It’s going to be a beautiful day in downtown Baltimore. Clear skies. A modest breeze. Highs near 70. That’s baseball weather, folks, and I can think of no better setting for the Orioles to take a series from the visiting Giants. It will be up to Cade Povich to make it happen.
To the surprise of many (myself included), Povich and Brandon Young have been the club’s choices to step into Zach Eflin’s spot in the rotation rather than Dean Kremer. For the time being, anyway. Povich was used as a bulk reliever after Chris Bassitt threw just two innings on April 5 and performed admirably (5.2 innings, two runs, four hits, three walks, two strikeouts). One week later, and on his 26th birthday no less, the southpaw will make his first major league start of the year.
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It is entirely possible that no matter how Povich pitches today, he will be sent back down to Triple-A Norfolk on Monday. The Orioles are right at the beginning of a 13-day stretch with no off days. They also used five relievers in Saturday’s win, so another heavy workload for the bullpen today almost guarantees a move is coming. Juggling the fifth starter spot is something most teams do as they need to survive these types of runs in their schedule.
The O’s have not announced their starter for Game 1 of the upcoming Diamondbacks series. This could be where we see Kremer make his season debut. He last pitched for Norfolk on April 8th, and did well (4.2 shutout innings). Young is set to start for Norfolk today. Provided that actually happens, Kremer would be the favorite for a call up. That would buy an extra day of rest for the other members of the rotation. It seems like every member of the rotation except Trevor Rogers could use that right now.
But let’s worry about tomorrow tomorrow. The goal for today is win the series. If that means Povich gets through the order twice and then gets pulled, so be it. It won’t matter if the O’s lineup is up to the task of facing Adrian Houser. It would be great to see Pete Alonso turn things around. He’s in the middle of a 2-for-31 skid in which he is striking out nearly a third of the times he steps to the plate. This team needs more from him.
It doesn’t look like any roster changes came prior to today’s game. Samuel Basallo is starting again at catcher despite also starting the night before. There was speculation that Sam Huff would be called up to play behind the plate. But for now, it looks like Maverick Handley will remain as the understudy for the day.
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If Craig Albernaz is trying to stay away from Handley for whatever reason, he may have a bench of just one healthy, truly available player, that being Blaze Alexander. Tyler O’Neill (illness) and Ryan Mountcastle (foot) are around, but seemingly not fit enough to start the game. Johnathan Rodríguez, a 26-year-old outfielder that the O’s acquired last month, was added to the taxi squad as a precaution.
Orioles lineup
LHP Cade Povich (0-0, 3.18 ERA, 5.2 IP, 2 K)
Giants lineup
RHP Adrian Houser (0-1, 3.97 ERA, 11.1 IP, 7 K)
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