{"id":69666,"date":"2024-04-02T15:58:42","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T19:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=69666"},"modified":"2024-04-02T15:58:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T19:58:42","slug":"orioles-off-to-hot-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/02\/orioles-off-to-hot-start\/","title":{"rendered":"American League East Playoff Team Off to a Hot Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fresh off a 101-win season, the reigning AL East champs, the Baltimore Orioles are off to a hot start in 2024.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot has changed in Birdland since the heartbreaking loss to the Texas Rangers in the AL Divisional Series. The Orioles lost their All-Star closer <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bautife01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">F\u00e9lix Bautista<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to Tommy John surgery, then starters <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bradiky01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kyle Bradish<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/meansjo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John Means<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/15\/orioles-bradish-means-injuries\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">began the season on the injured-list<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. That left Baltimore to take action to fill those holes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They went out and signed veteran closer and nine-time All-Star <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kimbrcr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Craig Kimbrel<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in December. Then acquired their new ace, former Cy Young Award winner <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/burneco01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Corbin Burnes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/01\/corbin-burnes-traded-orioles\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">blockbuster trade with the Milwaukee Brewers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. All while John Angelos <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/01\/30\/orioles-sale-new-era-baltimore\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sold the Orioles to Baltimore-native David Rubenstein<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with the Rubenstein-era officially beginning one day before Opening Day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Orioles dominated the Grapefruit League, and are off to a hot start four games into the new season. Burnes dominated on Opening Day, making franchise history with 11 strikeouts in his Orioles debut. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rodrigr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grayson Rodriguez<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> delivered a career-high-tying nine strikeouts while throwing six innings of one-run baseball on Saturday. Despite falling to the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wellsty01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tyler Wells<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recorded Baltimore\u2019s third consecutive quality start to open the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>The Orioles are Cooking Already in 2024<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Los Angeles got to Wells early on Sunday, scoring all four runs in the first two innings. Wells retired the final 14 batters he faced including striking out the side in his sixth and final inning. Angels\u2019 left-hander <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/detmere01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reid Detmers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> held Baltimore to just three hits, scoring their lone run on a bases-loaded walk in the second. The Orioles scored 25 runs in their 2-1 series victory over the Angels to begin the season. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kremede01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dean Kremer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> took the mound on Monday as the Orioles began a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Purple rain, purple rain <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wxamM9wGiP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/wxamM9wGiP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Orioles\/status\/1774980282023571874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>The Beat Goes On<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kremer struck out five while allowing three runs on three hits and a walk over 5.1 innings of work. Baltimore responded to the Royals\u2019 three-run third inning with a three-run inning of their own in the fourth. The Orioles took a 4-3 lead in the eighth after an RBI single by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mountry01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ryan Mountcastle<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. That gave Baltimore\u2019s new closer, Craig Kimbrel, a chance to get the save in his Orioles debut. But his first save opportunity as an Oriole was spoiled by a single and a speedy pinch-runner tied the game in the ninth. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=westbu000jor\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jordan Westburg<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was the hero of the day delivering a two-run walk-off homer lifting the Orioles to their third victory of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re chomping at the bit this year,\u201d said Grayson Rodriguez. \u201cWe\u2019ve got something to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Four games into the season and that is quite clear. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baltimore is attempting to win their first two series of the season for the first time since 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: \u00a9 Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fresh off a 101-win season, the reigning AL East champs, the Baltimore Orioles are off to a hot start in 2024.\u00a0A lot has changed in Birdland since the heartbreaking loss to the Texas Rangers in the AL Divisional Series. The Orioles lost their All-Star closer F\u00e9lix Bautista to Tommy John surgery, then starters Kyle Bradish [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":69679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1071],"tags":[2231,323,2057,5662,2030,2544,3716,3251,3336,5554],"class_list":["post-69666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orioles","category-mlb","tag-corbin-burnes","tag-craig-kimbrel","tag-dean-kremer","tag-felix-bautista","tag-grayson-rodriguez","tag-john-means","tag-jordan-westburg","tag-kyle-bradish","tag-ryan-mountcastle","tag-tyler-wells"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}