Shane Baz’s best Orioles start yet is wasted in loss to Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas — For this to go well for the Orioles, they needed Shane Baz to be just about perfect. Baltimore’s offense had squandered a pair of opportunities with runners in scoring position, but for the moment, that was all right because of how well Baz was throwing.

An innocuous chopper changed everything.

“I’m probably going to replay that dribbler in my head all night,” Baz said.

He whiffed on Elias Díaz’s soft ground ball to the right side of the infield, and the resulting single put a runner on base for Joc Pederson’s healthy hack two batters later. Baz hurled a high cutter. Pederson blasted it to right field for a two-run homer.

And, just like that, Baltimore’s lead was gone.

The Orioles have asked for perfection from Baz for much of the season. No other regular Orioles starting pitcher has received as little run support as Baz has (an average of 3.4 runs per game entering Friday). It was even less in the series opener at Globe Life Field, which led the Orioles to lose the first game of a key road trip, 2-1, to the Rangers.

Baz was spectacular, and yet he had nothing to show for it. And this Orioles offense, which is without key players due to injury and trades, continued to struggle at the beginning of August. Baltimore has scored one run or fewer in four of six games this month.

The Orioles almost mounted a late comeback to upend that statistic. Leody Taveras beat out an infield single, and Christian Franklin knocked his first career major league hit for a double into the right-field corner. Taveras, attempting to score from first, was thrown out on a bang-bang play at the plate.

It was hard to tell whether Taveras was actually tagged out. Upon replay review, the out call on the field stood but was not confirmed.

Díaz caught the relay throw home and lunged across the plate. He made contact with Taveras, but whether he made contact with his glove remained up for debate. Taveras said he hadn’t watched the play back but, on the field, there was no way of knowing what collided with him.

Manager Craig Albernaz was more frustrated that the replay review center in New York didn’t come to a conclusive decision.

“I don’t understand how it stands,” Albernaz said. “It’s either confirmed or overturned, you know? There was pretty blatant evidence where the glove was, and it’s either you have it tagging him or you don’t have it tagging him. A stands call to me was pretty frustrating because there’s enough cameras and there was a perfect view of the play to have it either confirmed or overturned. But to have it stand was really, really frustrating.”

Granted, if the Orioles had mounted more offense earlier, perhaps that out at the plate wouldn’t have loomed so largely. And in Baz’s mind, if he fielded the infield single cleanly, the game would’ve been tied at that point.

“That’s more what I’m upset about,” Baz said. “It’s one of those things where, if I field that ball, it’s a tie game and we have a lot better shot. But, yeah, it’s frustrating. I want to win, and I want to win every game that I pitch. That’s the goal, and it just hasn’t really been going that way lately. But in five days I’ll be in this same mindset.”

The Orioles are 6-17 in games he starts, despite Baz carrying a 3.76 ERA.

Baltimore entered this road trip one game back of the final American League wild-card spot despite president of baseball operations Mike Elias trading away four contributors without adding a notable piece at the MLB deadline. Texas was one game ahead of the Orioles. The Minnesota Twins, whom the Orioles face next, are barely ahead of Baltimore, too.

So this road trip feels large for all involved.

“Hell yeah it does,” Albernaz said before the game. “This is what any player, any coach, staff member wants, is to play meaningful games late in the year, down the stretch. … This is a big road trip and definitely a big series against Texas to see if we can do something cool going into the end of the year.”

The Orioles absolutely still could do “something cool,” such as making the postseason. But this road trip got off to a poor start despite Baz’s superb showing.

Baz completed eight innings with two runs against him. He allowed only three hits and one walk to go with nine strikeouts, and he pounded the zone. Twenty-two of his 28 first pitches were strikes.

This was his best start since the Orioles acquired him from the Tampa Bay Rays in the winter. He hadn’t even pitched into the eighth inning prior to Friday, let alone completed it. He tied his season high in strikeouts but also maintained efficiency to keep his pitch count in check.

“He was going to go back out for the ninth if we tied or took the lead,” Albernaz said. “This was his best outing, for sure.”

But Baz walked off the mound in the eighth in line for the loss. He became the first Orioles pitcher to throw a complete-game loss since Trevor Rogers and Dean Kremer did so in August 2025.

The Orioles pushed a run across in the second through back-to-back knocks against right-hander Nathan Eovaldi. Taveras split the gap for a double, and Coby Mayo drilled an RBI single for the lead.

Baltimore had ample other chances, enough to prompt Eovaldi to leave the game midway through the sixth inning. The Orioles loaded the bases in the fifth through singles from Colton Cowser and Carlos Narváez and Gunnar Henderson’s walk. But Eovaldi froze Pete Alonso for strike three to end the frame.

Tyler O’Neill’s walk in the sixth prompted Texas to lift Eovaldi from the game, and Dylan Beavers followed with a single. But Taveras struck out and Mayo grounded out to end that threat.

“We’re fighting,” Taveras said. “I think the only thing we didn’t do was put all the good at-bats together.”

And, immediately after the Orioles stranded those runners, Baz couldn’t snag the weak grounder from Díaz, which set up Pederson’s homer. That was all Texas managed against a superb Baz. That was all Texas needed.

This article has been updated.