Good morning, Birdland!

We will might need Orioles baseball again in our lives at present after the annual headache that’s the built-in rain date for Opening Day. It’s seemingly a logistic necessity, but it surely does really feel like MLB’s execution of it may use some work.

For instance, each single workforce performed on Thursday. That was nice! We had baseball to look at for 12 hours straight from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. It received the juices flowing and my private pleasure for Orioles baseball was sky excessive. The ten-9 win over the Pink Sox made it even higher!

However that was dampened by a sparse and dense sport docket on Friday. I had gone searching for which sport would function background noise as I did a couple of afternoon duties to wrap up the workweek. My Orioles had been off, however absolutely there needed to be one thing to see on the primary Friday of a brand new season, proper?

Nope, nothing. Not till 6:40 anyway, then 8, after which three 10 p.m. first pitches. The league had 5 video games however none through the day and all of them stepping on one another within the night.

Maybe the league has executed some evaluation to make this set-up make sense. Nevertheless it simply appears odd to ramp everybody up for baseball on Thursday after which solely go away them hanging at the beginning of the weekend. That is the week the place diehards and casuals alike are each very a lot into the game. Seize that pleasure. Give individuals a purpose to skip work or faculty.

The league may make the most of stadiums which are extremely unlikely to expertise an Opening Day cancellation: these with roofs! Tampa, Texas, Miami, Houston, and Seattle all have roofs and hosted on Thursday. Their video games weren’t gonna get known as. Schedule them everytime you need for Friday too! Or do Opening Day on a Wednesday, then give half the groups off on Thursday, half off on Friday, everybody performs Saturday and Sunday.

Happily, we do have a full slate of video games at present, so my concepts can return within the can for the subsequent twelve months. The Birds are alleged to play the Pink Sox at 4:10 at present, however there may be rain within the Boston space this afternoon, so we’ll see if there’s a delay or perhaps a postponement. April baseball, child!

Hyperlinks

For O’s on first opening day roster, being collectively was one of the best half | The Baltimore Solar
These guys all love and care about every, and they’re finest associates. Signal all of them to 10-year contracts instantly, Mike Elias!

Might rain drive Orioles to rearrange how rotation aligns for early sequence? | Roch Kubatko
Springtime baseball is hard within the northern states, and it looks like the Orioles get rained out at Fenway within the first month of the season not less than as soon as yearly. Hopefully it doesn’t occur once more at present, however there’s a probability for precipitation all day lengthy, and I would favor a rainout to somebody getting damage.

Does Rutschman’s huge sport result in a giant 12 months? | Steve Melewski
So long as he’s wholesome, Adley Rutschman goes to be the sport’s finest catcher for the subsequent 5 years, not less than. He simply does the whole lot so nicely! Apart from attempting to take the additional base. He was unhealthy at that on Thursday.

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Blissful birthday!

• Keegan Akin is 28 at present. The lefty has hung out on the Orioles’ huge league roster for 4 straight seasons, making his debut in 2020. As soon as considered as backend starter, Akin has settled in as a center aid pitcher that’s able to going a number of innings when wanted.
• Wealthy Amaral turns 61. The utilityman wrapped up his decade within the huge leagues as a backup with the Orioles in 1999 and 2000.
• Mike Kinnunen celebrates his sixty fifth. Between 1986 and ‘87, he appeared in 27 video games out of the O’s bullpen.

Today in O’s historical past

2010 – The Orioles purchase infielder Julio Lugo from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Who: Boston Bruins (58-12-5, 121 factors, 1st place Atlantic Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (37-28-10, 84 factors, fifth place Metropolitan Division)

When: 3:00 p.m. ET

How one can Watch: Nationwide broadcast on ABC | ESPN+

Opponent Observe: The Bruins are on the warpath. They’ve received eight of their final 9 video games, with their most up-to-date victory coming 2-1 over the Blue Jackets in time beyond regulation at house on Thursday to clinch the 2023 Presidents’ Trophy with their franchise-record 58th win of the season.

“It’s superior to be a part of this workforce. There’s three trophies on this league and we acquired certainly one of them proper now, however the different two are those we’re actually going for, so it feels good. It feels cool to be part of an historic franchise – and to have your title part of that and this workforce is fairly cool.” —Bruins ahead Trent Frederic after Thursday’s win, through NHL.com

Pens Path Forward: The Penguins full this weekend’s back-to-back set tomorrow, once they face the Philadelphia Flyers at house. That may deliver them even in video games performed with the Florida Panthers, so when the mud settles, we’ll see which workforce holds the wild card spot heading into the ultimate stretch.

Season Collection: The Pens have but to win in opposition to the Bruins this season (if it’s any consolation, they’re actually not the one workforce that may say that.) On November 1, the Penguins blew a three-goal lead and went to time beyond regulation, the place Hampus Lindholm received it for visiting Boston, 6-5. On January 2, a Kasperi Kapanen aim was undone by two Jake DeBrusk tallies within the third interval, and Pittsburgh misplaced 2-1 at Fenway Park.

Hidden Stat: The Bruins have proved to be just about unbeatable after scoring the primary aim. They’ve solely misplaced one such sport on the street, and it occurred in time beyond regulation (16-0-1.) General, when putting first, Boston is 38-1-3. Ethical of the story: rating early, rating first. (Certain, that didn’t assist the Penguins of their final matchup with the Bruins, however let’s attempt it once more.)

Attending to know the Bruins

SBN accomplice weblog: Stanley Cup of Chowder

Potential Recreation Traces

Forwards

Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Jake DeBrusk

Pavel Zacha – David Krejci – David Pastrnak

Tyler Bertuzzi – Charlie Coyle – Trent Frederic

Jakub Lauko – Tomas Nosek – Garnet Hathaway

Protection

Dmitry Orlov / Charlie McAvoy

Jakub Zboril / Connor Clifton

Goalies: Jeremy Swayman, Linus Ullmark

Scratches: AJ Greer, Oskar Steen, Matt Grzelcyk, Derek Forbort (decrease physique)

IR: Nick Foligno (decrease physique), Taylor Corridor (decrease physique, day-to-day), Matt Filipe (decrease physique)

• Though TSN’s Darren Dreger stated earlier this week that the Bruins would name up Taylor Corridor from the injured reserve if it weren’t for wage cap constraints, Boston head coach Jim Montgomery referred to as the report “false” and stated Corridor has not but been cleared to play.
• Nick Foligno returned to Bruins observe in a no-contact sweater earlier this week.

Stats

through hockeydb

• At 53 targets and 46 assists, red-hot David Pastrnak is one tally away from the primary 100-point season of his profession.

• For the primary time in two months, Linus Ullmark made consecutive begins for the Bruins this week. Boston has not too long ago alternated video games evenly between the members of stellar goaltending duo, however Montgomery advised Boston.com giving Ullmark three begins in six days would assist replicate the playoff crunch and provides Swayman an opportunity “to get some video games of the again finish.” Due to that, the Penguins are prone to face Swayman, who by way of his final 4 begins is undefeated with two shutouts.

And now for the Pens…

Friday Apply Traces

Forwards

Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

Jason Zucker – Evgeni Malkin – Rickard Rakell

Danton Heinen – Ryan Poehling – Mikael Granlund

Drew O’Connor – Jeff Carter – Josh Archibald

Protection

Brian Dumoulin / Kris Letang

P.O. Joseph / Jeff Petry

Mark Friedman / Chad Ruhwedel

Goalies: Tristan Jarry, Casey DeSmith

Scratches: Alex Nylander, Jan Rutta (injured)

IR: Dmitry Kulikov (week-to-week, lower-body harm), Nick Bonino (week-to-week, lacerated kidney), Marcus Pettersson (decrease physique)

• Jan Rutta joined Friday’s observe in a no-contact jersey.
• Tristan Jarry appeared to settle again into the starter’s seat on Thursday by holding regular in his shutout of the Predators. It might make sense for the Penguins to place him again in internet tonight, and save tomorrow’s contest versus the a lot weaker Flyers for Casey DeSmith to (hopefully) bounce again in opposition to.
• Malkin prolonged his house level streak with an help on Jason Zucker’s aim in opposition to Nashville.

• There’s extra to this matchup than only a combat for an additional treasured two factors within the neck-and-neck wild-card race with the Florida Panthers. The Bruins can be dealing with the No. 2 wild card workforce within the playoffs. If the Penguins qualify for the postseason, they’ll be seeing Boston— a workforce they’ve but to beat this season— once more. A win tonight would mark probably the most important of 2022-23.

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Kathy Flann is a humor author whose work has appeared in The Washington Put up, The Baltimore Solar, McSweeney’s, Weekly Humorist, and elsewhere. She is the writer of 4 books, the latest of which is “How one can Survive a Human Assault: A Information for Werewolves, Mummies, Cyborgs, Ghosts, Nuclear Mutants, and Different Film Monsters.” She teaches inventive writing at Johns Hopkins College.