If the Orioles’ season can be summarized in one day, this might be what it looks like. The doubleheader on the last day of April carried the highs and lows that have been part and parcel so far, and it created two blowouts — one win, one loss.
By splitting Thursday’s games against the Houston Astros, Baltimore was unable to move above .500. The Orioles are playing the way their record (15-16) reflects. They blasted two grand slams and profited from right-hander Chris Bassitt’s best start of the season to win the first game, 10-3. But in Game 2 nothing seemed to go right, and Baltimore’s yo-yo season continued.
The Astros scored five runs against right-hander Brandon Young in the first inning, and by the time his day was done, Houston had 10 runs on the board. The Astros avoided a sweep by finalizing an 11-5 win.
The Orioles fielders did Young no favors. They were charged with only one error, but multiple ground balls and fly balls found holes or fell in where more proficient fielders may have made the plays.
“It’s just consistency,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “I think anyone that watched the first game, I would say our defense was pretty good, if not really good. Yeah, the second game was just ugly. Like, that’s unacceptable. I know it’s a doubleheader, it’s tough to win one game in the big leagues, never mind two on the same day. But we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win this game.”
The Astros put up big numbers against Young for the second time in his career.
Last year, Young was four outs from a perfect game. He allowed one hit in eight scoreless innings. But his next two meetings against Houston have been poor, with a combined 17 runs (14 earned) in 9 1/3 innings.
Much of the damage in the first inning of Game 2 came on Cam Smith’s three-run homer, and Yordan Alvarez added a solo shot in the second. Four more runs scored in the fourth when Houston strung multiple hits together.
“It was just one of those days,” Young said. “Got my butt kicked. Not much I can say. It sucks.”
Baltimore showed life in the bottom of the fourth when Leody Taveras drove in a pair with a triple. But the Orioles were already far out of it, and by the end of this long day, the good, bad and ugly seemed to blur.
The first game had a whole lot of good.
With bases loaded in the fifth, catcher Adley Rutschman lined a hard-hit ball into the left-center field alley. It had enough juice to leave the park, but Brice Matthews almost made a supreme play. The Astros center fielder leaped and caught the ball, but as he crashed into the wall, it slipped out and fell into the bullpen.
The crowd waited, unsure if he caught it. The Orioles relievers celebrated alone. Soon, the rest of Camden Yards joined to cheer Rutschman’s grand slam, which gave Baltimore a sizable advantage.
“I couldn’t tell if they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, he caught it, what a great catch,’ or he didn’t,” said Rutschman, so he waited with the rest of the crowd while the bullpen celebrated. “There was two ways it could have gone.”
“Everything he did was, like, perfect, and when he hit the wall, the ball came right out,” Albernaz said. “It was a great effort by him. I thought he had it.”
Rutschman didn’t mind if his grand slam needed a bit of luck to count. At the very least, he thought, a robbed homer would have been a sacrifice fly in that situation.
Rutschman has been sensational to begin the season. He followed his grand slam with another line drive — this one a single — to elevate his batting average to .356 with a 1.067 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Since returning off the injured list for left ankle inflammation, Rutschman has a hit in all six games. (He did not appear in the second game.)
Jeremiah Jackson didn’t need any assistance on his grand slam in the seventh — the first time the Orioles have had multiple grand slams in a game since Sept. 11, 2015. It’s the eighth time in franchise history.
Hunting the first pitch he saw, Jackson lashed a hanging sweeper from right-hander Jason Alexander over the left-field fence. That was Jackson’s second grand slam this season, following the one he hit during the game in which his foul ball broke the right side of Albernaz’s jaw.
“I always told him, too, I go, ‘Hey, whatever you need. You have my left side of my face, too, if you want to get something going,’” Albernaz joked. “But that was a great swing by J.J.”
It turned the game into a blowout and provided ample run support for a pitching staff that didn’t require much.
Bassitt produced his best start of the season with 6 2/3 innings and one earned run. When he left the mound, leaving two runners for right-hander Rico Garcia to strand, Bassitt earned a standing ovation.
Before this, his first five starts for Baltimore were uneven. He didn’t provide length, even when he did hold a team in check. His longest appearance was 5 1/3 innings, and Bassitt allowed five runs against the Kansas City Royals in that one.
But Bassitt showed signs of finding his footing, even though he struggled to find efficiency during his outings. He showed a much better side of himself Thursday.
The 37-year-old veteran said he and the starters had a “come to Jesus” talk about the beginning of their season ahead of right-hander Shane Baz’s start Tuesday.
“I’m not going to give you our secrets, but I think all of our starters have been pretty poor throughout the year, and I thought we kind of had a ‘come to Jesus’ before Shane’s start, just had some talks, some hard talks, about how we were pitching, our mindset pitching,” Bassitt said. “And then Shane went out there and did his thing. Thought he was on the attack. That’s how we want to be. I think overall we’ve been too cute throughout the year, and we didn’t do well. We have guys, bullpen-wise and obviously starter, who are way too good to be cute out there.”
That attack plan didn’t work for Young. He and the Orioles quickly fell behind in the second game, and for all the positives that were apparent in the opener, the lasting impression of this season remains.
The Orioles can look great one game and pedestrian the next. They managed both in one day.
This article has been updated.
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