Listen. If I had told you beforehand that tonight’s game would feature Kyle Gibson throwing 30 pitches in the first inning, multiple Orioles hitters getting robbed of home runs by The Great Wall of Baltimore, a seemingly obvious blown call against the Birds not getting overturned, and both the Birds’ manager and center fielder getting thrown out of the game in the seventh inning, you’d probably expect that things went horribly wrong for the Orioles.
And yet! Despite the many frustrations and weird occurrences sprinkled throughout, the O’s took care of business against a bad team, setting down the Athletics, 5-1, to open a four-game series at Camden Yards.