Kyle Goon: Colton Cowser seized his walkoff moments. The Orioles need him to seize his role.

Very few of us can understand what it’s like to be in Colton Cowser’s cleats. It’s even harder to picture what is happening in his head at the plate with the game on the line — two days in a row.

To hear it from Cowser, his brain can feel as busy as a train station. Stray thoughts about his load mechanics or his swing tweaks do their best to take his focus off the at-bat itself.

“A lot of times [I’m] getting into the batter’s box and thinking about something that’s distracting me,” he told MASN in his walk-off interview. “Just try to throw that out the window and go out and play and have fun.”

There is merit to removing all the clutter. This Memorial Day weekend, emptying out his distractions helped Cowser be the hero on back-to-back days with walkoff home runs with both in the center field stands.

What the Orioles really need, though, is for Cowser to be the everyday player he has been before. If the Milkman can deliver more consistently again, that would be the real win for the club that is trying to climb from the scuffling tier.

As thrilling as Monday’s 13-inning marathon was — Cowser called it, “probably one of my favorite wins on the Orioles” — it’s perhaps a leap to conclude that now Cowser, who has been one of Baltimore’s weakest hitters this year, is fully healed at the plate.

Encouraging? Yes. Conclusive? No.

With respect to Cowser’s poise in those high-leverage at-bats, Detroit’s Kenley Jansen and Tampa Bay’s Jesse Scholtens placed their pitches poorly on the walk-off homers. Those balls might as well have been served with a side of french fries.

But peeking out underneath that wet blanket is a bit of hope. Cowser has been a big-game performer before for this club, and his defense in the outfield is still some of the best on the team. Finding a way to be an everyday player (even against the Rays on Monday, he was a defensive replacement for Tyler O’Neill) and delivering more of these kinds of moments would be a huge boost for a club searching for its franchise tentpoles to stand up tall.

One of the core problems for the roster is underachieving young players. Adley Rutschman was in the woods for the last year and a half before surging back this year. Gunnar Henderson has been boom-or-bust in 2026, and getting picked off for the fourth time wasn’t an uplifting moment in the game’s sixth inning.

Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad haven’t yet become what the Orioles thought they would be. Jordan Westburg and Jackson Holliday have been hamstrung by injury (to say the least). These are, by and large, high draft picks and deep investments for the front office — and most fans probably expected more from this group this year than they’ve seen so far.

At his nadir this season, Cowser has been one of the poster boys for this disappointment. To start the year, he simply couldn’t hit an off-speed pitch. His Baseball Savant is as blue as walking into an ice castle.

Just over 26 years old, it’s feeling less and less like there’s still potential we haven’t seen yet.

With a memorable weekend, however, it feels like there’s an opportunity to start moving back to the positive side of the ledger.

Viewed more broadly, there are encouraging signs. From a shockingly low .439 OPS in April, Cowser has clambered his way to .789 in May. Albernaz has been more surgical with his use of Cowser in the lineup, but hasn’t been shy about allowing him to take at-bats in high-leverage moments.

It seems reasonable that the faith the coaching staff trickled out over the last month helped set the stage to do more impressive things in bigger spotlights.

“I’m ecstatic,” Albernaz said about Cowser’s game-winning home runs. “It’s one of those things, behind the scenes and the unseen hours, you get to see guys who are not getting the results they want, but the work they’re putting in and the collaboration with our hitting coaches trying to problem solve, either in approach or swing adjustment, stance, whatever it is.

Added Albernaz: “To see it come through in the biggest moment at the biggest stage against a really good team, couldn’t be happier or prouder of Colton.”

Cowser knows better than to draw too much meaning out of a good weekend. When asked if this could be an entry point to a better run of play, he checked his swing.

“I’m not going to really view it like that,” he said. “I just want to do what I can to help the team contribute — showing up, controlling the controllables, and all I can do is really just go out there and execute a plan and execute an approach.”

But another moment in Monday’s game showcased how Cowser has been working hard on reaching his flow state on the field. The Orioles wouldn’t have gotten out of the bottom of the 12th inning without a gutsy slide home, a whisker ahead of the tag of Nick Fortes (which had to go to video review for Cowser to be ruled safe).

Cowser said he and third base coach Buck Britton have drilled on these dashes home when he hears the crack of a line drive. If he had hesitated even a fraction of a second — or slid in with his foot instead of a headfirst dive — the game would have been over even before his walkoff at-bat.

“It’s selling out on a low line drive,” Cowser said. “It’s one of those things that we’re taking a chance. … So, just the way the throw was, I didn’t really have time to react.”

There it is again: Playing without thinking too much. One great play is a data point. Three great plays across two days feels a little closer to a trend.

Colton Cowser has a long way to go to be the player the Orioles need him to be. But after a memorable Memorial Day swing (two swings, actually), it’s at least a sign that he’s pointed in the right direction.