The Orioles continued to be mired in mediocrity with a seven-game homestand resulting in a losing week. The O’s dug an early hole against the AL West-leading Mariners, dropping the first two before battling back to salvage a split. The momentum carried into Friday, but the bats went quiet over the weekend as San Diego took the final two.
The series opener with Seattle was undone by one bad inning. Trey Gibson, recalled from Norfolk earlier in the day to replace the injured Chris Bassitt, carried a 1-0 lead into the fifth before it unraveled. Ryan Bliss tied it on a one-out sacrifice fly, Cole Young’s single chased Gibson, and reliever Anthony Nunez walked Julio Rodríguez to load the bases. Josh Naylor then lifted a fly just over the wall in right for a grand slam. The O’s got within 5-2 in the seventh on a wild pitch that scored Coby Mayo, but the rally stalled and Seattle won 6-3.
Tuesday did not get any better. The O’s took an early lead on a Leody Taveras sac fly, but a three-run homer from Mitch Garver put Seattle ahead in the fourth. The Birds clawed back in the ninth when a one-out homer from Mayo made it 4-3 and Jeremiah Jackson came around to tie it on Samuel Basallo’s dribbler down the line. The Mariners escaped a bases-loaded jam to send it to extras, where Randy Arozarena led off the 10th with a two-run homer off Rico Garcia. The O’s answered with a Leody Taveras RBI single, but Tyler O’Neill struck out to end a 6-5 loss.
Wednesday belonged to Brandon Young. The right-hander spun seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits with five strikeouts to improve to 5-1, and the O’s are now 9-1 in his starts this season. Pete Alonso’s leadoff homer in the sixth opened the scoring, Colton Cowser walked, stole second and scored on a Taveras double, then Blaze Alexander added a two-out ground-rule double for a 3-0 lead. Holliday capped it in the seventh with a grand slam, as the O’s won 7-2.
Thursday’s finale was a slugfest. Cole Young led off the game with a homer, the first of three Seattle would hit off Kyle Bradish. Baltimore answered with a six-run third against Bryan Woo, with Cowser homering to lead off, followed by a bases-loaded wild pitch that brought in a run, an Adley Rutschman double that scored two, and a two-run shot from Alonso that capped it off. Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone went back-to-back in the fourth and Rodríguez added an RBI single to pull Seattle within 6-5, but Rutschman’s run-scoring single in the fifth restored the cushion. Bradish lasted only four innings, but Tyler Wells followed with three hitless frames for the win, and Andrew Kittredge worked the ninth for his first save in a 7-5 victory that earned the split.
Friday brought Manny Machado back to Camden Yards, and the Orioles carried the momentum from the Mariners series. After giving up one in the first, the O’s built an early lead with a Basallo two-run homer making it 3-1 after the first. Holliday and Rutschman added sacrifice flies while Alonso chipped in a two-run single across a three-run second. Gunnar Henderson hit his 100th career home run in the fourth, part of a three-hit night. The 386-foot solo shot moved him into a tie with Cal Ripken Jr. on the Orioles’ before-age-25 home run list, trailing only Boog Powell, Manny Machado and Eddie Murray. Shane Baz went five innings, and Nunez, Keegan Akin, Yennier Cano and Kittredge held San Diego to one hit over four scoreless innings of relief in the 7-3 final.
On Saturday the long ball turned against them as Jackson Merrill and Samad Taylor each hit a two-run homer in the first inning, staking the Padres to a 4-0 lead. Alonso answered with a solo shot and Taveras added an RBI triple, but Randy Vásquez held Baltimore to two runs over five innings. Gibson allowed only three hits in 4 1/3 innings but walked five, and was pulled after a pitch struck Xander Bogaerts in the helmet. San Diego loaded the bases off Akin and pushed across two more in the fifth. Gavin Sheets, Rodolfo Durán and Manny Machado tacked on solo homers in the seventh, eighth and ninth in a 9-3 rout.
Trevor Rogers was solid in the series finale on Sunday but still took the loss. The lefty allowed two runs over six innings but the Orioles managed just two runs against Walker Buehler and the San Diego bullpen. San Diego went up 2-0 in the second when Durán’s slow grounder hit the second-base bag and skipped into the outfield for an RBI double, with Fernando Tatis Jr. following with a run-scoring single. Jeremiah Jackson’s solo homer in the fifth got Baltimore on the board, but Durán’s two-run homer off Garcia made it 4-1 in the seventh. Henderson’s RBI single later cut it to 4-2 before Tatis’ ninth-inning sacrifice fly set the final margin. The Orioles outhit the Padres 10-8 but went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left eight on base in the 5-2 loss that closed the homestand.
Despite the losing record, there were several candidates for Player of the Week. Blaze Alexander posted the best rate line on the roster, going 8-for-15 with two doubles for a .533/.556/.667 mark in spot duty. The sample is small and the role part-time, but Alexander has quietly been one of the more reliable contact bats whenever his name is in the lineup recently.
Gunnar Henderson had a solid week at the plate, reaching base at a .469 clip while drawing a team-high seven walks. The on-base work was excellent and the 100 home run milestone is notable, but the power stayed mostly dormant, with just the one homer and two RBI.
Tyler Wells was the week’s quiet stabilizer out of the pen. With the rotation leaking innings, Wells covered four frames with one hit, five strikeouts and no runs. In a week where bullpen length was at a premium, that kind of clean middle relief is more valuable than it looks in a box score.
The strongest mention, and the closest thing to a co-winner, is Brandon Young. His Wednesday gem was the best performance of the homestand. Seven scoreless innings on two hits with five strikeouts to snap a four-game skid that was threatening to bury the week. The O’s are now 9-1 in his starts, which is no longer a fluke so much as a trend, and on most weeks one outing that good and that timely takes the award. The only thing working against him is the math of a single start against seven days of everyday production, and the reality that the offense, not the rotation, was what carried this team when it carried at all.
So the award this week goes to Pete Alonso, whose numbers are finally climbing into the range the O’s expected when they shelled out big bucks for him in the offseason. After a slow and heavily scrutinized start to his Baltimore tenure, Alonso looked every bit the middle-of-the-order force this week, slashing .346/.438/.731 with three home runs and a team-high eight RBI. He homered in three different games, drove in runs against both Seattle and San Diego, and reached base at a .438 clip even while the lineup around him went cold over the weekend. His two-run shot capped the six-run third that flipped Thursday’s finale, and he was a constant in a week where consistency was otherwise hard to find.
Down on the Farm
The headline at Norfolk was the rehabbing Ryan Helsley, who took a step toward returning from the elbow inflammation that has shelved him, throwing two scoreless innings with five strikeouts and a hit. The swing-and-miss was there in a small sample, which is the most encouraging sign possible for a bullpen that has badly missed his late-inning presence. If the arm bounces back clean, a return to Baltimore may not be far off.
On the position side, Heston Kjerstad had a hot week at the plate, hitting .350 over the week, even if the ball stayed in the park. Creed Willems managed just three hits but drew five walks for a .400 on-base mark, the kind of patient line that keeps tracking him as one of the system’s more interesting bats. It was a quieter week for a couple of others, with Enrique Bradfield Jr. scuffling to a .111 average despite swiping two more bags and Jud Fabian managing only one hit, though he too kept the walks coming. On the mound, Jose Espada and Christian Herberholz turned in the steadiest starts, each working into the fifth with five strikeouts and a single earned run.
At AA Chesapeake, Douglas Hodo III was the standout, hitting .312 with two homers, five RBI and a pair of steals for a 1.165 OPS, a complete week at the plate and on the bases. Anderson De Los Santos matched the five RBI with a homer of his own, and Griff O’Ferrall led the way for average at .333 with two steals. Aron Estrada chipped in a home run and three RBI, while Ethan Anderson had a cold week by the batting average but still reached at a .261 clip on four walks, a reminder that the approach is holding even when the hits are not.
The pitching at Chesapeake was led by a workhorse outing from Joseph Dzierwa, who went a full 10 innings across the week, striking out 10 against two walks with a 1.80 ERA and a win. Luis De León was every bit as sharp in a shorter burst, spinning five hitless innings with seven strikeouts and no runs. It was a rougher turn for Juaron Watts-Brown, who was tagged for four earned over three innings after a strong run earlier in the season.