Happy Friday, Birdland! It’s not the happiest of Fridays of course, as since we last spoke in this space our Birds not only joined the ranks of the rest of MLB teams who had lost a game, but they’ve now lost two straight. Things were looking up for awhile in Texas last night, but then in the sixth inning the Kansas City Royals showed up wearing Rangers uniforms. A couple bloops, squibs, and slaps later, and what had been a 3-1 O’s lead was suddenly a 6-3 deficit that they wouldn’t climb back from.

More concerning is that Chris Tillman, while he looked OK until the sixth inning meltdown, wasn’t dominant. He allowed a bunch of baserunners and only struck out one batter, adding more evidence to the assertion that the Tilly we saw on Opening Day was really just a product of a guy who was ramped up for the occasion facing an awful baseball team (the Minnesota Twins are now 0-9).

Hopefully the O’s can rally to pick up at least a split in Arlington and come home with a 5-2 or 4-3 road trip. Before the weekend games get started, let’s hit the O’s links once more…

Seven-Game Win Streaks are Fun – Just Ask the 1966 Orioles

That really was fun, so let’s do it again soon. As Matt Taylor of Roar from 34 explains in this week’s Flashback Friday segment, the 1966 Orioles won at least seven in a row three times – all before the end of July.

Mark Trumbo Finding a Home in Baltimore

Dave Holcomb of Today’s Knuckleball looks at the numbers behind Mark Trumbo’s blistering start and SURPRISE! they’re probably not sustainable. Especially that 90% contact rate. Still, Holcomb takes all of the evidence at hand into consideration, including Trumbo playing in a hitter’s park for the first full season, and says that O’s fans – and fantasy owners – shouldn’t write off his early production as a fluke.

Orioles Hot Start Highlights 5-Year Trend

Peter Gammons traces the Birds’ early-season success all the way back to that fateful night at the Yard in 2011, the night forever known as simply Game 162. You remember it – Reimold, Papelbon, Andino. Since that night, Gammons points out, the O’s are the AL East’s winningest team, yet they still get very little R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Quotes from Adam Jones, Buck, Dom Chiti, and Mike Bordick included.

How the Orioles Can Be Projected to Win 118 Games

Those damn projection systems that we love to hate so much in Baltimore are, well, complicated. There’s a whole lot of fancy math involved. But projection systems in general don’t really have to be complicated. Matt Perez of Camden Chat comes up with a very simple one that suggests that the O’s are going to win nearly 120 games this season. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, of course, but a fun read nonetheless.

J.J. Hardy’s Home Runs Have Been Incredibly Lucky So Far

Well, sure. They were Pesky Pole homers. As Buck said, “I didn’t build their stadium.” Ben Bruno of Numberfire goes a bit deeper into Hardy’s dingers the other night – that pitchers have hit longer homers this year, that they wouldn’t have been out of other parks, yadda yadda yadda. Still, to my mind, Hardy looks good this year. He’s been blistering some baseballs, and kept it up last night with a couple more hard-hit liners. Good to see some version of the old J.J. back.

And in NFL News…

(We announced this new part the other day – there will be football/Ravens news beyond this point. If you’re interested in that, great! Keep reading. If you’re not, that’s fine too. Don’t bother scrolling past the heading.)

Knee-Jerk Reactions: First Impressions of the Ravens 2016 Schedule

The NFL schedule for 2016 was released last night, and the Ravens play games on both Christmas Day (in Pittsburgh) and New Year’s Day (in Cincinnati). The Russell Street Report staff give their initial thoughts on the slate of games.