Orioles game Friday vs. Blue Jays at Camden Yards postponed because of rain

BALTIMORE — It appeared as if the Orioles could use a break after beginning the season 5-8 and failing to win any of their first four series.

After a day off Thursday, Mother Nature (or the baseball gods) stepped in Friday to double the ballclub’s time away.

The Orioles’ game against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday evening was postponed because of rain. The wet conditions and forecast of more rain in Baltimore made it difficult to envision getting the game, originally scheduled for 7:05 p.m., in at a reasonable hour.

With rain expected to continue into Saturday, the Orioles and Blue Jays elected to push Friday’s game — Baltimore’s first postponement this season — to late July when Toronto comes back to Camden Yards. The clubs will play a split-admission doubleheader Tuesday, July 29, with the first game scheduled for 12:35 p.m.

The Orioles will return to the field Saturday afternoon in hopes of turning their early season woes around. Manager Brandon Hyde said after Wednesday’s 9-0 loss to the Diamondbacks that the Orioles aren’t “panicking in the clubhouse” because of their slow start.

“We’re off to a slow start, grinding,” Hyde said. “We’ve had a handful of good games, but we’re having a tough time putting everything together. Guys are keeping their heads up. We’ve just got to keep working. It’s a talented team that we’re not playing to our full potential right now.”

Tomoyuki Sugano was scheduled to make his Camden Yards debut on the mound Friday — about a week after winning his first MLB game and earning a “beer shower” celebration in the clubhouse from his teammates. Sugano, the 35-year-old Japanese superstar, will presumably be pushed to start Saturday’s game, meaning his first start at Oriole Park will come while wearing the club’s retro all-orange uniforms. The monochrome look pays homage to the 1971 Orioles who donned them a handful of times that season.

Cade Povich, who was scheduled to start Saturday, will likely be pushed back to take the ball Sunday. With a day off Monday, the postponement doesn’t alter the short-term outlook for the Orioles’ rotation, which only has four members after Zach Eflin was placed on the injured list earlier this week with a minor lat muscle injury. Charlie Morton, who has struggled this season with an 8.78 ERA, will be on six days rest for Tuesday’s series opener against the Cleveland Guardians, while Dean Kremer, who has an 8.16 ERA this year, will be on six days rest for Wednesday’s game.

Sugano and Povich would be on regular rest (four days) to start April 17 and 18, meaning the latest the Orioles can go without needing a new starter is April 19. The options in Triple-A appear to be Kyle Gibson, Brandon Young and Cody Poteet. Gibson isn’t fully built up after signing late in spring training. The 37-year-old right-hander pitched his first official game of the season Thursday, allowing one run while making it into the fourth inning.

Young, the Orioles’ No. 20 prospect per Baseball America, has yet to allow an earned run through two starts with the Tides. Poteet, who has started 13 career MLB games since 2021, was added to the 40-man roster in late March when the Orioles acquired the right-hander from the Chicago Cubs for cash considerations. Or the Orioles could use the bullpen game strategy for April 19, which could allow the team to stick with a four-man rotation until Eflin is eligible to return April 23.

The rotation has been a concern thus far, but so has the offense’s inconsistency. Expected to be one of the best lineups in baseball, Baltimore’s bats have been too boom or bust through the first 13 games. The Orioles are 5-0 when they score at least five runs and 0-8 when they don’t.

“It’s frustrating to lose, especially games you think you can win, but it’s only 13 games,” Jackson Holliday said Wednesday. “We have a whole lot more. This team is really good, and I think we’re gonna be fine.”

The second game of the split-admission doubleheader will be 6:35 p.m. Fans with tickets for Friday’s postponed game will automatically receive their same seat for Game 1 on July 29. Tickets for the originally scheduled July 29 game at 6:35 p.m. are still valid for that game.

Around the horn

— Major League Baseball on Wednesday made a scoring change on Jorge Mateo’s dropped fly ball in center field Sunday against the Royals. Bobby Witt Jr.’s fly ball off Cade Povich was originally ruled a triple, but after an MLB review, it was changed to an error on Mateo. All three runs that scored that inning — the difference in the 4-1 loss after the Orioles controversially put Mateo, an infielder, in center field — are now unearned. Povich’s ERA fell from 6.10 before the change to 3.48.

— Outfield prospect Enrique Bradfield Jr. was removed from Thursday’s game with Double-A Chesapeake with left hamstring discomfort and later placed on the seven-day injured list, the Orioles announced. Bradfield, a first-round draft pick in 2023, is ranked inside The Athletic and Baseball Prospectus’ top 100 prospect lists.

— FanGraphs on Friday released its list for the top 50 prospects in Baltimore’s farm system. The rankings differ in a few major ways from Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. Outfielder Austin Overn, infielder Elvin Garcia and right-handers Zach Fruit, Braxton Bragg, Chase Allsup, Levi Wells and Kiefer Lord are among those ranked higher by FanGraphs, while outfielders Jud Fabian and Dylan Beavers as well as pitchers Michael Forret and Keeler Morfe are among the players ranked lower by the outlet.

— Team USA on Friday announced its coaching staff for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Fredi González, the Orioles’ bench coach from 2020-24, will be an assistant manager under skipper Mark DeRosa. González wasn’t brought back by the Orioles after the 2024 season. Matt Holliday, Jackson Holliday’s father, will be Team USA’s hitting coach.

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Baltimore Sun reporter Matt Weyrich contributed to this report.