Ubaldo? U bet! On the heels of a 9-3 drubbing in the series opener at Cincinnati’s The Great American Ball Park (okay, we have serious problems with that name) the lovable, but ever-unpredictable Ubaldo Jimenez delivered a dominant effort, shutting down the Red Stockings over 7 and 2/3 innings. The most fun part of the night? When Adam Jones—ignoring a team pieing ban—celebrated the Jimenez’s stalwart performance with a strawberry pie to the kisser during the on-air, post-game interview.

Ubaldo has been known to string together both good and bad outings and we hope Wednesday is a sign he’s about to get on a roll. We also hope this means more post-game dessert action from our star centerfielder.

Trey Mancini’s magic bat. Trey Mancini, the young Orioles slugger, tied a Major League record earlier this week while rocking two home runs in the O’s 11-4 win over Toronto Sunday. A late-season call-up last year, those two dingers gave Mancini seven homers in first 12 games of his career, becoming just the third player ever to achieve that feat.

In fact, Mancini’s bat was so hot, two of his teammates—Craig Gentry and Manny Machado—grabbed his Louisville Slugger C243 and crushed subsequent home runs in the same game.

From Buck Showalter: “So Trey hits his second home run and Gentry grabs his bat and says, ‘I’m going to give that bat a try’ [and he] hits a home run. Manny says, ‘You know what? Give me that bat’ and Manny hit a home run so all of them with Mancini’s bat — I’ve never seen that before.”

Ravens Land Monday Night Game in Baltimore. Five years is a long time without a Monday Night Football appearance. But mark your calendars—the Ravens will host the Houston Texans at M&T Bank Stadium four days after Thanksgiving—just one more reason to be grateful come turkey season. The just-released 2017 schedule also has our birds opening up at The Jungle against the Bengals and then, circle your calendars again; the Steelers arrive in town in Week Four.

We don’t know a lot about the Arena Football League. Just being honest here. We’re still getting up to speed on the Baltimore Brigade, our new hometown entry in the indoor league. But we did see that Brigade defensive lineman Dexter Davis was named Defensive Player of Week after posting three sacks, two forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery in the team’s 52-49 win over the Cleveland Gladiators. Hey, nothing wrong with having two great pro football teams in Charm City. Nice work Brigade and kudos to Dexter.

Save the Trees. This is what frustration looks like to O’s fans: Chris Davis breaking a bat over his knee after a strikeout. While we admire the passion, we’d caution Chris to find a better way to channel his negative emotions. He does strikeout quite a bit (a trade-off for all the homers and RBIs) and something’s going to give eventually—either his knees or the folks who make his bats.

U.S. Lacrosse celebrates move to new headquarters in Sparks.
A good news/bad news/but mostly good news kind of thing. U.S. Lacrosse, the national governing body for the sport, moved from the Johns Hopkins University’s campus, which served as its home since 1998, to northern Baltimore County this spring where it has space to grow. The new 12-acre center—following a $15 million private capital campaign—includes not only the Lacrosse Museum and National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and various admin offices, but outdoor training facilities for national men’s and women’s teams.

This past grand opening weekend featured several matches, including an exhibition game between the lacrosse teams of the Fire Department of New York and the New York Police Department as the sport honored the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

Michael Phelps goes full Eminem on Spike TV’s Lip Sync Battle.
We’re just going to leave this here without comment on the celebrity-sports-media-entertainment complex:

“Let’s Go O’s! Let’s O’s! Let’s O’s!!!”

Believe it or not, the familiar Orioles rallying chant echoed throughout empty Camden Yards during Wednesday’s surreal “closed to the public” contest versus the Chicago White Sox. And it started right away.

“O-R-I-O-L-E-S”

When the O’s batted around in the first inning and exploded for six runs, highlighted by Chris Davis’ 3-run first inning home run, dozens of dedicated Orioles fans—sneaking peaks through the left-center field gates—could be heard all the way into the press box behind home plate going crazy. If nothing else, the O’s and White Sox players realized they were not entirely alone despite an official, announced paid attendance of “zero” later in the game.

In fact, the strange thing about today’s game was not what wasn’t heard, but what was—everything.

Literally, you could hear the ball smacking into the gloves of O’s second baseman Rey Navarro, shortstop Everth Cabrera, and first baseman Chris Davis during an early, inning-ending, 5-4-3 double play. Outfielders could be heard calling for fly balls, umps making third-strike calls, White Sox and O’s players cheering their teammates from the dugouts. There were also fans positioned as usual atop the Hilton and Hyatt hotels across the street, with a “GO ORIOLES” banner—visible in the ballpark—even hanging from one upper-level room deck. The only people in the stands were a couple of scouts in the first few rows. The paid attendance was announced as “zero.”

Later in the game, another chant of “Give me an ‘O,’ Give me an ‘I,’ Give me a ‘R’ … went up from the fans standing out in left field as well as a “Man-ny! Man-ny! Man-ny” chant after Manny Machado’s two-run homer made it an 8-2 game.

Also, foul balls could be heard loudly ricocheting and rattling in the sea of vacant field box seats. But no beer or hot dog vendors, of course. No Oriole Bird. And O’s relievers in the center field bullpen looked lonelier than ever.

After two postponements in two days at Camden Yards in the wake of protests around the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody, the Orioles and Major League Baseball decided they needed to squeeze in the final game of the O’s-White Sox series this afternoon before Chicago left town. The first pitch was moved from 7:05 p.m. to 2:05 p.m. Wednesday—at least in part to comply with the curfew in place in Baltimore following Monday’s riots in the city.

Meanwhile, this weekend’s Orioles series with Tampa Bay, scheduled for Baltimore, has been switched to Florida, where the O’s will wear their white uniforms and play as the “home” team.

In his pre-game press conference, Orioles manager Buck Showalter expressed his deep concern for the city and said that baseball should not be the priority at this time in Baltimore. But he also acknowledged that baseball and sports have the potential to help bring cities together.

“Every city has challenges,” Showalter said. “Down the road, there is [also] the chance that our city could be better because of this.”

“It’s not an easy time for anybody right now,” the O’s Adam Jones said. “It doesn’t matter what race you are. We need this game to be played, but we need this city to heal first.”

For the most part, players appeared very relaxed before the game during pre-game warm ups and batting practice. But Showalter acknowledged, “This isn’t something we prepare for.” He said the team pumps in sound during spring training games to simulate the noise of a big league park—to practice communication skills between outfielders, for example. “That’s what we prepare for,” Showalter said. “Not this.”

He also joked that he was concerned about the umpires hearing “all the sweet nothings” that typically are expressed in the O’s dugout, but go unheard.

Jim Palmer, outside the MASN booth before the game, recalled once playing before less than 1,000 fans in 1965 in Dodger Stadium where the Angels first played their home games. “There had been a Sunday rainout and it was the first game of a Monday doubleheader,” Palmer said. “There were 655 people there. I was in the bullpen, I counted them.” Still, a bigger crowd than today at Camden Yards.

John Denver did play during the seventh-inning stretch and there was music in between innings, including one attempt at humor—a blast of the ’80s classic “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode.

In the first MLB game to be played with no audience, the Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox 8-2.