The Orioles’ offense goes silent until the 9th in loss to Nationals

Gunnar Henderson swung through a slider to end the seventh inning and, before he could remove his elbow guard, his bat hurtled toward the grass near the visiting dugout.

Henderson expressing his frustration by throwing his bat is typical. Yet the image was a fitting depiction of an Orioles offense at large that continued to scuffle in a 3-2 loss to the Nationals on Friday night.

All the more confounding: Zack Littell, who entered Friday’s contest with a 6.94 ERA, stifled Baltimore over five scoreless innings. Then Andrew Alvarez, a pitcher who was recalled from Triple-A Rochester ahead of the game, followed with three scoreless.

The Orioles had one final chance in the ninth. They loaded the bases with no one out. Jeremiah Jackson hit a sacrifice fly after a Coby Mayo strikeout. Henderson hit an RBI single. Baltimore loaded the bases again for Adley Rutschman.

But Rutschman struck out on a check swing. He tried to stop himself. It was too late. The red lights at Nationals Park flashed. Rutschman dropped his bat to his side and walked back to the dugout.

“I didn’t really feel like we did anything different,” Henderson said about the ninth. “We took a lot of good swings today, and [things] just didn’t fall our way. ... I felt like we should have won that game.

“With those at-bats, if we could do that day in and day out, we’re going to put up a lot of runs.”

A few hours prior, Mike Elias sat in the visiting dugout as he watched the position player group he’d assembled take batting practice.

The Orioles’ president of baseball operations assessed his team’s slow start. In his eyes, there wasn’t a singular culprit. Injuries, such as Jordan Westburg’s elbow ailment and Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, had an impact.

So, too, has the underperformance of the starting rotation. He remained confident that would turn around. But one thing seemed to be more important in his mind.

“This is a team that was built on its offense,” Elias said. “Getting the offense clicking up and down the lineup is really gonna be a priority for us to improve that record.”

About four hours later, the Orioles pieced together another disappointing offensive performance. Baltimore has played 14 games this month. It has scored four runs or fewer in 11.

There are redeemable qualities about the Orioles’ offense. Their walk percentage entering Friday’s game (10.6%) ranked fifth in the major leagues. Their hard-hit percentage was top 10, too.

On Friday night, the Orioles had 14 hard-hit balls, classified as balls in play with exit velocities over 95 mph. Yet rarely did those balls drop. When they did, the Orioles struggled to string them together.

The group’s struggles aren’t isolated to one part of the lineup. Henderson, arguably the team’s best player, is batting .202 with a .655 OPS. Tyler O’Neill, signed to a three-year, $49.5 million contract before the 2025 season, is hitting .169 with .547 OPS.

Two of the team’s former top prospects, Colton Cowser and Mayo, are batting .169 and .179, respectively, both with an OPS under .600.

They had their chances against the Nationals. The Orioles worked two walks against Littell in the second inning. Mayo struck out swinging.

Henderson doubled to put two runners in scoring position in the fifth. Taylor Ward grounded out to third base.

Then, in the seventh, Henderson struck out with two runners in scoring position.

“The only time we had runners in scoring position were both on doubles by Gunnar and then J.J., both with two outs,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “It’s tough to come through with two-out hits. But our guys did a great job of putting good swings on it.”

Henderson said, of all his at-bats, his strikeout in the seventh was the only one he wasn’t pleased with. Yet he learned from his mistakes in the ninth, an inning that was a reminder of what the offense can look like when it’s clicking.

The Orioles loaded the bases thanks to a pair of walks and a single with no one out. After Jackson’s sacrifice fly, Henderson singled and clapped his hands as he rounded first base. But the excitement didn’t last.

Despite the numbers this month, Henderson and his teammates remain optimistic the underlying stats are proof of good things to come. The subsequent games on their schedule will put that to the test.

“You can do every single thing right to get the ball at a good launch [angle], hard exit velo, and it could be right to somebody. It’s just the name of the game,” Henderson said. “But the past near about week for us has been great. We’ve had a lot of good at-bats together, a lot of great pitchers that we faced, and it’s just a matter of — they won’t stay that way for long.”