BALTIMORE — As April games go, Saturday’s 5-4 win over Toronto felt a little more meaningful for the Orioles.
Perhaps it’d be the early-season spark they needed.
Coming off a disappointing 5-8 start and a two-day respite, Baltimore erasing an early 3-0 deficit with a mid-game offensive awakening prompted an exhale and even a few memories of 2023 with the comeback win. The dugout’s reaction to Adley Rutschman’s game-tying home run in the sixth inning looked downright cathartic before Cedric Mullins delivered the go-ahead two-run double a few batters later. The defense turned five double plays, and the bullpen had a very good showing with closer Felix Bautista earning his first save since returning from Tommy John surgery.
As manager Brandon Hyde noted, “Good teams win those types of games.”
In contrast, Sunday was the kind that mediocre teams lose as the Orioles squandered a 6-3 lead after seven innings and fell 7-6 in 10 innings despite the Blue Jays’ best efforts to lend a hand with shoddy defense and baserunning. The defeat meant Baltimore still hasn’t won a series or even back-to-back games, and the loss reinforced how difficult life is with a pitching staff that had more than enough questions even before the injuries began piling up this spring.
Nearly a tenth of the way through the season, the Orioles continue spinning their wheels in uncomfortable space.
Six runs should be enough to win, and the Orioles lineup carried over Saturday’s good vibes by plating a run in each of the first four innings off Toronto starter Jose Berrios. However, Baltimore also went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and only managed its final two runs in the sixth inning because of two Blue Jays errors. Another key hit at any point could have gone a long way, and we know the offense needs to do the heaviest lifting if the Orioles are going to make anything meaningful of this season.
That said, the pitching still deserved the blame on Sunday.
Sure, the Orioles could have tried to squeeze a little more out of starter Cade Povich, who was lifted with two runners in scoring position after laboring through 4 2/3 innings and 76 pitches and not missing many bats throughout the day. Right-hander Bryan Baker struck out George Springer to end the top of the fifth inning and probably could have returned to open the sixth after throwing just five pitches. But any way you slice it, the Orioles are going to need meaningful outs from most of their relievers, especially with Bautista not pitching back-to-back days early in the season.
Lefties Keegan Akin and Gregory Soto didn’t do their jobs Sunday as the former allowed a run in the sixth inning and the latter surrendered three runs that tied the game in the eighth. It was a disappointing development since the Orioles entered Sunday ranking sixth in the majors in bullpen ERA. But we also know there hadn’t been a ton of high-leverage situations to test this group over the first couple weeks of the season.
Just as the offense and defense finally came alive, the bullpen sprang a leak.
Like the decisions or not, Hyde — who was ejected in the third inning for arguing balls and strikes — is mostly just hoping for the best with the current state of this pitching staff.
As uplifting as Saturday’s win felt, Sunday felt equally deflating with the Orioles still not able to gain any early-season traction. And though it’s still much too early to panic in an AL East that’s been pretty mediocre across the board, the two-game split with the Blue Jays brought two more short starts and a ton of innings for the bullpen to cover even with another day off coming Monday.
The Orioles are operating with a very small margin for error right now, and the results are reflecting that. It’s tough to say when — or if — the pitching is going to get much better.
After Saturday’s uplifting win, the Orioles ended the weekend feeling no better than how it started.
Spinning their wheels.
