On Camden Yards’ 30th anniversary celebration, the Orioles get a Game 2 and series win against the Pirates, 6-3

Today, Camden Yards celebrated its 30th birthday^th anniversary with some magical moments to mark the holidays. During an orange carpet ceremony before the game, the team honored former Orioles greats with footage of some of the highlights of the past 30 years: Rick Sutcliffe’s April 6, 1992 complete game shutout to inaugurate the ballpark. Chris Hoiles’ Grand Slam. Jeff Reboulet’s improbable home run against Randy Johnson to end the 1997 season. Rodrigo López’s snowy Opening Day starts in 2003. The Curse of the Andinos. Cedric Mullins’ 30-30 season. Mike Mussina’s near-perfect game. Eddie Murray’s 500^th home run. After that, Hall of Famers Murray and Mussina threw out the first pitch together. (In case you missed it, here’s MASN’s footage of the entire ceremony.)

On top of that, before the game Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson fallen from locker room along with Murray, telling the current crop, “I watch all the games and you’ve excited the people of Baltimore.” Brooksie and Murray also left the MASN booth during the game for a chat about how beautiful Camden Yards is, the merits of Mount Baltimore (it levels the playing field, Brooks and Ben McDonald said), fun times eating crabs, shooters toughest Robinson (Nolan Ryan) has ever faced, and some hitting tips from Murray (swing at 80% effort, not 100%, OK?).

It was special to see these guys and share some memories. I’m pleased to report that the action on the field was just as beautiful.

In the Baltimore huddle, today’s opener – are we going to start calling him the starter now? Voth pitched the Orioles five innings while allowing three runs, striking out five and walking one. it almost had a great outing but had to settle for a good one. He didn’t suffer any damage until the fourth inning, but after giving up a leadoff double to Ben Gamel, he dropped a fastball to Oneil Cruz, who drove it into the Orioles’ bullpen. At that point, Cruz’s two-run homer cut Baltimore’s lead to one run.

Voth’s mistake hurt a lot less because the O’s hurt him today not lose their early chances of scoring. The Birds got things started in the first when Adley Rutschman singled up the middle on a JT Brubaker fastball, Ryan Mountcastle hit a breaking ball for a single of his own and The Unbreakable Terrin Vavra, who entered Saturday with a . 611 OBP, single in one run.

The next inning, the Orioles scored two more in the bottom of the order. As the Rough Wind stepped to the plate in the second inning, Ben McDonald noted that the light hitting 2B had had a great batting practice today. Of course, the aroma doubled. A wild pitch sent him to third and Jorge Mateo drove him in with a single.

The next one? Oh no, it’s Brett Phillips! Why is he on this team? Well, shame on the haters! Phillips blasted a sinker to center field, missing a home run by inches. He settled for a run-scoring double and the Orioles settled for two runs that inning while Phillips and Adley (he walked; that’s what he does) were stranded on the base paths after Santander flied out and Mountcastle and Mullins took breath (the second time Mullins hit against Brubaker after missing a flag pitch home run by inches).

Now, I don’t want to bring a cloud to rain on a great day, but if there’s one negative to take away from today, it’s that the Orioles continued to absorb hitting with runners in scoring position. They left 12 runners on base. Rutschman, for example, managed three times (we’re spoiled, people) but only scored once.

Today, however, going 3-for-13 with RISP was pretty good. One of the biggest of those came in the fifth inning, when Pittsburgh pulled Brubaker and inserted lefty reliever Eric Stout. Ramón Urías doubled and, with two outs, Jorge Mateo was hit by a pitch. Facing a lefty, manager Brandon Hyde called on Ryan McKenna to bat. (Apparently McKenna and Brett Phillips will be treated as mirror images of each other now.)

Well, the super-sub delivered perhaps the biggest hit of the game, a two-run double to left that scored Urías and the speedy Mateo from the start. “Did anyone order a McDouble?,” the Orioles said on Twitter. All right, Orioles social media team, that’s cool. Fear McKenna!!!

A 5-2 lead became a little closer when manager Brandon Hyde decided to trust Austin Voth to face a few more hitters in the sixth. It turned out not to be a great call. Voth delivered a double and a single, giving the Pirates their third run. However, it must be said that Voth had the hook working and he was efficient today. Five hits and five walks on 75 pitches from a guy who started with this team on an extremely short leash? Brandon Hyde should be happy with that.

The Orioles have the highest positive margin in the 7-9 innings of any team in baseball right now. We saw that today as the Birds put together a sixth and useful insurance run in the seventh inning on a windy walk (his second of the day!), stolen base (his second of the year!). a nice bag from McKenna and a Mullins bag fly. After that, it was just another great day at the office from the back-end relievers, plus some more highlight reel protection.

Keegan Akin got three quick outs to end the sixth. Joey Krehbiel followed with a three-up, three-down game of his own. Nick Vespi replaced Krehbiel in the eighth, showing some rust when he walked a batter, but he pulled a fly ball to Jorge Mateo, and you know what that means! Mateo made a great diving stop and flipped the ball off the belly to Odor, who turned another nasty double play.

With two outs in the ninth, 41,086 rose to their feet to help Dillon Tate close things out with a loud “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh” chant. It felt like the ’14-16 playoff years. Tate had his good stuff today: he whistled Michael Chavis to end the game.

Five wins in a row, and 21 of the last 28. Brooks Robinson is right after all. This team is exciting right now.