Greetings once again, Birdland. I hope everyone has had some time to recover from the emotional rollercoaster (and whatever else you may have had to :ahem: recover from) of Opening Day. Our O’s got a day off, and now it’s time to settle in for the real grind that is the 162-game MLB season. Things got started off about as perfectly as we could have hoped for (save for some weather issues), as the Birds won their first game of 2016 in walk-off fashion thanks to a Matt Wieters single.
Here’s to 90+ more happy recaps this (regular) season (and 11-12 more after that). Let’s see what everyone else is saying about the Orioles.
The Best News for the Orioles Out of Opening Day
Before the weather screwed everything up, Chris Tillman was straight up DEALING, striking out five Twins through his two innings of work. Not only that, but as Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs details, he was throwing GAS – Tilly’s fastball velocity was up significantly. Let’s hope that trend holds, and that the Tillman we saw a glimpse of on Monday is the one we’ll get more often than not this year.
Healthy Bundy Could Make O’s Bullpen Even More Dominant
Again, thanks to the rain, we saw several Orioles pitchers on Monday. One who we didn’t was Dylan Bundy. Over at Camden Depot, they had a whole #BundyBash on Tuesday, with a handful of posts celebrating the fact that Dylan is back, healthy, and seemingly ready to help out. This one, from Matt Kremnitzer, was my favorite of the bunch.
Opening Day Thoughts – Baltimore Orioles
Brandon Warne, who is a Minnesota Twins beat writer, recapped the game from an O’s perspective over at Baltimore Sports and Life. He came away very impressed with Zach Britton and the O’s ‘pen in general.
Bird’s Eye View Episode 158: Birdland Radio
On Sunday, we had the pleasure of participating in the awesome Birdland Radio, 12 straight hours of O’s talk to preview Opening Day. Our show led into Bird’s Eye View, and Jake & Scott had a couple of the highlights of the day, including an interview with Oriole Park at Camden Yards PA Announcer Ryan Wagner, and a hilarious “In the Year 2016” bit. Give it a listen.
Adam Jones Brings Back the Pie…Or Was it a Cake?
We were told there would be no more pies…but then, in Matt Wieters’ post-game post-walk-off single interview, Adam Jones showed up, pie in hand (and then pie to face). Or was it a cake? Was this some loophole AJ found? Radio station 101.9 FM talked to an employee of Dangerously Delicious Pies to try to get to the bottom of things.
Odd Opening Day Stat of the Day:
Mark Trumbo 4-hit games by year:
2016: 1 (and counting!)
2015: 1
2014: 0
2013: 1 (5 hits)
2012: 2
2011: 0— Eutaw Street Report (@EutawStReport) April 5, 2016
