The Baltimore Orioles have taken the 2023 Major League Baseball season by storm and have impressed many fans this year.
Just last year, the Orioles finished with an 83-79 record, good for fourth place in the AL East. The team missed the playoffs, but toward the end of the season, there was hope that 2023 would be another step in the right direction. So far, the Orioles have not run away from that challenge.
The Orioles currently sit in second place in the AL East with a 45-28 record entering play on June 23.
“I think everybody has contributed to their success,” former Orioles shortstop Mike Bordick said on Glenn Clark Radio June 20. “… There’s an incredible amount of energy, a great belief that they’re the best team in the American League East, second-best record in all of baseball, and they’re going to go out there and compete, and that rubs off on everybody.”
Bordick said the team understands that every game carries significant meaning. The team was close to making the postseason last year if they had been able to string together a couple more wins here and there. Bordick said that coming so close to making it last year is why this year’s team understands the importance of each game, why they have a winning mentality and why they play hard each and every game.
It has now been over a full calendar year since the last time the Orioles were swept in a series. The last time the Orioles got swept came against the Detroit Tigers in May 2022.
“I think it really kind of describes this team and shows the character of this team,” said Bordick, now an analyst for 105.7 The Fan. “They want to win series, absolutely, but they’re never willing to fold the tent up.”
Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson got called up on August 31, 2022, and hit a 429-foot home run in his second-ever at-bat in MLB. He got off to a slow start this year but is now hitting ..242/.343/.464 with 22 extra-base hits on the season. Bordick preached patience with Henderson earlier in the season, and now that is paying off.
“It’s just the repetitions, and I also think it’s just being in that clubhouse,” Bordick said. “You’ve got great young pros. … He’s got a lot of good teammates to lean on and help him through the tough times. That’s typically where most players go when they’re struggling.”
Bordick said that Henderson’s teammates have given him all the confidence he needs. As the season has progressed, the bloops have begun to fall in and balls have gotten through to the gaps.
“Every player has to go through the failure at the major league level … but keeping those downtimes a little bit shorter throughout the rest of his career,” Bordick said.
The Orioles are in a slight predicament regarding their fifth starter spot. The debate is whether to continue starting Cole Irvin in that spot or bring up Grayson Rodriguez from Triple-A Norfolk. Irvin is 1-3 with a 7.71 ERA and 1.76 WHIP in the major leagues this season, while Rodriguez is 2-2 with a 7.35 ERA and 1.74 WHIP.
Bordick said that he would like for Rodriguez to show that he is “more consistent with his mental approach, his command” with Norfolk prior to being called back up. However, Bordick said that he knows that Irvin has been “shaky” and that the Orioles won’t “put up with him going out there and having a flop start again.”
Bordick expected Irvin to have a strong year and he does still believe the lefty can settle in and give the Orioles a chance to win each time out. However, he said that if Irvin continues to show inconsistencies, it wouldn’t be a surprise to him if the Orioles brought Rodriguez back up to start.
“The Orioles are proving that depth is so important and where a lot of teams just don’t have it to kind of cover,” Bordick said. “The Orioles have a lot of good weapons to work with.”
For more from Bordick, listen to the full interview here:
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