Last year, the World Series champions and next-to-worst team in baseball resided not 40 miles apart, a mere hour-long drive up or down I-95 from one another. Major League Baseball’s reimagined Interleague schedule this season ensured they’d both make that commute more than ever in 2020, a wrinkle that, on paper, seemed to make life even more difficult for the rebuilding Orioles. In practice, it’s worked out in exactly the opposite way.\n\nThe latest example came on Saturday, when the O’s rebounded from Friday’s blowout loss with a fundamentally sound, drama-free 7-3 win over the Nationals at Oriole Park, their fourth in five tries this season against the defending champs. Even including Friday’s clunker, the O’s have been the Beltway’s clear top team one-third of the way through the schedule, both in the standings and in a head-to-head sense.\n\n• Box score\n\n“I am not surprised in how we’re playing,” winning pitcher
Saturday’s victory came as part of a team-wide effort, with
**Backstops who rake** \nSearching for another 2020 surprise? Look behind the plate in Baltimore. That’s where the most productive backstops in baseball reside. Not Milwaukee or Minnesota, who had the best backstops by WAR last year. Not Philadelphia, where perhaps the best all-around catcher in baseball gears up every day.\n\nIt’s in Charm City with the Orioles, whose catchers ranked 24th in MLB last year in cumulative fWAR. This year, that same tandem ranks _first_ in baseball, as well as second in OPS and wRC+, thanks to the growth Severino and
**Rio still ripping** \nSince 2020 began, the transformation of Ruiz has been a common theme. There is the power. There is the defense. There is the hair. Now another element is emerging.\n\nIt came into focus when Ruiz deposited a 1-1 Corbin slider just over the right-field wall in Saturday’s fourth inning, connecting for his sixth homer of the season. Of those, it was his second in 11 plate appearances against left-handed pitching, which Ruiz was often shielded from a year ago. He went deep just once in 74 chances off southpaws in 2019.\n\n“I’m seeing better at-bats from Rio against left-handed pitching,” Hyde said. “I think that when you’re a left-handed hitter, facing left-handers can help you out. You really have to focus on staying closed with your front shoulder and think about the big part of the field. Rio is doing that and staying on the ball nicely.”
**Aces wild** \nBeating Corbin was the latest dismantling of an elite-caliber pitcher for the Orioles, who are turning such things into sort of a habit. They’ve now faced Gerrit Cole, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Zack Wheeler, Jake Arrieta, Stephen Strasburg and Corbin over their first 20 games -- a group with two Cy Young Awards and more than $1.06 billion in guaranteed contracts among them.\n\nThey also have a collective 6.75 ERA against the Orioles in 2020. Baltimore is 6-2 in those games.\n\n“We have faced some tough starters, there is no doubt, and it’s going to continue,” Hyde said. “It’s not going to get any easier the rest of the way. … We’re a bunch of grinders and guys are doing a good job of competing on a nightly basis.”
**About that bullpen** \nFor the first time in his managerial tenure, Hyde has the luxury of relief options he trusts. He’s using them early and often, and roles are taking shape. The result is a vastly improved ‘pen full of young pitchers breaking out, from
Throwing 15 strikes in 21 pitches Saturday, Scott again looked like the dominant lefty option many have long dreamt he can be.