 prospect by Baseball America (and No. 99 in a new top 100) and No. 9 by MLBPipeline.com - put up a zero in the Blue Jays’ second as well.

But a pitcher who improved his walk rate this year with Triple-A Norfolk issued two free passes in the third inning. And then one pitch featuring some good hitting cost him in a game that ended in a 6-5 Toronto win.

First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got a 1-0 backdoor cutter on the outside corner and hit that ball where it was pitched. His three-run homer to right started the scoring today in front of 39,215 at Rogers Centre.

After the game Povich got props from his manager and the clubhouse for showing poise. They realized that four runs came via a 350-foot homer and a bloop, and that two more scored after he left the game.

TORONTO - O's fans get to see a major league debut today as lefty Cade Povich gets the start for the Orioles in the fourth and final game of their series in Toronto.

Povich has gone 5-1 with a 3.18 ERA in 11 Triple-A starts this season with Norfolk. Over 56 2/3 innings he has allowed 42 hits, including five home runs, and recorded 21 walks and 75 strikeouts for a 3.3 walk rate and 11.9 K rate. He has given up 1.11 WHIP and a .203 opponent average with the Tides.

Povich, originally a third-round pick by Minnesota in the 2021 MLB Draft out of Nebraska, got off to a great start to his 2024 season. In five April starts with Norfolk, he was 2-1 with a 1.03 ERA and 0.76 WHIP.

He took a 2.35 ERA into his most recent start Friday versus Gwinnett, but allowed a season-high six runs on four hits over three innings in easily his poorest start of this season.

But he is one of the club’s top pitching prospects and ranked No. 8 on the O’s top 30 by Baseball America, and No. 9 via MLBPipeline.com.

TORONTO – Reporters' daily interest about the upcoming Orioles rotation naturally led to questions about what that rotation could look like for the upcoming Tampa Bay series. Manager Brandon Hyde today said that, as of now, the Orioles are yet to be determined for that entire series, which begins Friday night in St. Petersburg.

But he also, when asked, made an important clarification today on right-hander Kyle Bradish, whose next start is being pushed back. We don’t know when it will be. But Hyde was asked whether that move is simply more about extra rest or about physical concerns.

“Just extra rest,” said Hyde.

When asked if Bradish will skip a start, Hyde said, “We’re TBA. Any more questions on that?” he said with a laugh. But who could blame him for tiring of the constant media inquiries about who is pitching next?

Hyde also said yesterday that there may be several instances during this stretch of 30 games in 31 days when the club's upcoming rotation is to be announced at some future time.

TORONTO – Once a very tough place for the Orioles to get wins, Toronto’s Rogers Centre saw the Birds go 6-1 last year, on their way to going 10-3 against the Blue Jays in 2023.

The Orioles enjoyed their first visit north of the border this year as well.

Austin Hays produced his first two homers of the season and Anthony Santander added a two-run shot – all off former Oriole Kevin Gausman – and later Ramón Urías got one as the O’s beat Toronto 7-2 in the opener to the series and road trip.

The Orioles improved to 38-20 for the season and to 17-8 in road games as they opened a four-game series here. The eight-game trip will next take the team to St. Petersburg, Fla. to face Tampa Bay.

Hays, swinging it much better in recent weeks with his stats slowly trending up, hit a two-run shot in the fourth and added a solo blast in the seventh. He had not homered all year and not since last Sept. 18 at Houston, which also was his last two-homer game. It was the sixth multi-homer game of his career.

TORONTO – The Orioles, who are 16-8 on the road this year and are 5-2-1 in road series, begin their latest road trip tonight at Rogers Centre facing the Toronto Blue Jays. 

The Orioles (37-20) will play four games at Toronto and then four more in St. Petersburg, Fla. against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Birds took two of three from Tampa Bay over the weekend. They let a 3-0 lead get away Sunday and lost 4-3 to the Rays, missing the chance to sweep them.

The O’s 13 total runners left on base Sunday are a season high. Their 15 hits tie a season high, matching their total on April 20 at Kansas City. Sunday’s game marks the team’s first loss when outhitting an opponent in the 2024 season. and they are now 29-1 in those games.

Overall, the Orioles have won three of four and eight of their last 10 games, and they just completed a 4-2 homestand against Boston and Tampa Bay.

The Orioles are 11-4 (.733) versus American League East teams. This is their best 15-game start in division play since the 2017 Orioles also were 11-4.

TORONTO - Orioles prospect Connor Norby got an important phone call on Sunday. On the other end of the line was Orioles assistant general manager Eve Rosenbaum, calling to tell him he was finally headed to the major leagues.

Drafted by the club in the second round of the 2021 draft (No. 41 overall) out of East Carolina University, Norby’s first chance at this level has finally arrived.

Since the 2022 season he has played 198 games and taken 913 plate appearances at Triple-A. He has played in 344 minor league games overall.

“I started shaking,” Norby said of that phone call yesterday. “I think I shook for about an hour. I kind of settled down a little bit. Not much sleep though. But getting here and getting in the stadium, it’s what you dream of.”

Norby said when he got to the ballpark, coach Tim Cossins handed him a lineup card that had his name on it. He was in there batting ninth at second base. He will wear No. 12.

After Thursday’s off-day, the Orioles return to Oriole Park tonight to begin a three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays. It continues a 14-game run of playing all American League East foes.

The Orioles (35-19) are on a 105-win pace after Wednesday’s 6-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox. They won that series with Boston and extended to 18 their streak of series versus AL East opponents without losing one. They are 39-19 (.672) in this stretch of series within the division. The Orioles improved to 5-1 against Boston, scoring 43 runs in those games, and to 9-3 on the year against AL East opponents.

Against a Boston pitching staff that began that series ranked second in the AL in team ERA (3.09) and starting rotation ERA (2.95), the Orioles scored 20 runs in the series on 27 hits with seven doubles, a triple and two homers, and they went 9-for-28 batting with runners in scoring position.

In the six games this season versus Boston, the Orioles have a team batting line of .271/.346/.449/.793. And in 12 AL East games in 2024 they have scored 61 runs with a .723 team OPS.

Winners of six of their past seven games, the Orioles are 19-11 at home and 12-4-2 in 18 series on the year.

With an offense that is producing again after a poor series at St. Louis last week, the Orioles have a season-high five-game win streak heading into their game with Boston tonight.

The Orioles (34-18) produced six doubles and a triple in Monday’s 11-3 rout of the Red Sox. They saw six different players in the lineup drive in runs. Nine of them scored and three had multi-hit games as the O's pounded out 13 hits.

This was the team's fifth win this year by eight runs or more. Their biggest win of the season was a 10-run margin, 11-1 at Cincinnati on May 5.

The Orioles improved to 4-0 in 2024 against Boston, and in those wins they have scored seven, seven, nine and 11 runs for 34 total. In the season series they are batting .293 with an .859 OPS against Boston a pitching staff that began this series second in the American League in team pitching with a 3.09 ERA and second in rotation ERA at 2.95.

The Orioles have gone 17 straight series versus AL East opponents without losing one. Another win in this series will extend that number to 18 straight.

It was Wednesday afternoon in St. Louis and in the ninth inning, down 5-3, the Orioles were trying to avoid being swept three in a row, something that had not happened in the regular season since May 13-15, 2022 at Detroit.

Kyle Stowers came up as pinch-hitter with runners at first and third and no outs. He lined a 1-0 cutter to deep right. Off the bat it looked like it might be a three-run homer for the lead, or at least get over the right fielder’s head and tie the game. But Lars Nootbaar ran back and made a great catch. Then Cedric Mullins was doubled off first base. We saw a rare sac fly/double play in which Stowers got an RBI but no at-bat. The Orioles got a run, but they lost 5-4 and indeed were swept.

But it was one of a few good swings that Stowers had had in recent days, and those swings might have told us a day like he had yesterday was coming.

Starting in right field and batting seventh against the Red Sox, he went 3-for-4 with four RBIs in the O’s 11-3 win. He is back in the lineup tonight as the designated hitter.

Stowers is 4-for-8 his past two games and is 6-for-16 (.375) with five RBIs in nine games since his latest call-up to the majors. Stowers had two doubles yesterday and set a career high for extra-base hits and RBIs and tied his career best with the three hits.

Maybe it didn’t exactly happen because of this, but it felt like it did. When O’s lefty Cole Irvin pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fourth this afternoon, the O’s held their 2-0 lead.

That generated some momentum and then their offense rewarded the lefty with a quick-strike, five-run inning when they did most of the damage hitting to the off field.

Today the Orioles took control of the game early.

The five-run outburst drew the approval of a Memorial Day crowd of 40,951 at Oriole Park as the Orioles hammered Boston 11-3 to take the opener of a three-game series and six-game homestand.

The good offensive vibes that started for the club during the four-game sweep in Chicago carried back to the East Coast. Today, Ryan Mountcastle had three hits and Kyle Stowers drove in four while Adley Rutschman and Cedric Mullins knocked in two each.