The Orioles finally got on the board first Sunday, and for a brief moment it looked like that might matter. Instead, one mistake in the second inning swung the game hard in Boston’s favor, and the Red Sox rode that opening all the way to a 3-1 win and a four-game sweep at Camden Yards.
Baltimore’s only lead came right away, built on a two-out rally in the bottom of the first. Payon Tolle struck out Blaze Alexander and Pete Alonso to start the inning, but Coby Mayo kept it alive with a line-drive double into left-center.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand followed by pulling an 0-2 cutter into the left-field corner, scoring Mayo for a 1-0 Orioles lead. That RBI double snapped an 18-inning scoreless streak that had started after Encarnacion-Strand’s two-run homer Thursday night.
The lead didn’t last long.
In the top of the second, Kyle Bradish walked Caleb Durbin with one out. Jarren Duran then chopped a ball to the right side, and the play only resulted in an out at first while Durbin moved to second.
Then came the inning’s turning point: Andruw Monasterio grounded what should have been the final out to Gunnar Henderson at short, but Henderson booted it and the inning stayed alive. Two pitches later, Eli White jumped a slider left over the plate and sent it into the Camden Yards bullpens for a three-run homer.
That error flipped the game from a manageable inning into a 3-1 Boston lead, and the Orioles never really recovered. From the final out of the first inning until the bottom of the fifth, Tolle retired 10 straight Baltimore hitters, seven of them by strikeout.
Rece Hinds finally broke that run in the fifth with a leadoff double into the right-center gap, but even that spark fizzled quickly. Hinds was then picked off second after being called safe on the field, with replay overturning the call on a very close play. Tolle regrouped and struck out Leody Taveras and Carlos Narváez to finish the inning cleanly.
Baltimore had another chance in the sixth when Pete Alonso singled with two outs, but Mayo grounded out to second to end the threat. The bigger problem was the strike zone battle, or really, the lack of one from the Orioles’ side. Tolle carved through six innings on 91 pitches, striking out 12 and walking none.
The Red Sox bullpen kept the door shut until the ninth, when Aroldis Chapman came in looking for his third save of the series and the 400th of his career. Baltimore lined up the part of the order it wanted for that spot, with Alexander, Alonso, Mayo and CES due up. It still didn’t pay off.
Alexander sent a high fly to left that looked dangerous off the bat before settling into an easy out. Alonso then punched a single through the right side and advanced to second on a wild pitch while Mayo worked the count full. But Chapman finished Mayo with a 3-2 slider away, then got Encarnacion-Strand to chase a 101 mph fastball to close it out.
The Orioles did get strong work on the mound outside of the second inning. Bradish allowed just the three-run homer over four innings, giving up one hit in the third when Adley Rutschman lined a ball down the right-field line that skipped off Alonso’s glove. Bradish worked around that leadoff extra-base hit, then turned in a 1-2-3 fourth before exiting after 85 pitches.
Baltimore’s bullpen was sharp behind him. Anthony Nunez, recently recalled, threw scoreless fifth and sixth innings and struck out three.
Luis De León delivered the best inning of his young major league career in the seventh with two weak groundouts and a fly to center. Cam Sanders gave up a leadoff single to Trevor Story in the eighth, then responded with three straight strikeouts.
Grant Wolfram handled a scoreless ninth to keep the comeback window open, even if the offense never walked through it.
The loss pushed Baltimore to six straight defeats, their longest skid of the season. It also dropped the Orioles to 4 GB of the Guardians for the final wild card spot, with Cleveland set to open a three-game series in Baltimore on Labor Day.
In Other News...
Orioles Late-Season Injury Picture Just Got More Complicated
The Orioles spent part of their series against the Guardians sorting through a late-season injury picture that keeps shifting around the edges. Keegan Akin and Ryan Mountcastle are both with the club, giving Baltimore at least a couple of familiar faces back in the mix, while the team also laid out where several others stand in their recoveries as the calendar keeps moving toward the finish.
Mountcastle will not play again this season because of an oblique injury, a reminder of how much attrition has worn on the roster, and the rehab updates do not bring a simple wave of reinforcements just yet. Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin are working in Sarasota, Flix Bautista is at Triple-A Norfolk on assignment, and Kyle Bradish is being handled carefully after Tommy John surgery, with his workload watched closely as the Orioles keep managing one of the more complicated health charts on the board. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Face Two Big Questions As Wild Card Push Gets Tighter
The Wild Card race has tightened enough that every little update matters, and Craig Albernaz had a familiar opponent in mind when he talked about the Orioles place in it. The Baltimore manager, who spent time on the Guardians coaching staff, knows how closely these two clubs are watching each other as the standings compress and the margin for error shrinks. For the Orioles, the late-season picture is being shaped not just by the schedule, but by the health of a roster that has had to juggle a few key moving parts.
Ryan Helsley, Tyler ONeill, Flix Bautista, Ryan Mountcastle, Keegan Akin, Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin all figure into that evolving injury picture, and Baltimores recent stretch has made each of those updates feel more important. The club has been trying to keep pace while sorting through those absences and tracking its recent results, but with the Guardians right there in the mix, the bigger questions are starting to come into focus. How quickly those players can return, and how much they can help once they do, may decide just how long the Orioles stay in the hunt. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Fans Just Got Another Brutal Reminder About This Rebuild
A rough week for the Orioles in Boston did not end with much comfort for anyone still tracking where this rebuild stands. The Red Sox completed a four-game sweep, and in the same stretch of bad news for Baltimore, former Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman was already making noise in his new home with Boston by leaving the yard against Angels pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, another familiar name to Baltimore fans.
Rodriguez, once a first-round pick the Orioles hoped would help anchor the next wave, is now with the Angels after being dealt last winter for outfielder Taylor Ward. His Baltimore exit followed a frustrating run of injuries and uneven performance, which only adds to the sting when ex-Orioles keep popping up in meaningful moments elsewhere. Baltimore did at least stop the bleeding with a win the same day, ending a six-game skid, but the bigger picture for fans remains hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]