The Orioles got another quality start Saturday night and still walked away empty-handed in all the ways that matter. Kyle Bradish did his part, but the bats barely showed up, and Baltimore fell 5-1 to the Rangers for its third straight loss.
That has become the story of this stretch: the Orioles keep putting their pitching in position to win, and the offense keeps shrugging. This was the fifth time in the last seven games that Baltimore scored one run or fewer, and the club is 0-5 in those games. Hard to win much of anything like that.
Jackson Holliday provided the only spark. He opened the game with a solo homer, his sixth of the season, and finished 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout.
His average is up to .242, and his OPS sits at .737. Beyond that, the night was mostly a slog for Baltimore’s lineup, which managed six hits, three walks, and 10 strikeouts.
The Orioles went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, stranded six, and grounded into two double plays.
Their best chance to add on came in the eighth. Pete Alonso doubled with one out, and Texas intentionally walked Holliday.
Tyler O’Neill then bounced into an inning-ending double play. The force at second was close, but not close enough to trigger a review.
Bradish deserved better. He went six innings, allowed two unearned runs on five hits, walked nobody, and struck out four.
His ERA dropped to 3.61. He leaned heavily on his sinker, throwing it nearly half the time, and still allowed only three hard-hit balls off that pitch.
His slider was especially sharp; the Rangers whiffed on it 47% of the time and put it in play only once.
The damage against Bradish came in the second inning. Ezequiel Duran singled with one out and advanced to second on a bad pickoff throw from Bradish.
With the infield in, Evan Carter hit a grounder to Gunnar Henderson. Henderson handled it cleanly and threw home, but the throw was a little up the first-base line, pulling Carlos Narváez away from the runner and letting Texas score.
Then came another costly sequence. A wild pitch moved Carter to second, and Jake Burger followed with a weak grounder toward shortstop. Bradish couldn’t stop it with a barehanded swipe, Henderson bobbled his attempt too, and the ball got just far enough away for Carter to race home.
That inning summed up a bigger issue for Baltimore: the defense just isn’t holding up. It keeps showing up at the wrong time, and because the offense isn’t doing enough to cover for it, every mistake gets magnified.
For a while, it looked like the glove work might be the deciding factor. Then Grant Wolfram lost the zone in the eighth.
He struck out the first two batters he faced, then walked two straight and fell behind 2-0 to Corey Seager before leaving a fastball in the perfect spot for a left-handed hitter. Seager made him pay with a long homer to make it 5-1.
One game won’t decide the Orioles’ playoff fate, but this weekend had the feel of a missed opportunity. Baltimore entered it just behind Texas in the standings, and the lack of punch from the lineup has been tough to watch.
The pitching, at least, keeps giving them a chance. Bradish was excellent, just as Shane Baz was on Friday night, and Trevor Rogers has been strong for most of the last two seasons.
The Orioles may have found something on the mound. Too bad the offense has gone missing at the same time.
The series wraps up Sunday. Cade Povich, 2-1 with a 3.91 ERA, will start for Baltimore against Kumar Rocker, who is 4-8 with a 4.08 ERA. First pitch is scheduled for 2:35 pm on MASN.
In Other News...
Pete Alonso Finally Gave Orioles Fans A Reason To Feel Hope
The Orioles have spent much of this season trying to steady themselves through a rough stretch, and the trade deadline only added to the unease when Adley Rutschman was dealt to Boston. Sitting fourth in the American League East at 56-61, Baltimore has not given its fans many reasons to look past the standings, which is why Pete Alonsos latest outburst carried a little extra weight for a club still searching for something to build on.
Against the Rangers, Alonso gave Baltimore exactly the kind of jolt it has been missing, and he did it with a performance that felt like a small glimpse of what the lineup could become. Even with the seasons frustrations still hanging around, Alonso sounded optimistic about where the Orioles can go from here, a note of confidence that landed at the right time for a fan base that badly needed one. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Waste Another Strong Start As Familiar Problems Return
Kyle Bradish gave the Orioles exactly what they needed for most of the night, working through six innings and holding Texas to two runs, but Baltimore still came away with a 5-1 loss in its third straight game against the Rangers. The offense never found much rhythm beyond Jackson Hollidays solo home run, and when the margin stayed tight, the kind of miscues the Orioles have been trying to put behind them surfaced again.
Defensive errors helped open the door for the Rangers scoring, turning another solid starting effort into an uphill climb Baltimore could not reverse. For a club trying to steady itself, the combination of missed chances, shaky defense and too little support for Bradish is becoming an all-too-familiar script, and it leaves the Orioles with more questions than answers as this series winds down. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Offensive Collapse Is Raising Bigger Questions About This Roster
Since June 1, the Orioles offense has slid into a stretch that is hard to ignore, with the club sitting near the bottom of the league in runs scored, batting average, slugging percentage and on-base plus slugging. Injuries have played a role, but the bigger concern is that the problems have lingered even when the lineup has had enough available pieces to produce more than it has.
What makes the slump sting for Baltimore is that it has started to look less like a temporary dry spell and more like a broader roster issue. The conversation has moved beyond who is hurt and into how the team is building lineups and using its players, which is where the questions get sharper for a club that expected more from its core and its depth. [Read more 🡒]