The Baltimore Orioles have shown power and frustration all in a short period of the time this season.
They will count on more of the power, while some of the irritation might work in their favor as well.
The Orioles bid for back-to-back wins against the visiting Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.
Baltimore hit three home runs in Monday night’s 5-1 series-opening victory.
“It was enjoyable,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We had a couple deep fly balls before that that didn’t go out.”
Eight Baltimore players have homered this season. Five have at least two.
“Good hitters hit bad pitches,” said Athletics pitcher JP Sears, who surrendered two of them Monday night. “Tip your hat to them. They battled all night.”
The Orioles also have been miffed by some calls going against them, and they haven’t been shy about expressing themselves. Center fielder Cedric Mullins and Hyde were ejected in the seventh inning Monday night.
“I thought we had a few calls not go our way tonight, which I thought was unfortunate, and I thought we had a couple (Sunday) not go our way,” Hyde said. “Just kind of tired of things not going our way.”
There’s a brighter outlook regarding the pitcher Baltimore will use Tuesday night.
This will be the much-anticipated home debut for Orioles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (0-0, 3.60 ERA). He pitched in the majors for the first time in a no-decision at Texas last week, logging five innings and allowing two earned runs with five strikeouts.
It’s billed as a special moment. There will be 10,000 T-shirts inscribed with “Welcome To The Show” given out in Rodriguez’s honor.
“It’s going to be another little dream come true for me,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez was ranked fifth on MLB.com’s list of 100 top prospects for 2023. He made a start with Triple-A Norfolk to begin the season and then was summoned to the Orioles.
“Did a nice job of keep guys off balance and attacking the strike zone,” Hyde said. “Great first experience, and it will only get better.”
It’s reasonable to figure that the Orioles will want to generate a good connection between Rodriguez and second-year catcher Adley Rutschman.
“Adley worked really well with him,” Hyde said.
The Athletics have hammered eight home runs this season, but none in the past three games. After they were shut out in their last two weekend games at Tampa Bay, there was barely more offense upon playing in Baltimore.
“Again, we only scored one run,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said. “So end of the day, offensively, we didn’t get our job done.”
At 2-8, the A’s have the worst record in the major leagues.
They will send left-hander Kyle Muller (0-0, 2.53) to the mound for his third start of the season. He has struck out eight and walked four in 10 2/3 innings.
In 14 career outings, including limited big-league duty the past two years with Atlanta, Muller has never faced the Orioles.
Among the batters he will have to deal with is Rutschman, the former overall No. 1 draft pick who made a splash last season when he reached the major leagues. Rutschman has homered in back-to-back games for the first time in his brief career.