If you needed a reason to believe in this team again, the homestand delivered. The Orioles rattled off five wins in seven games, sweeping first-place Tampa Bay before splitting a four-game set with Toronto in a week that featured two of the most memorable victories of the season. The starting pitching settled down, the bats came alive at the right moments, and Colton Cowser came through in the clutch several times. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, as a pair of gut-wrenching bullpen collapses threatened to undo the momentum, but this team showed a resilience that has been sorely lacking for much of 2026. The O’s finished the homestand 7-3, their best stretch of the season by a wide margin.
Monday’s series opener against the Rays was an instant classic. Kyle Bradish was excellent again, allowing one run on five hits over six innings before handing it to the bullpen with a 2-1 lead. Jonathan Aranda put the Rays up 1-0 with a solo homer off Bradish in the sixth, the O’s took the lead with RBI singles from Blaze Alexander and Taylor Ward in the seventh but the Rays tied it in the 8th.
That set up a wild extra innings conclusion. Victor Mesa Jr. launched a two-run homer in his Rays debut to put Tampa ahead in the 11th, but Pete Alonso and Jeremiah Jackson each singled in a run to even it up. In the 12th, Tampa went ahead again before Cowser scored the tying run on a Gunnar Henderson grounder to first, a play initially ruled an out before a replay challenge showed Cowser snuck his arm under the tag at home. In the 13th, the Rays pushed two across to lead 7-5, but the O’s ended it in the bottom half when Leody Taveras ripped an RBI double, Jackson Holliday delivered a sacrifice fly to tie it, and Cowser crushed a 425-foot two-run blast to end it. His second in as many days.
On Tuesday Shane Baz was dominant against the team that traded him to Baltimore, striking out a season-high nine over seven innings of one-run ball. The O’s scored three in the second to go up 3-1, then Samuel Basallo put it out of reach in the 5th with a monstrous 405-foot three-run homer to right-center as the Birds cruised to a 6-1 win.
The Orioles sealed the sweep on Wednesday with a comfortable 11-2 win. Trey Gibson delivered 5.2 solid innings, allowing just one earned run on six hits, and the offense did the rest. Henderson smashed his 12th and 13th homers of the season, driving in three. Blaze Alexander stole the show with his first homer of the year and a career-high six RBI on a 3-for-4 afternoon to complete the three-game sweep of the best team in the American League.
The Blue Jays came to town Thursday and promptly cooled the momentum. Chris Bassitt turned in a solid start, allowing just one run on four hits over six strong innings. Patrick Corbin was equally stingy for Toronto, matching Bassitt with five innings of one-run ball. Coby Mayo and Andrés Giménez traded solo homers, and the game went to the eighth tied at one. But Anthony Nunez struggled in relief, walking in the eventual winning run in a 2-1 loss.
On Friday it got even worse. Trevor Rogers carried a 5-0 lead into the seventh and looked set for a routine win before the wheels fell off. Kazuma Okamoto and Charles McAdoo, the latter making his MLB debut, hit back-to-back two-run homers off Rogers to cut the lead to 5-4 in a flash. Tyler Wells relieved Rogers and got through the rest of the seventh, but Yennier Cano couldn’t hold the one-run lead in the eighth, surrendering back-to-back singles before Guerrero Jr. roped a two-run double to put the Jays ahead 6-5. The offense couldn’t answer in the final two innings and the O’s fell.
Saturday’s game looked like it might produce a third straight dispiriting loss. The O’s mustered just three hits through eight innings, hit into a season-high four double plays, and trailed 5-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth. Jeff Hoffman came on for Toronto in the ninth and immediately got into trouble. Coby Mayo was hit by a pitch, Taveras tripled him home. Then Holliday singled to make it 5-3, Cowser doubled, Ward and Gunnar walked to force in a run, and Hoffman was done. Connor Seabold came in and promptly walked Rutschman to tie the game, then Alonso then smacked a single up the middle against a drawn-in infield to win it. Five runs, four hits, three walks, and one of the most improbable comebacks in recent Orioles history. Per ESPN, the Orioles had lost 368 consecutive games when trailing by four or more runs in their final scheduled at-bat. Brandon Young pitched well though he didn’t get the win, striking out a career-high seven across 6.2 innings of two-run ball.
Sunday’s finale was a welcome change of pace from the late-inning theatrics. Bradish was outstanding for the second time in the week, pitching seven innings of four-hit ball with no earned runs, striking out four. The offense jumped on rookie Spencer Miles early, with Cowser launching a three-run homer in the third to blow the game open as part of a four-RBI afternoon. Alonso had two hits and scored twice, Henderson doubled and drove in a run, and Basallo added an RBI double as the O’s cruised to a 9-5 win to secure the split.
This was a week with no shortage of candidates for player of the week honors. Blaze Alexander caught fire, slashing .500/.545/.750 with his first homer of the season and a career-high eight RBI, headlined by a six-RBI explosion in Wednesday’s 11-2 blowout of the Rays. Samuel Basallo continued to look like the team’s most complete hitter, batting .429/.500/.929 with two homers and six RBI across the seven games.
Colton Cowser had the two signature moments of the week, walking off the Rays in the 13th inning Monday with a 425-foot bomb and then delivering four RBI in Sunday’s series-closing win over Toronto. He slashed .368/.429/.737 with two homers and six RBI for the week, and more importantly, he finally looks like a player emerging from a miserable two-month slump. Coby Mayo hit .333/.429/.667 with a solo homer off Toronto and drew the hit-by-pitch that ignited Saturday’s five-run ninth-inning rally. Quietly steady work from a guy who needed it.
Any of those four could have taken the award in a normal week. But Kyle Bradish made the choice easy. In two starts, Bradish allowed one earned run across 13 innings, holding opponents to a .200 batting average with a 1.08 WHIP. He was excellent Monday against the Rays, going six innings of one-run ball and keeping Baltimore in a game that eventually became one of the wildest wins of the season. Then he was even better Sunday, shutting out the Blue Jays over seven innings on four hits to close out the homestand on a high note.
Over his last five starts, Bradish now owns a 1.72 ERA. The velocity concerns from April are gone. The command is sharper. He looks like the pitcher who made the All-Star team before Tommy John. In a week where the offense provided plenty of fireworks, it was Bradish’s quiet dominance that anchored everything.
Down on the Farm
Creed Willems was the headliner in Norfolk this week, slashing .385/.412/.846 with two homers and nine RBI. The catching prospect continues to mash at every level he’s touched. With the two best major leaguers currently playing the same position it will be interesting to see what the O’s do with Willems. Heston Kjerstad had a solid week at the plate as well, batting .353 with three doubles. Sam Huff got on base at a .583 clip with a homer and three RBI in limited action. On the mound, Nestor German was untouchable, spinning six innings of one-hit ball with five strikeouts and zero runs. Jose Espada was sharp in relief, striking out four in 2.1 hitless innings.
Down at AA Chesapeake, Fernando Peguero led the way with a monster week, batting .500/.562/.786 with a homer, five RBI and a stolen base. Aron Estrada continued his strong season with two homers and six RBI while hitting .308 on the week. Tavian Josenberger added two homers and six RBI of his own, though his .200 average suggests some swing-and-miss concerns mixed in with the pop. On the pitching side, Joseph Dzierwa was electric, racking up nine strikeouts across 4.2 innings. Sebastian Gongora delivered 6.2 innings of two-hit ball with a 0.45 WHIP. It was a rougher week for Juaron Watts-Brown, who allowed nine earned runs in 7.1 innings after back-to-back gems in prior weeks, though the 11 strikeouts show the stuff is still there.
Question of the Week
Where do the Orioles actually stand as we enter June?
We are now a third of the way through the 2026 season, and the Orioles sit at 28-32. Fourth in the AL East, ten games behind Tampa Bay, allowing 5.22 runs per game, and carrying the worst defensive efficiency in Major League Baseball. By most measures, this is a team that has underperformed. But the numbers tell a more complicated story than the record suggests, and before you write off the season entirely, it’s worth understanding exactly where the problems are and where they aren’t.
After a big week at the plate, the Orioles’ offense now has an OPS+ of 103, just above league average, good for 11th best in the league and 2nd in the division to the Yankees. It has not been the world-beating offense everyone hoped, but it has rebounded to at least be serviceable. The team is slashing .238/.319/.394 with 67 homers and scoring 4.51 runs per game against a league average of 4.40. There is still a lot of room for improvement with stars like Gunnar and Pete Alonso hitting well below their best, but the catcher duo of Adley and Basallo and some signs of life from Cowser and Mayo have provided some hope.
Now the pitching, and this is where things fall apart. The team ERA sits at 4.63 with an ERA+ of 88, meaning the staff has been 12% worse than league average after adjusting for park and league context, fourth worst in MLB. The WHIP is 1.427. The staff has allowed 537 hits in 532.1 innings, giving up 9.1 hits per nine, the highest rate in the American League.
But even the pitching picture has layers. The team FIP is 4.30, a full third of a run better than the ERA. That gap tells you the pitching staff has been unlucky, poorly supported by the defense, or both. Spoiler: it’s both, but it’s mostly the defense.
The starting rotation has a 13-23 record and a quality start rate of just 29%. The rotation has lacked a reliable anchor, with Trevor Rogers starting the season strong then falling off a cliff. Kyle Bradish has emerged as that potential ace, looking like the All-Star version of himself for the past month, but the rest of the staff has been horribly inconsistent. This week saw good starts from Shane Baz and Chris Bassitt, as well as Brandon Young, who has put up some respectable numbers since coming up from Norfolk. However, we will need to see more consistency before the rotation looks solved and with the starters averaging just 5.1 innings per start, the bullpen has been under constant pressure.
The problem is that the bullpen has been asked to cover 203 relief appearances, one of the highest totals in the league, because the starters can’t go deep enough. The relief corps held up earlier in the year, led by an effective Ryan Helsley. But since his trip to the IL, the pen has slowly started to unravel. Anthony Nunez was strong to start the season but he has been lost the past few weeks and Tyler Wells and Keegan Akin have struggled as well.
The bullpen ERA currently sits at 4.59 (24th in MLB), with an xFIP (expected fielding independent pitching) of 4.07 (15th in MLB). That last stat shows where one of the other problems exists. There are useful arms in the O’s pen, but not enough certainty at the back end right now. If Ryan Helsley returns healthy and effective, that could change the picture a bit. If not, this is an obvious place for the front office to add if the Orioles are still hanging around the Wild Card race in July.
However, as the xFIP above shows, the elephant in the room is the defense. The Orioles rank dead last in Major League Baseball in defensive efficiency at .682, meaning they convert fewer balls in play into outs than any other team. Their Rdrs (defensive runs saved) sits at -15, fifth worst in MLB. To put this in context, the league average DefEff is .702, and the Braves lead the majors at .734. Baltimore isn’t just below average defensively, they’re really bad. The gap between the O’s FIP (4.30) and their ERA (4.64) is a direct consequence of this. Balls that should be outs aren’t being caught, and runs that shouldn’t be scoring are.
This is a roster construction issue as much as anything. The front office prioritized hitting over defense and then injuries to Westburg and Holliday exacerbated the problem. When you can’t catch the ball, it doesn’t matter how well your pitchers throw, and right now the defense is costing this team roughly two to three wins over the course of the season. If the offense were near the league-leading levels it was hoped to be, this might be less of an issue. The return of Holliday should help, but there isn’t any relief coming for the outfield at this point.
So what does all of this add up to? An offense that is underachieving but not sinking the team, and one that appears to be improving. A pitching staff that’s worse than league average but better than the ERA suggests (88 ERA+ but a 4.30 FIP), an inconsistent bullpen that is trending in the wrong direction, and the worst defense in baseball dragging everything else down. The Orioles aren’t a bad team. They’re a flawed team losing games in the margins, and the margins are mostly attributable to the glove work and the rotation depth.
The division is largely out of sight, even after a sweep of the Rays the Orioles remain ten games behind them. However, thanks to a terribly mediocre American League, the Orioles are right in the thick of the Wild Card hunt, just a game behind Toronto. So despite the disappointment, the playoffs are still well on the table.
The path forward is narrow but real. The O’s need Gunnar and Alonso to continue righting the ship and producing closer to their All-Star peaks. They need several arms in the rotation to provide some consistency around Bradish. And they need to hope the return of Jackson Holliday adds a bat and a competent glove that can at least slightly improve the defensive issues.
There is plenty of room for useful additions at the trade deadline if the team can hang around contention. They could use a top line starter, some depth in the bullpen (or a closer if Helsley can’t return), and some defensive stability in the outfield. It’s a lot to ask for, but perhaps they can add just enough to sneak in the playoffs and make a run in a down year in the American League.