The Orioles got another quality start from Kyle Bradish and another night where the offense never quite did enough.
Baltimore fell 3-2 to the Reds on Sunday at Great American Ballpark, wasting a strong outing from Bradish and leaving Cincinnati with no sweep. The Orioles managed only two runs, and that was never going to be enough against a Reds club that got just enough from Nick Lodolo and took advantage when Bradish finally blinked.
Bradish was sharp from the jump. He was perfect through four innings and carried that edge deep into the game, leaning on his curveball and keeping his fastball under control.
He walked one, threw 73 strikes in 103 pitches and piled up 11 ground-ball outs. For most of the afternoon, he looked in command.
The only real damage against him came in the fifth and the eighth. Spencer Steer hit a two-run homer for Bradish’s first blemish, and later Sal Stewart lined a run-scoring double after Craig Albernaz decided Bradish had “earned the right” to keep going. That call didn’t pay off, and the Reds added the run they needed.
Baltimore’s lineup never put Lodolo under sustained pressure. Taylor Ward and Blaze Alexander each had three hits, and Coby Mayo drove in Ward with a single.
But the Orioles kept coming up empty in key spots. Jeremiah Jackson struck out with the bases loaded in the sixth, Gunnar Henderson brought home a run with a sacrifice fly in the ninth, and Adley Rutschman lined out to end it.
The loss dropped the Orioles to 6-14 in one-run games and kept them from winning four straight for the first time this season. It also fit a pattern that has followed them for much of the year: too many nights where the pitching gives them a chance and the bats don’t cash it in.
Baltimore has been held to three runs or fewer 29 times since May 1, and the numbers have not been kind on the road either. The Orioles are bottom 10 in MLB in runs scored away from home, and Sunday was another example of how little margin they have when the offense stalls.
Albernaz had pushed back on questions about the lineup’s production after a recent offensive outburst, insisting, “our at-bat quality has been outstanding pretty much the whole season.” But the Orioles have now scored three runs or fewer in six of their last nine games, and four or fewer in seven of nine.
Samuel Basallo was not in the starting lineup Sunday, and Baltimore’s supposed power bats never found a rhythm. The result was another wasted gem, this time from Bradish.
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For Baltimore, the intrigue is less about Philadelphias needs than what Ward represents if the market keeps warming up. He is viewed as the kind of rental a contender can chase before he reaches free agency after the season, which is exactly the sort of profile that tends to stir deadline noise around a player who has become part of the Orioles everyday picture. The question now is how aggressive that pursuit gets, and whether Baltimore is forced to weigh short-term value against the kind of return that could make moving him easier to stomach. [Read more 🡒]
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Orioles Bullpen Concerns Just Grew As Another Lineup Shuffle Looms
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At the same time, Baltimore is trying to manage the rest of the roster with an eye on a Cubs matchup that brings a left-handed starter into the mix. The lineup card reflects that balancing act, with the Orioles turning to several younger bats and moving pieces around as they look for the right combination, even as the bullpen uncertainty keeps hanging over the day. [Read more 🡒]