This story was excerpted from Jake Rill's Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
PITTSBURGH -- As the Orioles continue to play good baseball early in the 2024 season, the weather conditions in which they’ve taken the field have progressively gotten worse.
In Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Royals at Camden Yards, intermittent rain showers passed through the Baltimore area. There was never hard enough rain to cause a delay, but the combination of that with crisp winds made for an uncomfortable night.
Wednesday’s series finale between Baltimore and Kansas City began with a five-hour delay. A window emerged at 6:05 p.m. ET -- when the temperature was 46 degrees Fahrenheit. More rain came in bursts throughout the evening, as the O’s won, 4-3.
The Orioles then left town, but they couldn’t escape the weather. Friday’s series opener in Pittsburgh brought a first-pitch temperature of 40 degrees. That dropped throughout a game that brought snow flurries, a second-inning hailstorm and a 5-2 O’s win.
Warmer weather has to be coming at some point -- right?
“I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say that I didn’t want to have just a normal game, no rain, just have some sunshine out there,” shortstop Gunnar Henderson said. “But just embrace the conditions while they’re here, and eventually, the sunshine will be out.”
Probably not quite yet.
It’s expected to be chilly throughout the rest of the weekend in Pittsburgh. Likely not as bad as Friday, but then again, the weather here is always unpredictable.
Then, the Orioles head to Boston, where it’s typically brisk in April. So, time to bundle up again.
Some players have been wearing balaclavas (thin ski masks). Others are more used to it.
“I spent four years at [the University of] Oregon; that’s nothing,” Cole Irvin said after starting Tuesday’s game. “Not the conditions you want, right? But they’re the conditions that were the setting for the game, so you’ve just got to deal with them.”
It’s unlikely that right-hander Yennier Cano -- born in Ciego de Ávila, Cuba -- would fully agree with Irvin’s assessment.
“They don’t have much snow in Cuba,” manager Brandon Hyde quipped Friday.
Even if the Orioles might not enjoy it, they’re handling the adverse conditions quite well.
Starting pitchers aren’t fans of pregame delays because they disrupt their routine. It can be tough to gauge when they should begin throwing and getting loose, as an announcement of an expected start time can come at any point.
“It definitely tests you,” right-hander Corbin Burnes said. “When they say game time at 6:05, you’ve got to be ready to go.”
Burnes started Wednesday’s game, which changed from an afternoon contest to an evening tilt. The cold, wet weather can make it difficult to grip the baseball, and an ace like him might not be as sharp as he typically would be.
But Burnes doesn’t like to look at it that way.
“The conditions are the same for anyone,” said Burnes, who allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings in Wednesday’s soggy win over the Royals. “If you go out there and you try to use that as an excuse, you let it get to your head. You start to make excuses for the ball not doing this, or balls are getting wet in the outfield or whatever it may be, it’s very easy to go down that route.”
Hitters especially don’t like the cold weather, particularly when they’re facing flamethrowers like Kansas City’s Cole Ragans and Pittsburgh’s Jared Jones -- pitchers who started against the O’s on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. Balls that don’t hit the barrel of the bat don’t make the hands feel good.
Ragans (6 1/3 scoreless frames) and Jones (six innings of two-run ball) pitched well. Yet, Baltimore emerged victorious in each game.
“It’s tough in a warm-weather environment. It’s even tougher in a cold-weather environment,” said James McCann, who ended Wednesday’s game with a walk-off two-run single in the ninth. “You’ve just got to grind. You’ve got to find a way to win.”
The Orioles (5-2) are doing that -- even if they’d much prefer to do it under rays of sunshine.
“The snow and the hail in the face can’t be real pleasant for a Major League Baseball game,” Hyde said.