A week that began with the Orioles limping out of Pittsburgh ended with the O’s clawing their way back above .500 and looking at least somewhat like the team we were promised coming out of spring training. The O’s swept the lowly White Sox on the road, then took two out of three from the Giants at Camden Yards. Chris Bassitt managed his first passable start of the season, Cade Povich provided a spark from Norfolk, and Gunnar Henderson found his power stroke. It wasn’t a perfect week by any stretch, but the O’s remarkably find themselves tied for the top of the AL East and just a half game off the top of a very congested American League.
The road trip opened Monday night in Chicago with spot starter Brandon Young delivering five scoreless innings in his first big league start of the year. Tyler O’Neill lifted an RBI flare in the fourth that dropped in when Austin Hays pulled up with a hamstring injury, and Gunnar Henderson added a solo homer in the sixth off Erick Fedde for the only other run the O’s needed. Ryan Helsley made it interesting in the ninth, walking the first two batters before striking out Edgar Quero on a 99 mph fastball to lock down a 2-1 win.
Tuesday’s middle game was moved up to an afternoon start because of cold weather, and the O’s bats were chilly to match. Trevor Rogers was solid across six innings, but Chicago got on the board first with a two-out rally in the third on a Chase Meidroth double and a Lenyn Sosa RBI single. The O’s stranded 14 runners before the dam finally broke in the eighth. Blaze Alexander doubled to start things, Taylor Ward tied it with another double, and then Henderson ripped a two-run homer off lefty Chris Murphy. Yennier Cano got the win and Helsley handled the ninth for his fourth save in a 4-2 victory.
Wednesday’s finale was a sloppy one that the O’s nearly let slip away. Ward doubled and scored in a two-run third to give Baltimore the early lead, but Kyle Bradish lost the plot in the fifth, walking three and then compounding it with an error on the return throw from Rutschman that let a run score and put Chicago up 3-2. Bradish called the meltdown “childish” after the game and he wasn’t wrong.
Fortunately, the offense bailed him out in the sixth, loading the bases before Pete Alonso scored on a Reese McGuire passed ball and Dylan Beavers followed with a go-ahead sacrifice fly. Ward then lined an RBI double in the ninth for a little insurance and finished the day with four hits. Rico Garcia closed out a 5-3 win to complete the sweep and earn his first career save.
After a travel day, the Orioles returned home Friday night to open a three-game set with the Giants, and the good vibes from Chicago disappeared in a hurry. Shane Baz was decent again, giving up three runs in five innings, but walks continued to haunt him and Willy Adames clubbed a solo shot off him in the third. The O’s got on the board when Henderson ripped a two-run homer of his own in the fifth, but the bullpen couldn’t hold it. Journeyman acquisition, Nick Raquet, was rocked for three runs in an inning of work, capped by a two-run Jung Hoo Lee blast that put the game away in a 6-3 loss.
Saturday brought more bad news before the first pitch when Rutschman was scratched and placed on the 10-day IL with left ankle inflammation, thrusting Samuel Basallo into full-time catching duties. Ryan Mountcastle then left the game in the second with foot pain after stumbling into second on a double.
Despite all that, the O’s got it done. Chris Bassitt finally looked like a big league pitcher, allowing two runs over 4.2 innings, which isn’t much to write home about, but was a massive improvement from his first two starts. The bottom of the order carried the offense, with Colton Cowser driving in a run on a soft grounder, Coby Mayo adding an RBI, and Jeremiah Jackson finishing a triple shy of the cycle with a solo homer and an RBI double. Gunnar also hit his league-leading sixth of the year. The bullpen held the fort with 4.1 scoreless, slamming the door in a 6-2 win to even the series.
Sunday’s finale belonged entirely to Cade Povich. Making his first start of the year on his 26th birthday, the lefty was dominant, retiring the first 12 Giants he faced and carrying a no-hit bid into the fifth before Casey Schmitt broke it up with an infield single. Povich finished with 6.2 innings of one-run ball on five hits, no walks and five strikeouts, arguably the best start of his big league career.
Samuel Basallo got the offense going immediately, crushing a two-run homer to left-center in the first off Adrian Houser for his second of the season. Then the Polar Bear started to emerge from hibernation. Pete Alonso worked a walk ahead of Basallo’s homer and then lined a clutch two-run double down the left-field line in the fifth to push the lead to 4-1. Coby Mayo added an RBI single in the sixth and Colton Cowser brought in another with a bases-loaded infield chopper in the seventh. Tyler Wells handled the final two innings, giving up a ninth-inning Schmitt solo shot off the foul pole that was largely inconsequential. The 6-2 win secured the series for the O’s and pushed them to 8-7 on the year.
Player of the Week
honors have to go to Gunnar Henderson, who finally started looking like himself this week. After a slow first week, Gunnar exploded for four homers and six RBI, slashing .280/.379/.800 for a 1.179 OPS across the week. Three of those homers came in big moments, the go-ahead shot in Chicago on Tuesday, the two-run blast that briefly breathed life into Friday’s loss, and the solo shot Saturday that helped put the Giants away. With several stars off to a slow start, the O’s needed someone to step up and carry the offense, and Gunnar delivered this week.
Taylor Ward deserves plenty of mention as well, continuing his hot start with a .375/.464/.625 line that included three RBI and that four-hit masterpiece in Chicago on Wednesday. He’s been the most consistent bat in the lineup from day one and is starting to make a case as the steal of the offseason. On the mound, Cade Povich had the best start of any Oriole this week, tossing 6.2 innings of one-run ball. In a rotation that continues to sputter around Trevor Rogers, Povich’s outing was a genuinely encouraging sign. And finally, a nod to Ryan Helsley, who picked up two saves on the week and allowed just one run across three innings, striking out three. The newly acquired closer has now converted all four of his save opportunities on the season and looks like the reliable closer the O’s have been searching for since Felix Bautista got injured.
Down on the Farm
Norfolk had a rough week at the plate, with several of the Tides’ most intriguing names struggling to find any consistency. The big story, as usual, is Jackson Holliday’s rehab assignment, and the news isn’t great. Holliday slashed just .105/.190/.105 on the week without an extra-base hit, looking a step slow at the plate and clearly still shaking off the rust from his hamate surgery. He did manage to stay healthy and his at-bats were reportedly trending in a better direction late in the week, but the bat has a ways to go before he’s ready to rejoin the big club.
That’s disappointing news for an Orioles team that could use his bat, but rushing him back would be a mistake. Elsewhere in the lineup, Creed Willems continued to flash the power that has made him an increasingly interesting name in the system, cracking a pair of homers and driving in three despite a .176 average. Weston Wilson and Enrique Bradfield Jr. each contributed a homer, with Bradfield driving in four.
On the mound, the big league rotation depth question got a partial answer. Brandon Young got called up midweek after his early dominance in Norfolk, where he tossed six innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts for a 0.33 WHIP. Dean Kremer, meanwhile, made a much better case for a return with 4.2 innings of shutout ball, allowing just one baserunner on five strikeouts. It was the kind of performance you like to see before he rejoins the big league roster. Kremer appears to be in line to start on Monday against Arizona.
Down at AA Chesapeake, the Baysox bats came alive in a major way, led by an absolutely ridiculous week from Ethan Anderson. The 23-year-old catcher/corner infielder went 9-for-16 with a homer, a double and four RBI, posting a blistering 1.417 OPS. Anderson De Los Santos kept doing what he does, reaching base at a .524 clip while chipping in a homer and three RBI of his own. Carter Young and Frederick Bencosme were also outstanding, each posting an OPS over 1.000, with Bencosme driving in four on the week.
On the pitching side at Chesapeake, Sebastian Gongora was the clear standout with a masterful 9.1 innings of two-run ball, allowing just five hits and walking only none while striking out 13 for a 0.54 WHIP. Luis De León continued his strong run with five innings of three-run ball and three strikeouts, and Yaqui Rivera chipped in five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.
Question of the Week
Where do the O’s stand against the rest of the league after a couple weeks?
Two weeks into the 2026 season, the O’s sit at 8-7 after Sunday’s win over the Giants, good for a share of first place in the AL East alongside the Yankees and Rays. That’s not a sentence I thought I’d be writing a week ago when the team was stumbling out of Pittsburgh at 3-6 with Zach Eflin heading for Tommy John. A 5-1 stretch over the White Sox and Giants has flipped the narrative in a hurry, and the underlying numbers are actually starting to look pretty encouraging. Let’s dig into where this team really stands.
Start with the offense, which has quietly been one of the better units in baseball through two weeks. The O’s are carrying a team OPS+ of 109, fifth-best in all of MLB, every team in the AL West not named Houston, ahead of every AL East rival. That’s a genuinely surprising number given the state of the walking wounded in the lineup. Rutschman is on the IL. Mountcastle just broke a bone in his foot. O’Neill is in concussion protocol. Westburg is unlikely to play this year. Holliday is rehabbing in Norfolk. And Pete Alonso spent most of the first two weeks looking like a shell of himself before his breakout this weekend. The fact that this offense is top-five in the league despite all of that tells you something real about the depth this roster actually has.
Some of the stars are carrying their weight. Gunnar Henderson has fully snapped out of his early slump and is starting to look like the MVP version of himself, with six homers already and an OPS climbing quickly. Taylor Ward has been a positive addition, hitting .356 with an OPS of .968 and a league-leading 10 doubles. Despite their struggles, youngsters Samuel Basallo, Dylan Beavers and Jeremiah Jackson have found moments to make contributions. The offense has scored more than five runs in six of its last nine games. Getting Alonso back on track and welcoming Holliday back in the near future should only push this unit higher.
The pitching is where things get more interesting, and after a few strong weekend starts, may be turning a corner. The team ERA+ sits at 110 (10% better than league average), and the staff ranks in the upper third of baseball in ERA at 3.87. Run prevention has actually been ok, which feels bizarre to write given the Bassitt disasters and the Eflin injury. Playing two of the worst offenses in the league this week may be padding the stats, but time will tell.
Trevor Rogers has been everything we hoped and more, looking very much like the ace he was last season. Cade Povich’s Sunday gem was arguably the best start of his career. Kyle Bradish, while shaky, has flashed the old stuff. Shane Baz showed real signs in his second outing. And several strong arms have emerged in the bullpen, with Ryan Helsley a perfect 4-for-4 on saves.
The concerns are real but narrower than they felt a week ago. Bassitt is still a major problem until proven otherwise, posting an ERA near 12 across three starts and actively damaging the bullpen with his short outings. The Eflin loss for the year is a massive blow that the front office has only partially addressed. And the injury list continues to grow at an alarming rate, with Mountcastle’s broken foot and O’Neill’s concussion joining Rutschman on the shelf just this week. Depth is going to be tested quickly, and the margin for error in the AL East is razor-thin.
But here’s the thing. A team carrying an OPS+ of 109 and an ERA+ of 110 is the profile of a legitimate playoff team, not a pretender limping along. The run differential isn’t flashy, but the underlying rate stats suggest this team has been playing better baseball than the 8-7 record indicates. The schedule has been somewhat favorable, so we will see if the team can continue against stronger competition.
The AL East picture tells the real story. The Blue Jays, who looked unbeatable last year, are 6-9 and staggering. The Rays are hanging around at .500 as always. The Red Sox are struggling at 6-9. The Yankees are the class of the division by run differential, but sit at the same 8-7 record as the O’s. Nobody in this division is running away with anything, and the O’s are right in the thick of it despite every reason to be further behind.
Two weeks isn’t long, and there’s still plenty of time for the injuries to catch up or for the rotation to turn sour. But I’m more optimistic about this team than I was seven days ago, and frankly more optimistic than I was on Opening Day. The offense has been better than it seems and should improve as the middle of the order bats come to life. Meanwhile, the answers to the rotation questions could come from unexpected places if Cade Povich or Brandon Young can step up to replace Eflin and possibly the scuffling Bassit. It’s still very early days and with their rebound this week, the O’s have kept themselves in the hunt.