Orioles Victory Card Number 39

Orioles Victory Number 39: 12-5 over the Toronto Blue Jays

1981 Topps Orioles Team Card

Hey, hey how about two wins in a row? That's a bona fide winning streak! For the first time in a month the Orioles pulled off back-to-back victories as they won the battle of left-handed rookie starters by battering Blue Jays pitching for 12 runs and 17 hits.  Baltimore rookie Josh Rogers made his debut for the team (the first southpaw starter for the Birds this season) and worked five solid innings. He surrendered only 3 runs, which the offense more than took care of.

It was a complete team effort on offense as seven of the nine starters had hits, and five of those had multiple hits. Adam Jones lashed out four hits and scored twice, Chris Davis had two hits and drove in three. The top of the order (Jonathan Villar, Craig Gentry and Trey Mancini went a combined eight for fourteen and drove in five runs while scoring six. That's the offense fans were expecting at the beginning of the year.

Speaking of the beginning of the year, the roster has gone through quite a change in the last five months. Four of the position players that played in Tuesday night's game (Villar, Cedric Mullins, John Andreoli and Renato Nunez) weren't on the roster when the team broke camp. Of the four pitchers that appeared in the game only Mike Wright Jr was on the Opening Day Roster.

Whether due to injury, lack of performance, trade or demotion thirteen of the original twenty-five players on the roster are no longer on the Orioles. Even for a team that has struggled as much as the Orioles have - that's a lot of turnover.

The starting line-up could feature even more churn once the rosters open up in a couple of days. And by Opening Day 2019? Man, you're going to need a scorecard to figure out who is who. Adam Jones could be gone (but shouldn't be) as he is an unrestricted free agent as is Craig Gentry, Jonathan Villar has played well enough that he might entertain some trade rumors along with Dylan Bundy and Mychel Givens.

Could Josh Rogers be in the rotation in 2019? The Orioles may not have a choice. They need starters and the free agent market isn't exactly teeming with them. It's going to be an interesting off-season, that's for sure.