I’m not sure of the legal ramifications of this recommendation, but I’m going to make it anyway: Every Birdland Member and MASN+ subscriber should get a box of Dramamine, for free from the Orioles, to deal with this season.

This newsletter has focused a lot on the extremes of this season and the seemingly instantaneous way the team shuttles between its proverbial poles. It’s disorienting. And considering both the specter of the standings and how the two weeks since that huge blown lead in Tampa have exclusively featured candidates for the season’s best win and worst loss, it’s hard at times to see the big picture.

Consider this: The offense that frustratingly has been nearly no-hit so often was good in June. Really good, in some ways.

It meant something that the Orioles were so poor situationally at the plate during the miserable start to the season, so it should mean something that they aren’t anymore. It feels strange to need to say that, since, you know, it feels obvious. But perceptions die hard, and it might be a while before the Orioles’ offense sheds the stink of the spring.

June should go a good way toward cleansing it, though.

Against any backdrop, the part where the Orioles had a league-best .923 OPS and a 154 wRC+ with runners in scoring position would be impressive. When you factor in that it’s almost as good (measured by wRC+, where 100 is the league-average) as it was bad in April, when they had a 64 wRC+ and a .572 OPS in such situations, that’s even more impressive.

It goes a long way toward explaining why as a team they were so much more productive offensively, with Monday night’s bizarre game putting them above five runs per game for the month (5.04), up from 3.7 in May. Their .753 OPS in June was sixth-best overall, and their 112 wRC+ was fourth.

Recognizing it’s just as disingenuous to look at what the Orioles did at the plate in the first two months of the season and declare the whole operation broken as it is to say it’s all fixed now, it’s worth noting what has changed and why.

Pardon me for coming back to health, but their top performers in those situations had some kind of injury that affected the start of their season. Gary Sánchez was 7-for-14 with a 1.777 OPS and drove in 17 runs with runners in scoring position in June. Gunnar Henderson was 12-for-22 with seven walks, a 1.519 OPS, and 13 RBIs in such situations.

The difference is so stark between Sánchez before his injured list stint (.300 OPS) and since (1.061 OPS) that it’s hard to say anything other than that his struggles were related to his wrist injury.

(I’d say he’s performing to expectations, but he’s arguably been much better offensively and much harder to watch behind the plate than I expected. But he’s a backup catcher. They often are good at one thing, and he’s good at hitting fourth.)

Similarly, Henderson’s lack of a full spring training after his rib injury clearly showed in April. He has been a much better hitter as the season has progressed, and his caliber of at-bats in these big-time moments is part of what’s driving that.

Add in a drastic upgrade for Colton Cowser in these run-producing situations, and that’s another player whose return from injury has made the Orioles better overall. Cowser, who missed two months with a thumb injury, struggled with runners in scoring position last season but has returned to make an impact in such situations. He had 12 extra-base hits and a .643 OPS in 142 plate appearances with runners in scoring position last year, and in June had five extra-base hits with a 1.271 OPS in those spots.

This situational surge has the Orioles entering July with a .723 OPS with runners in scoring position and a 99 wRC+, which is a tick below league average. The Yankees, whose offense approximately no one would gripe about, are at .726 and 102 in those stats.

As with everything else, it’s another aspect of this Orioles season that’s confusing, frustrating, whatever you want to call it. The Orioles have half the season to be this team, the team they were meant to be. It’s just that they were so far below that level to start the year that it’s hard to value any of the good things that happen now. We should get used to that.

On the pod

This week’s podcast is about the ever-in-flux Orioles rotation — Dean Kremer trending way up, Tomoyuki Sugano and Zach Eflin flagging a bit, and all the rest of the happenings in that group. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and if you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so. It’s really fun to chat with Paul about this team every week, as tortured as it may seem in the moment.

Ballpark chatter

“Probably too much time, you know? I get to watch and think and just process everything, over and over, which I guess for me is probably not a good thing.” – Adley Rutschman

Before Sunday’s game, I asked Rutschman if his time on the injured list allowed him to reflect on how the season is going. This was kind of the answer I expected, to be fair. I believe we are talking about an emotionally intelligent person in Rutschman. But he’s not alone in this season’s having taken a toll on him. That Rutschman was one of the myriad Orioles turning things around after the team’s performance nadired speaks to a lot of their fortitude, in my opinion.

By the numbers

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Colton Cowser has been really, really good since returning from the injured list a month ago, and in a promising way. He ended the month with 12 extra-base hits — six doubles and six home runs — with just eight singles. Cowser does a lot of things well at the plate when he’s on, and the fact that he’s driving the ball and having this kind of success shows just what the Orioles were missing in left field as he dealt with his injury.

Talent pipeline

By now you’ve probably seen the video on X from Baseball America of 18-year-old right-hander Esteban Mejia dominating the Florida Complex League.

I heard he was throwing triple-digits in Florida earlier in the spring, and this kind of public attention on a pitcher striking out 11.1 per nine with a 2.28 ERA is cool to see. Mejia has a live arm, and I can’t wait for him to come north. I imagine it might be soon.

For further reading

💔 Remembering a teammate: Andy wrote a beautiful story from Salisbury on how the Shorebirds will remember their former teammate, Luis Guevara. This is going to be something that a lot of people in this organization, both players and staff, will be thinking about for a long time.

🧠Trade deadline tactics: Danielle coaxed some good stuff out of Mike Elias on how the team is going to handle the next month. It’s a weird spot to be — they’re clearly good enough to play like a playoff team the rest of the way, but it’s such a tall ask to dig out of that early hole.