With the Orioles winning two of three games over Cleveland to improve to 8-10 on the 2025 season, I’ve offered a dozen thoughts, each in 50 words or less:
1. A series victory and back-to-back wins. You’d rather not wait three weeks to experience those for the first time in a season, but it’s amazing how much easier the game looks when you receive competent starting pitching and more consistent run production. Much more of that please.
2. Tomoyuki Sugano and Dean Kremer combined to allow three runs — on three solo home runs — over 12 1/3 innings to earn those wins. The projected fourth and fifth starters entering spring training, these two have to lead the pitching way for now and did so against Cleveland.
3. Command and efficiency were key for Sugano turning in Baltimore’s longest start of the season, which is why it’s surprising that he threw a first-pitch strike to only 10 of 25 hitters. Question his stuff, but you don’t succeed for 12 years pitching in Japan without a legitimate pitching aptitude.
4. Brandon Hyde didn’t commit to keeping Cedric Mullins in the leadoff spot, but Gunnar Henderson homered and doubled in his first two at-bats hitting second. Mullins won’t sustain a 1.000 OPS, but he’s walked 18.6% of the time thus far. I’m hitting him leadoff against right-handed starters for now.
5. Ryan O’Hearn has been the Orioles’ second-best player to this point and bailed out the Ramon Urias baserunning gaffe with a three-run homer on Thursday. Despite so much focus on this club’s young core and prospects, the 31-year-old remains a really good story.
6. Heston Kjerstad hit his second homer of the homestand Thursday, but it was his critical running catch in right-center and two-run single Wednesday that really stood out. That’s a runs-saving defensive play this club hasn’t been making and that hit came after some frustrating batted-ball luck in three previous at-bats.
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7. Trying to balance Felix Bautista needing regular work with being judicious knowing he won’t pitch back-to-back days for the time being is challenging for Hyde. While Bautista wasn’t flawless Thursday, it was good to see him pitch out of trouble so effectively on the heels of warming up Wednesday night.
8. Charlie Morton’s curveball hasn’t just been his best pitch over his career, but it’s been one of the elite curves in baseball for much of the last decade. That it’s easily been his worst pitch in 2025 says everything about the 41-year-old’s struggles. His secondary offerings haven’t been the issue.
9. Wednesday’s grand slam was a great way to break an 0-for-17 skid for Jackson Holliday. The numbers haven’t been great, but one walk on the season doesn’t reflect a much-improved chase rate and how he’s been squeezed on some calls like in his first at-bat Thursday. Just keep playing.
10. The Statcast batted-ball data and eyeball test look markedly better than last year’s second half, but Adley Rutschman sports a .180/.275/.262 slash line since his big Opening Day in Toronto. Though he regularly cites his process-oriented focus, you hope he starts getting a better return sooner than later.
11. There’s no real sugarcoating the disappointment or concern after the latest shutdown of Grayson Rodriguez, who underwent imaging for shoulder soreness Thursday. Even if you don’t like what it could mean for the rest of 2025, pinpointing and correcting exactly what’s causing these various arm problems must be paramount.
12. Given his injury history, Tyler O’Neill missing a couple games with a sore neck isn’t surprising, but it illuminates how shaky the outfield picture is with Colton Cowser sidelined. The other options aren’t great, which is why Kjerstad having a good series on both sides of the ball was encouraging.
