The Orioles stagnated with yet another mediocre week. This time it was the bats that killed them, letting down a strong week from the starting rotation. The O’s took two of three from the last-place Angels at home, then dropped the first two games in Texas before finally erupting for ten runs on Sunday to avoid the sweep. A club that entered Sunday with eleven runs scored for the entire month of August nearly matched that total in a single afternoon. The 3-3 week leaves them two games back of the Rangers for the third American League Wild Card.
Tuesday’s opener at Camden Yards belonged to Cade Povich, who returned from a three-month absence with left elbow inflammation and threw six scoreless innings, allowing seven hits with seven strikeouts and one walk on 88 pitches. Christian Franklin made his Major League debut in left field, stepping into Taylor Ward’s old spot, and came around to score on Pete Alonso’s two-run single in the third against former Oriole Grayson Rodriguez. The O’s managed only four hits all night. Los Angeles scratched a run back in the eighth against Andrew Kittredge, but Tyler O’Neill answered in the bottom half with a pinch-hit homer off Mitch Farris, his third pinch-hit blast of the season, and Yennier Cano closed it out for a 3-1 win.
Wednesday brought the best all-around game of the week. Trevor Rogers carried a two-hitter into the seventh and finished with six innings of two-run ball, striking out a season-high nine without issuing a walk. O’Neill and Coby Mayo went back-to-back in the fourth off Reid Detmers, O’Neill with a two-run shot and Mayo with a 436-foot solo drive. Jose Siri answered with a homer in the sixth and Wade Meckler pushed across a pinch-hit run in the seventh, but Leody Taveras put it away with a pinch-hit two-run homer in the eighth. Kittredge worked the ninth for his fifth save in the 5-2 win, and the Birds climbed to within a half-game of a Wild Card spot.
Thursday’s finale was the kind of loss that lingers. The Orioles drew eight walks and had a hit batsman, and did essentially nothing with any of it, going 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position in a 4-1 defeat. Brandon Young lost for the first time since June 16, laboring through 4.1 innings on 98 pitches with six hits, two walks and four strikeouts. The damage came in the third, when Young’s throwing error on a Meckler grounder and a walk to Nolan Schanuel set up Zach Neto’s three-run homer. Yohel Pozo’s solo shot accounted for the only Orioles run. Schanuel’s sacrifice fly in the seventh added the fourth run.
Friday in Arlington, Shane Baz produced a gem that the Orioles wasted, going the distance for eight innings on 93 pitches, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out nine. It was the first complete game of his career and the first by an Oriole since Trevor Rogers went eight innings in a complete-game loss to the Cubs last August. The Birds struck first in the second on a double by Taveras and an RBI single by Mayo, then squandered a bases-loaded, two-out chance in the fifth when Alonso struck out looking at a splitter. Elias Díaz opened the sixth with an infield single Baz could not corral, was bunted to second, and Joc Pederson drove the first pitch he saw around the right-field foul pole. In the ninth, Franklin doubled for his first Major League hit, but Taveras was tagged out at the plate trying to score on a questionable call. On review, the call stood. Jacob Latz worked two innings for his 22nd save in the 2-1 Texas win.
Saturday was more of the same, only sloppier. Kyle Bradish turned in six innings of two-run ball with five hits, four strikeouts and no walks, and only one of the runs was earned. Texas took the lead for good in the second on two infield singles and two throwing errors, one on a Bradish pickoff attempt and one from Gunnar Henderson on a slow roller he could not barehand. Jackson Holliday had put Baltimore in front with a 403-foot homer in the first. Jacob deGrom struck out nine of the eighteen hitters he faced across five innings. Corey Seager delivered the finishing blow with a three-run homer off Grant Wolfram in the eighth for a 5-1 final.
Sunday, finally, the bats woke up. Baltimore piled up 15 hits in a 10-5 win, scoring twice in the first on RBIs from Dylan Beavers and Taveras, then three more in the second on Colton Cowser’s solo homer and Alonso’s two-run shot off the left-field foul pole. Alonso added another two-run homer off Jordan Montgomery in the fourth, his 25th of the season. O’Neill tacked on a two-run homer in the sixth. Cade Povich gave three back on Brandon Nimmo’s three-run homer in the third and lasted only three innings, but Yaramil Hiraldo threw two scoreless for his first Major League win, and Coby Mayo chipped in three hits including a triple.
Player of the Week
There were four pitchers with a legitimate case this week, and in a normal week one of them wins going away. Shane Baz threw the first complete game of his career and lost it, which has become the defining feature of his season. Trevor Rogers struck out nine without a walk and gave up two runs. Kyle Bradish allowed one earned run over six innings and got beaten by his own defense. Combined, those three worked 20 innings and allowed five earned runs, and the Orioles went 1-2 in their starts. Coby Mayo was the most consistent bat, hitting .412 with two triples, a homer and an .824 slugging mark.
But the award goes to Tyler O’Neill. Yes, you heard that right: Tyler O’Neill. He hit .357 with a .500 on-base percentage and a 1.000 slugging percentage, going 5-for-14 with three home runs, five RBIs and four walks. Two of the three came off the bench or in situations where the Orioles had scored almost nothing, and all three either gave Baltimore the lead or extended it. The pinch-hit homer Tuesday restored a two-run cushion in the eighth. The Wednesday shot off Detmers started the back-to-back sequence with Mayo. The Sunday blast made it 9-3 and ended any doubt.
O’Neill has spent most of two seasons as an expensive question mark, and one hot week does not resolve that. But the Orioles need someone in the middle of a thinned-out lineup to hit for power, and for six days O’Neill was that guy, with a .500 on-base percentage attached to it. Given where this offense has been in August, that is worth acknowledging.
Down on the Farm
The system is a different place than it was ten days ago, and the new arrivals wasted no time.
Anthony Eyanson, the centerpiece of the Rutschman trade and now the organization’s top-ranked prospect on both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline lists, made his Double-A Chesapeake debut Saturday and struck out nine over five innings, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk in a 5-2 win over Harrisburg. The 21-year-old righty came into the week with a 1.32 ERA between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland. Enddy Azocar, the 19-year-old center fielder who came over in the same deal and now ranks as the O’s No. 8 prospect, went 3-for-6 with a double and three RBIs in his Frederick debut and had five hits in his first two games. Kyson Witherspoon made his organizational debut for the Keys as well, working 4.1 innings with five walks, which remains the concern with him.
The Baysox pitching staff was excellent all week beyond Eyanson. Trace Bright worked 11 innings across Norfolk and Chesapeake with 12 strikeouts and a 1.64 ERA, Caden Hunter struck out ten over six innings, Joseph Dzierwa delivered six scoreless with nine punchouts, and Patrick Reilly allowed no runs across 4.2 innings despite nine hits. On the position side, Wehiwa Aloy hit his first two Double-A homers and drove in five, and Tavian Josenberger led the way at .412 with a homer, four RBIs and three stolen bases.
At Norfolk, Creed Willems hit .381 with a home run and four RBIs, and Rece Hinds batted .353 with three doubles and five RBIs. Reed Trimble reached base at a .417 clip with two doubles, a triple, five walks and five RBIs. Heston Kjerstad continued to make a case that nobody in Baltimore seems interested in hearing, driving in six with a homer and two doubles. Chris Bassitt also made a rehab start for the Tides and threw six shutout innings with three hits and five strikeouts.