When you meet Ryan Goll, the manager of the Orioles’ High-A Aberdeen IronBirds affiliate, you could mistake him for a player.

He is 28 and looks younger.

But he brings that youthful enthusiasm to his job. He would love to be a big league skipper one day and this is a big step in that direction.

The University of Minnesota product started with the Orioles during the 2020 season. But Covid hit and the baseball world stopped. He would end up that summer working at the O’s alternate site at Double-A Bowie.

He has spent three of the last four seasons as an IronBirds coach, was a coach at Double-A in 2023 and now he back as the skipper of the IronBirds.

He and the his staff have a roster that features a heavy international presence and five of the club’s highest draft picks from 2024.

What is it like as a first-year O’s minor league skipper? How does he handle it when the team has a tough stretch like their recent 0-6 week at Brooklyn? How much input on lineups and other decisions come from the Baltimore front office and how much is input from himself and his staff?

We talked about those questions and much more with Ryan. We taped this interview yesterday, June 4, at Aberdeen’s Ripken Stadium.

I hope you enjoy Episode No. 9 of the Steve on Baseball podcast.

Another O’s win

The Orioles played another low-scoring, close game last night and won again 3-2 at Seattle.

The Orioles (24-36) have now won five in a row, eight of 10 and nine of the last 13 games.

They continue to pitch well allowing just three runs in this series, eight during the five straight wins and 11 runs in their past eight wins.

O’s starting pitchers have a 1.13 ERA the last five games and an ERA of 2.11 the past 10 games. The overall staff ERA is 2.40 in the last 10 games.

Heston Kjerstad, hitting .185 at first pitch Tuesday night, has gone 3-for-6 with a double, triple and three RBIs in this series. His two-run triple to right in the seventh inning gave the O’s a 3-2 lead. The bullpen, with 3 2/3 scoreless, made that lead stand up. Felix Bautista recorded his 11th save in 12 chances.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks to Birdland for all the recent subscriptions and keep that coming please! Glad to have you aboard to get every podcast, not to mention every O’s analysis piece and minor league story and feature. There are new stories and fresh content every day in this space. This Substack will keep getting bigger and better.

Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe