Season begins on July 24 at Fenway Park
Team’s home opener will be July 29 vs. the Marlins
The Orioles will open their shortened 2020 season July 24 at the Boston Red Sox, beginning a 60-game stretch that will conclude at the end of September as Major League Baseball attempts to restart amid the coronavirus pandemic.
After that two-game series in Boston, the Orioles will travel to Miami to face the Marlins for two games July 27 and July 28 before returning home to host the Marlins on July 29 at Camden Yards.
The opponents themselves for the shortened season have long been known. The 60-game format allows each team to play the others in its division 10 times apiece to limit long-distance travel, and the remaining 20 games are split among the teams from the other league’s corresponding division.
Because the Orioles’ natural rival in interleague play is the World Series champion Washington Nationals, they’ll face them six times total—Aug. 7-9 in Washington and Aug. 14-16 at Camden Yards.
With the Nationals’ strength, plus the Atlanta Braves looking to repeat as division champions with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies looking to earn playoff spots of their own, the Orioles’ already difficult schedule got worse.
According to FanGraphs’ projected records, the Orioles’ opponents have a league-best .525 winning percentage.
“I think playing the National League
important to be mindful that nearly all of the individuals have been tested as planned.”
None of that seems to be a factor at Orioles camp, where all but a handful of players have participated in the open portion of workouts so far, but manager Brandon Hyde said the organization will not be publicizing whether there were any positive tests, per an internal team decision.
“I’ve been really happy with how things are going here. We’ve been lucky enough not to have those issues,” Hyde said Monday after a workout in which many of his pitchers faced live hitting once again in both morning and afternoon sessions at Camden Yards.
“I’m really excited about how camp is going for us. I think our guys, I was just telling [executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias], our guys are ready to play intrasquad and ready to get going. These first few days have gone really smooth, and credit to our coaching staff. [Head athletic trainer] Brian Ebel is the MVP of camp, what he’s been doing, and our strength staff and Brian’s staff. We’re really happy with how things have gone so far.”
Outfielder Austin Hays said he’s been following the players deciding not to play or testing positive both before he reported to Baltimore last week and since, but wanted to see what it would look like for himself.
“I wanted to come around the facility and get to see what the environment was going to look like,” Hays said. “After being here for a couple days and seeing how much time and effort has gone in from all the staff and all the clubhouse personnel and all the adjustments they’ve been able to make to make it the safest environment possible under the circumstances. I feel very comfortable and very safe here.”
He said he’s been tested three times in five days, in line with the every-other-day testing procedure MLB planned out in prescribing its restart protocols with teams. The Orioles being able to stay on that schedule seems to place them on the fortunate side as other teams have had to adjust schedules after pickup and delivery problems for their test samples.
The players and coaches, however, are aware of that. Hyde said social media means “as soon as somebody opts out or a team’s workout gets canceled, it’s posted and everybody knows about it.”
Hays said he has followed all that as well, but can only go by his own experience at Oriole Park. Here, hitters and pitchers are separated in different clubhouses, players work out in small groups, and layout changes to the weight room and food room promote physical distancing.
“Just off my personal experience here so far and how few of guys testing positive we’ve had, and just how the players are reacting to all of this stuff on our team and how we’re handling it and how safe everybody is being, and just how cautious everything is, I do feel really safe here even though there’s been a lot of players testing positive around the year,” Hays said.
Players who test positive for COVID-19 can choose to identify themselves, but if they opt not to make their cases known, the team can still say whether there are positive tests in their ranks or not. The Orioles have decided not to do that, Hyde said, and he noted Sunday that Elias would address the team’s testing later this week.
Through the fourth day of workouts, most of which have featured the club’s hitters taking live batting practice during the open portion, nearly all of the 45 players in camp have taken part in some way. For others, Hyde has said they’ve faced hitters or done bullpen sessions in the morning. The only two position players not participating in the open portion are outfielders Dwight Smith Jr. and Anthony Santander; every pitcher has been accounted for or said in an interview that they’re participating.
Once a health baseline is set for the Orioles, it will be on the players to maintain it on and off the field.
“I think everything we’ve been doing so far is definitely sustainable,” Hays said. “I think just the precautions that all of us are taking right now if we continue to just be proactive with that and make smart decisions when we’re away from the field, and basically just quarantine ourselves — we go back and basically you don’t see anybody besides your family or whoever you live with in your apartment or hotel room, I think we can continue to see the positive results that we have seen.”
Said Hyde: “We have to have a lot of communication. We’re in two clubhouses, guys are coming in different times, so there’s a lot of scheduling quirks that we have to do. But we have to make sure everybody is on the same page, and it comes from a lot of communication, not only in the coaches room, players, training staff, strength staff, so it’s challenging because it’s so much different than we’re used to. I think we’re handling it well, and so far so, good.”
Around the horn
Hyde said starting pitchers Alex Cobb and Wade LeBlanc faced hitters Tuesday morning before the open portion of workouts, with each going four innings and coming out of it well. In the afternoon, Cesar Valdez, Hector Velázquez, Mychal Givens, Paul Fry, Travis Lakins Sr. and Shawn Armstrong faced a group of hitters that included Chris Davis, José Iglesias and Rio Ruiz. … The Orioles will begin intrasquad games at Camden Yards on Wednesday night.