Trevor Rogers experiences shortest Orioles start as Red Sox go on to win 17-1 blowout

At a certain point, this does become a concern.

Whether Saturday is that day is hard to know, so we will stick with the certainties. Trevor Rogers’ last three starts have all been defined by one poor inning, and on Saturday, in his shortest outing since 2022, that poor inning struck in the second. He threw 47 pitches in that frame and couldn’t escape it.

Manager Craig Albernaz walked to the mound with two outs in the second inning and bases loaded to remove Baltimore’s ace. For a pitcher who has seldom struggled since returning to the majors in 2025, Saturday’s performance — which came as part of a 17-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox that featured position player Weston Wilson pitching in the ninth — continues a trend that has turned from an anomaly into a pattern.

Over Rogers’ last 11 1/3 innings, he has allowed 19 hits and 12 earned runs. His ERA has risen from 1.89 to 4.75. And, after a vibrant offensive showing in Friday’s series opener against the Red Sox, Rogers and the Orioles slumped to a defeat ahead of Sunday’s finale.

To borrow a classic baseball adage, a pitcher is only as good as his next appearance. That works both ways. The volatility of a season means poor outings don’t need to carry much weight, because there is always a chance to turn things around quickly. That is what Rogers will hold on to.

This week in Kansas City, ahead of his midweek bullpen session, Rogers said he learned earlier in his career that he shouldn’t attempt to make sweeping changes based on a poor outing. When he looked back on his previous two games, they were hardly that bad, anyway. Of course, standing those next to the better part of a season’s worth of starts, they didn’t meet Rogers’ lofty standards.

Still, Rogers said he threw more pitches during that bullpen session than he normally does. Pitching coach Drew French told Rogers after it not to change who he is, because that could trigger a rabbit-hole search for answers that would prove more detrimental than beneficial.

“I put a lot of work in on the mental side of the game, and this is what it’s for, tough times like this,” Rogers said. “Just continue to do what I do and be there for the guys and be a good teammate, and this will turn around.”

Rogers allowed four runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and he followed with five earned runs in five innings against the Cleveland Guardians. Then came Saturday, with three runs off him in 1 2/3 innings.

The common theme through each of those appearances is how one inning caused Rogers the most issues. He gave up four runs in the fifth inning against the Diamondbacks. The Guardians plated four in the fourth inning. And, in the second against Boston, Rogers couldn’t record the final out.

“They had four hits with two strikes. He just couldn’t get the ball where he wanted it to go. A lot of pitches out over the plate,” Albernaz said. “It was just deep counts, couldn’t get the two-strike put away where he wanted it to, and the pitch count was just creeping up high that inning.”

Andruw Monasterio hit a double that was sandwiched by a pair of strikeouts. With two outs, though, Caleb Durbin doubled. Then a walk and a single brought home a second run. Ceddanne Rafaela added another RBI single, and a walk to load the bases prompted Albernaz to turn to right-hander Tyler Wells.

The five straight batters who reached base elevated Rogers’ pitch count that inning, and with such a laborious frame, the risk of injury elevates. Baltimore opted to cut Rogers short rather than having him push through because having him for the next five months means more than forcing another inning out of him here.

“I was uncomfortable with him throwing that many pitches, or any pitcher throwing that many pitches, during an inning,” Albernaz said.

Plus, the Orioles had long men available out of the bullpen. Wells covered 1 1/3 innings before right-hander Albert Suárez took the bulk of this one. He allowed four unearned runs across four innings — errors in the fourth and fifth helped Boston build a healthy lead.

It unraveled late, however. Left-hander Keegan Akin, making his return from the injured list, pitched a scoreless eighth inning but allowed a grand slam to Monasterio in the ninth. That led to utilityman Wilson pitching, and Boston blasted four more runs against him.

And for as dangerous as Baltimore’s offense proved Friday — with six home runs and 20 hits — left-hander Garrett Crochet got back on track. The Boston workhorse, who was coming off two poor outings of his own (a combined 15 runs in 6 2/3 innings), produced six scoreless innings.

“He’s an awesome pitcher, man. You know, Cy Young candidate,” said outfielder Tyler O’Neill, who recorded one of Baltimore’s six hits. “Really good fastball, good breaking stuff. It’s always a battle in there facing him, but he was hitting his spots today. A lot of paint. Tough to do much with that.”

There was regression risk when it came to Rogers. Last year he excelled despite a hard-hit rate of 48.4%, and his 1.81 ERA was far better than his expected ERA of 3.41. Some of this season’s issues are down to worse batted-ball luck, but that is hard to quantify.

In 2025, Rogers held batters to a .218 BAbip — batting average on balls in play, which excludes walks, strikeouts and homers. In 2026, that has risen to .337. Is that because there is better contact against him? Worse defense? Bad luck? Perhaps a combination of all three.

“The luck really isn’t going my way right now,” Rogers said. “I’m doing a really good job of getting guys to two strikes early. The swing and miss is there. Just really can’t get over the hump of getting that third strike, and when it is contact, it’s just falling. Pretty frustrating, but I liked where my stuff was at today.”

Even during this uneven start to the season, the Orioles hadn’t experienced one of these — a complete drubbing. Rogers hadn’t experienced a start this short in three years. The best thing for both team and pitcher, though? The Orioles are back here Sunday with a chance to forget all about this.

“It’s just frustrating on my end that I can’t really go deep into games right now and give my team a chance,” Rogers said. “But I just got to stay within my process, stay disciplined in what I need to do, and it’ll turn around.”

This article has been updated.