This weekend’s series with the Los Angeles Angels was a far cry from what the Orioles were experiencing at this time a year ago.
One of the best teams in baseball in mid-June of 2024, they took two of three from NL-leading Philadelphia in a series that drew 133,000 people to Camden Yards. It felt like a potential World Series preview and one of the most notable first-half series we’d seen in Baltimore in a long time. The Orioles would hit their season high-water mark just a few days later, taking an intense series from the New York Yankees in the Bronx to improve to 49-25.
Needless to say, it’s been all downhill since then.
In contrast to the buzz created by that series with the Phillies, Friday’s 2-0 win over the Angels included more than two hours of rain delays and was shown on Apple TV+. It was as close as you get to that old phrase about a tree falling in the woods and no one being around to hear it as closer Felix Bautista recorded the game-ending strikeout not long before midnight. Still, a three-game sweep is a three-game sweep, and it was Baltimore’s third in the last five series.
Regardless of whether you’ve been paying much attention, the Orioles are playing better baseball and exited the weekend 10 games under .500 for the first time since May 14. That marked the start of their season-worst eight-game losing streak that included Brandon Hyde’s firing and Tony Mansolino’s first four games as interim manager.
Going back to the nightcap of a doubleheader in Boston on May 24, the Orioles have gone 14-6 to improve their season winning percentage from an embarrassing .320 to .429. That stretch alone isn’t saving the season, but it does pique interest as they travel to Tampa to take on a second-place Rays club that just swept the NL-leading New York Mets over the weekend. A series against a first-place team at Yankee Stadium looms after that.
Sweeping teams like the Angels, Seattle, and the Chicago White Sox is one thing, but a 5-2 week against your division’s two best teams would be a statement six weeks before the trade deadline. Of course, the opposite could also occur, which would flatten the vibes of the last couple weeks and confirm what most were already declaring a month ago about the season being all but shot.
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The Orioles entered Monday with 25 games remaining until the All-Star break in mid-July, so what would it take to make believers out of fans and pundits — not to mention general manager Mike Elias — between now and then? Something in the neighborhood of going 16-9 would leave them within a few games of .500. The Mariners entered Monday holding the final wild-card spot at 36-34, which reminds that the AL isn’t consumed with juggernauts in 2025.
It’s certainly fair to doubt the Orioles continuing to pitch like they have over the last three weeks. Since May 24, they rank fifth in the majors in team ERA (2.93), 10th in starter ERA (3.69), and second in bullpen ERA (1.91). While it’s probably unrealistic to sustain those levels, that doesn’t mean the pitching can’t settle into a happier medium compared to the dumpster fire we watched over the first two months. Health will be key, of course.
What’s more encouraging in trying to project this club moving forward are signs of life from an offense that still hasn’t been particularly great overall these last three weeks. The activation of infielder Jordan Westburg provided an immediate jolt this past week, and the recent returns of Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins, and Ramon Laureano make a more formidable outfield on paper. The Orioles also received a pair of home runs — including a grand slam — from backup catcher Gary Sanchez in his first two games back from the injured list over the weekend.
The final two games of the Angels series brought just the fifth and sixth wins of the season in games facing left-handed starters, which have been the bane of Baltimore’s existence going back to the second half of last year. And despite Ryan O’Hearn, Jackson Holliday, Adley Rutschman, and Cowser not being in Sunday’s lineup against Angels ace Yusei Kikuchi, the Orioles finished the day with their highest scoring output since the season opener in Toronto.
Go figure.
Gunnar Henderson still sports an ugly .506 on-base plus slugging percentage against left-handed pitching, but he registered at least one hit against a southpaw in each of the six games on this homestand and has gone 8-for-17 against lefties since June 7. The 23-year-old has slashed .321/.393/.541 against right-handers this season, which speaks to how much the struggles against lefties have depressed his overall production.
Rutschman’s .366/.438/.561 slash line in June is on track to be his best month in a calendar year.
8Filling in for the injured Ryan Mountcastle, rookie Coby Mayo is beginning to look more comfortable at the plate after the first multi-hit game of his career Saturday and an RBI double Sunday. We’ll see if the 23-year-old can do what Heston Kjerstad couldn’t in an extended audition earlier this year.
And Westburg and Cowser are back with the former looking more like the All-Star infielder he was in the first half of last season. For what it’s worth, Mansolino has referred to Westburg as the “glue” of a clubhouse everyone was questioning a few weeks ago. While downplaying his own importance to the equation, the 26-year-old has acknowledged a different vibe around the club overall.
“There’s a lot more energy in the dugout. There’s a lot more energy on the field,” Westburg said after Sunday’s 11-2 win. “I feel like guys are kind of feeding off of each other, and we’re seeing a lot more smiles. … Better at-bats, better on the bases, the pitching’s been solid as it has been even before I got back. But I do notice a difference since coming off the IL.”
There are certainly more arrows pointing in the right direction than there were a month ago with the Orioles being 15-12 under Mansolino. Even if the club was bound to begin playing better at some point, it’s difficult to argue against the decision to part with Hyde, who wasn’t finding the answers even if he wasn’t the biggest problem.
This road trip figures to be a litmus test in determining whether the Orioles are truly turning a corner to position themselves for a historic turnaround or have simply enjoyed a stretch of better baseball in the way many teams do over 162 games. The math is still very much against them as it pertains to postseason hopes, but not to the same degree as three weeks ago.
That’s a credit to the way the Orioles have been playing under a new manager.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re kind of in it in a weird way,” Mansolino said Sunday. “There’s some belief in there. It’s like, ‘Now, if we can get five under (.500).’ If you get to five under, all of a sudden, eyes are open and you can kind of see it a little bit.”
Taking road series from the Rays and the Yankees would bring that vision into more plausible focus.
