Though there was no reason to expect the first weekend of the Orioles’ new era to be particularly enthralling, there was a surprising amount of suspense and entertainment value for a series between one of the very best teams in baseball and — by most accounts — one of the very worst.
The Orioles certainly looked the part during the early innings of Thursday’s season opener against the muscular Yankees, but they turned a bullpen game on Saturday into must-see TV with some ninth-inning drama and an uplifting first victory for new manager Brandon Hyde.
It was exactly the kind of game the Orioles needed to make a proper introduction of their rebuilding team, which will likely have a lot more games like Thursday’s loss.