Orioles pass with flying colors against division heavy hitters

There is no bigger or better story in baseball right now than the Orioles, and that includes the Rays, the team they’re chasing hard in the American League East. For a while, it looked as if the Rays were going to run away with the division -- and do it fast. Not so fast.

The Orioles, who lost 115 games five years ago and 110 two years ago, don’t go away. And they look as if they’re not going away this season. After Thursday night’s 3-1 victory over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, they were just two games behind the Rays in the loss column, had won four straight series against AL East teams and had just finished a 5-1 road trip through Toronto and New York. They were really just one big Aaron Judge swing -- a game-tying home run Tuesday night and the Orioles ahead, 5-4, with one out in the ninth -- away from sweeping them both.

“I think we showed we’re a gritty team,” manager Brandon Hyde said after starter Kyle Gibson had dominated the Yankees across seven shutout innings of two-hit ball. “And it’s the way we’ve won. None of them were easy wins.”

The night before, the Orioles had come back from being down, 5-1, to score eight runs in the seventh inning. Comebacks like that, through 50 games, have become part of the DNA for Hyde’s young and increasingly unafraid team.

“We’re one of the best teams,” Gibson said.

They are nearly the best team at this point in the season. They are; that’s just the fact of things on what they’ve done and just continue to keep doing -- and against all comers. That includes the Rays. The Orioles just played their first series against them, taking two out of three from Tampa Bay, too.

Hyde’s Orioles would be leading every division in baseball except the one in which they’re playing. They have a better record than the Braves, whom many people thought would be the best team this year and might still be. They have a better record than the Dodgers, the Astros and the Rangers, who have been a very big surprise themselves as they continue to lead the Astros in the AL West.

Now, after taking two of three against the Yankees and coming as close as they did to taking all three, they are five games better in the loss column than the Yankees.

“That’s just a really good team win for us,” Gibson said after what his manager called a “masterful” performance. “Really good team win today. Tough environment to lose the first one the way we did. And to come back and win a series was really big for us.”

They nearly swept the Yankees with Cedric Mullins and Adley Rutschman, the kid catcher who keeps getting better, only combining for three hits in three games. Adam Frazier hit a three-run homer when they were coming back as big as they did on Wednesday night. Anthony Santander had three hits on Thursday night, and Austin Hays (now hitting .307) had a big two-run double. Finally, Yennier Cano got the last three outs that Félix Bautista, who threw the hanger to Judge, didn’t get in the opener of the series on Tuesday night.

So a team and a city with such a proud baseball heritage rises up in front of our eyes -- the way it did when Buck Showalter arrived in Baltimore in 2010 and changed the course of the team and the culture there after the Orioles had lost more than 90 games in four straight seasons. The Orioles were 34-23 after Showalter took over, and four years later, they were in the AL Championship Series.

Now this, under Brandon Hyde. The Orioles get up again, trying to get all the way up from years of 100-loss seasons and become a force of the sport the way the Astros did. One-hundred and fifteen losses in 2018. One-hundred and eight losses the next season. The only reason they didn’t lose 100 in 2020 was because they only played 60. Then they came right back and lost 110 in '21.

But they were 83-79 one year ago, finally out of last place, finishing fourth ahead of the Red Sox. They are still ahead of the Red Sox and the Blue Jays. For now, they have put more distance between themselves and the Yankees than there is between them and the Rays. Everyone thought the Orioles were an ascendant team -- because of the balance in their batting order, because of Cano and Bautista at the back end of the bullpen and because of the young guys. They were supposed to be good. Just not this good -- and not ahead of the Yankees and Blue Jays heading into Memorial Day Weekend, the first big mile-marker of the baseball season.

“We just played so well in so many areas,” Hyde said about the Orioles’ performance against the Blue Jays and Yankees.

They are home this weekend to play the Rangers. Who would have thought it would be the series to watch on Memorial Day Weekend? But it is. The Orioles come off six games that were supposed to be an early-season chance, a test, to show who they are and where they are. Test passed. Flying colors. The Orioles are flying again. At long last.