Adley Rutschman made his return to Camden Yards look a lot like a homecoming tour stop - except he was wearing Red Sox colors and doing the damage with two loud swings.
In his first game back in Baltimore, Rutschman was in the middle of everything Boston needed in a 6-5 win. He opened the night with a standing ovation from the Camden Yards crowd, tipped his helmet back to the fans, and then immediately punished Brandon Young’s hanging curveball by sending it onto the flag court for a 1-0 Red Sox lead.
Baltimore answered right away. Pete Alonso tied the game in the first with a sacrifice fly, and the Orioles grabbed control in the fourth when two new faces went deep in back-to-back at-bats.
Luis Robert Jr., making his Camden Yards debut, launched a Jack Bennett fastball into the left-field seats. Alonso followed by golfing a changeup below his knees just beyond Boston’s center fielder for his 33rd homer of the season, putting Baltimore ahead 3-1.
That edge held until Rutschman came up again in the sixth. With one out and nobody on, Young tried to challenge him with a fastball up and in. Rutschman turned on it and drove a solo shot to right field to trim the Orioles’ lead to 3-2.
Boston kept coming. After the Red Sox tied it at 3-3 in the seventh, Rutschman was right back in the action in the eighth.
Jahmai Jones started the inning with a single to left, and with the winning run aboard, Rutschman rolled a ball toward third that should have set up a double play. Instead, Jones’ hard slide at second forced Blaze Alexander’s throw to skip off Alonso’s forearm, and Rutschman reached second.
From there, the Red Sox finished the job. Nick Sogard crushed a Yennier Cano sinker at the knees for a two-run homer that made it 5-3 and ended Cano’s streak of 48 straight appearances without allowing a home run. Roman Anthony added another blast off Albert Suárez in the ninth, giving Boston a 6-3 cushion.
That cushion mattered because Baltimore made things uncomfortable in the bottom half. Aroldis Chapman came on for the save, got Alonso to strike out, then watched Gunnar Henderson slap a belt-high fastball to left to start the rally. Two pitches later, Christian Encarnacion-Strand turned on a fastball at the top of the zone and sent a two-run homer to left, cutting the lead to 6-5.
The comeback stopped there. Chapman got Leody Taveras to fly out to center, then jumped ahead of Dylan Beavers 0-2 before blowing a 100 mph fastball past the rookie to lock down the win.
For Baltimore, Young was excellent for long stretches despite the two mistakes that cost him. He struck out the first two hitters he saw, fanning Roman Anthony and Mickey Gasper on low splitters, then set down the next six Red Sox after Rutschman’s first homer. Through three innings, he had allowed only two baserunners and struck out three.
He ran into his first trouble in the fourth after two flyouts, when Nick Sogard drew a four-pitch walk and Caleb Durbin was hit by a sinker. Young escaped by getting Jarren Duran to fly out on a high fastball.
The fifth was clean, and Rutschman’s second homer snapped a stretch of 17 straight Red Sox plate appearances without a hit. Young answered by striking out Wilyer Abreu looking on a curveball at the knees and getting Sogard to line out.
With 81 pitches through six innings, Craig Albernaz sent him back out for the seventh. Young handled the first two batters, but Eli White punched a first-pitch fastball down the right-field line, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a single through the right side to score White, tie the game, and end Young’s night.
The final line shows a solid outing: 6.2 innings, four hits, three earned runs, two walks and seven strikeouts. But the number that really stood out was 12 swings and misses, along with five strikeouts on his splitter alone.
Outside of the two pitches Rutschman punished, Young was sharp enough to win. Instead, he settled for a No Decision that felt harsh for how much he controlled the game.
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