This story was excerpted from Jake Rill’s Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

It’s been quite a first half for the 2023 Baltimore Orioles.

The O’s (52-35) entered Saturday as the top team in the American League Wild Card standings. They sat only three games behind the Rays (57-34) in the AL East, and they also had the second-best record in the AL and the third-best in MLB.

And the Orioles are the only team in baseball that hasn’t been swept in a multi-game series. That became the case earlier this week after the Rays were swept by the Phillies and the D-backs were swept by the Mets.

There have been plenty of great moments for Baltimore in the past three-plus months. Here’s a look back at 10 of the most memorable from the first half (in chronological order):

March 30: Adley Rutschman’s historic first Opening Day

Rutschman, the 2022 AL Rookie of the Year Award runner-up, couldn’t have started his sophomore season much better. The 25-year-old catcher went 5-for-5 and reached base six times, homering in his first at-bat of the season and driving in four runs. He was the first player in Orioles history (since 1954) to get five hits or to reach base six times on Opening Day. The huge performance powered Baltimore to a season-opening 10-9 win in Boston.

April 5: Grayson Rodriguez debuts in home state

Rodriguez, the Orioles’ top prospect at the time, was called up to make his first MLB start at Globe Life Field in Arlington. With his family, friends and nearly the entire town of Nacogdoches, Texas, in attendance, the 23-year-old right-hander held his own in a duel with the Rangers’ Jacob deGrom. Rodriguez allowed two runs and struck out five over five innings of Baltimore’s 5-2 loss.

April 7: Orioles victorious in delayed home opener

Baltimore’s first home game of the year at Camden Yards was supposed to be April 6, but it was postponed a day by rain. The extra wait didn’t bother Orioles fans. A sellout crowd of 45,017 was on hand to watch the team hold on for a 7-6 win over the Yankees.

April 13: Rutschman lifts O’s with first career walk-off hit

A Thursday afternoon series finale between Oakland and Baltimore nearly went to extra innings. Rutschman prevented that from happening, opening the bottom of the ninth with a home run to power the Orioles to an 8-7 walk-off win.

May 12: Cedric Mullins hits for the cycle

Mullins became the seventh player in O’s history (since 1954) to hit for the cycle. The 28-year-old outfielder achieved the feat in a 6-3 win over the Pirates. Mullins singled in the third inning, tripled in the fifth, doubled in the seventh and then blasted a three-run homer in the eighth.

May 24: An eight-run seventh in the Bronx

The Orioles quieted the majority of the fans at Yankee Stadium who had earlier waited out a rain delay of 1 hour and 36 minutes. Baltimore faced a 5-1 deficit heading into the seventh -- then struck for eight runs, a rally that started with a two-run homer by Adam Frazier and featured a go-ahead two-run double by Gunnar Henderson. The O’s held on for a 9-6 win.

June 11: Henderson makes Eutaw Street history

In Baltimore’s 11-3 win over Kansas City, Henderson belted one of the most impressive home runs in the 31-year history of Camden Yards. The former top prospect hit a Statcast-projected 462-foot homer in the seventh inning, the longest to land on Eutaw Street during a game.

June 26: Jordan Westburg arrives in the big leagues

On the same day Westburg earned his first callup to the Majors, he made a memorable big league debut. The 24-year-old infielder (who is the Orioles’ No. 3 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 32 overall prospect) drew a seven-pitch walk in a downpour of rain in his first plate appearance. He later singled in the fifth for his first hit, contributing to a 10-3 win over the Reds.

July 5: Colton Cowser arrives in the big leagues

Nine days after Baltimore promoted Westburg, it brought up Cowser, the club’s No. 2 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 14 overall prospect. Like Westburg, Cowser fit in seamlessly with the O’s. The 23-year-old outfielder knocked an RBI single in the sixth for his first big league hit, then scored on a go-ahead, two-run triple by Westburg in the Orioles’ 6-3 win over the Yankees.

July 6: Henderson leads a blowout in the Bronx

It’s not often a player is 4-for-4 with two home runs and five RBIs after only four innings, but that was the case for Henderson in Baltimore’s 14-1 rout at Yankee Stadium. The Orioles plated seven runs in the third, five more in the fourth and finished with 20 hits, scoring 14 or more runs in a game vs. the Yankees for only the ninth time in team history (since 1954).