You do not have to be a savvy baseball mind to look at a major league outfield consisting of Weston Wilson, Blaze Alexander, and Johnathan Rodríguez and wonder if there has been some mistake. The Orioles didn’t actually seriously think that was going to work out well when Wednesday’s starting lineup was submitted, did they? A series of defensive botch jobs cost the Orioles early, stamping out what might have otherwise been a fun game as the offense was the first group this year to get to Arizona’s
Eduardo Rodriguez.
Eventually, things went to extra innings and Tyler Wells imploded thoroughly, sending the Orioles to an 8-5 loss to the Diamondbacks to close out this homestand. So much for the good vibes from Monday’s big comeback win.
The ingredients were there for things to go better for the Orioles today. Kyle Bradish came out of the gate amped up, pumping 97 and 98 while striking out two of the game’s first three batters. If only he could have struck out everyone, because pretty much every time the ball was hit to the outfield, something weird and bad happened.
The warning signs were also there in that very first inning. Diamondbacks star Corbin Carroll batted with one out and hit a fly ball that hung up for a long time, heading towards right field. Any outfielder with modest speed gets there easily. Unfortunately, the Orioles right fielder today was Rodríguez, a big guy whose foot speed is lumbering at best. Statcast gave this ball a .060 expected batting average. It was a double. On this occasion, the O’s were not harmed.
Bradish’s bottom of the lineup gave him a small early lead. Two-out doubles in the second, one by Coby Mayo and one by Sam Huff – a third catcher called up just to start today’s game – put the Orioles ahead. Mayo’s double came after a weird scene where the home plate umpire, John Tumpane, quickly assessed Mayo as challenging a pitch when he never touched his helmet. One of the O’s ABS challenges was burned up just like that.
Arizona struck back with two outs in the top of the third. Their rally started with Carroll drawing a walk, the only one that Bradish issued on the day. A single gave the D-backs runners on the corners. Cleanup hitter Adrian Del Castillo rocked a fly ball to left field that kept carrying about as far into the left field/bullpen corner as it can go. Left fielder Weston Wilson gave chase despite getting a bad break on the ball and ran far enough to get his glove on the ball.
Wilson bricked the catch. Adding to the bleak comedy of the play, Wilson then bumped into the wall behind him and had an almost cartoon-like slow slide to the ground. Alexander had to race over from center field to back up the play. Initially, this was scored as an error on Wilson, a perspective that seemed obvious on the live play. The scorer soon reversed themselves and turned this into a two-run triple.
That’s a joke. I don’t mean a joke in the sense of “I’m telling a joke by saying something that didn’t really happen.” No. It really happened. I mean that the decision is a joke. Perhaps not as bad of a joke as this outfield defense.
This is not to say that all of Bradish’s problems can be blamed on his outfield defense. Arizona got to him fairly and clearly when a couple of bottom-of-the-lineup guys did their own back-to-back doubles to put the Diamondbacks back on top in the fourth inning.
It could have been fun in spite of all of this. The Orioles retook the lead in the fifth inning. Wilson partially atoned for his earlier miscue by hitting a single. This left him on base when early-season star Jeremiah Jackson homered into the vicinity of the Bird Bath in left-center field. Jackson drove in three runs in the game and now has a .949 OPS for the season. He’s continued to be a pleasant surprise since his debut last August.
The lead, alas, did not last for long. Bradish gave the run back in the top of the sixth. Bradish would have had two earned runs in six innings were it not for the scorer’s reversal. Instead, four earned runs on eight hits and a walk in six innings leaves him with an elevated 5.49 ERA. The Orioles will need better to go somewhere good this year.
The teams traded runs in the seventh. Ketel Marte dropped a smooth bunt to lead off the inning with a base hit. The next batter was Carroll, who hit a fly ball with a lot of hang time that fell in front of Alexander in center field. I will say a real center fielder should have caught it, with the observation that the expected average on this ball was .250.
Reliever Grant Wolfram got one grounder into the drawn-in infield, preventing the run from coming home. The next guy, Del Castillo, hit a chopper that deflected off the glove of a leaping Wolfram. By the time Gunnar Henderson fielded the ball behind Wolfram, there was no chance to throw the runner out at home.
Henderson figured prominently as the Orioles tied the game once again. He led off with a single, stole second base, then scored on a little squibber hit by pinch-hitter Leody Taveras. One might wonder why Taveras wasn’t in the starting lineup for defense alone, without even getting into his hitting well early on this year. He delivered the game-tying hit, setting the 5-5 score that eventually went into extra innings. The Orioles went three-up, three-down in the eighth and ninth. There was no real walkoff potential.
That brings us around to Wells. He was, in essence, the only choice for the tenth inning. The Orioles had used four relievers before him. The excellent-so-far Rico Garcia had pitched the two previous days and was probably unavailable. Albert Suárez was the only other guy out there.
This was our first 2026 Orioles experience with the zombie runner, the Manfred Man, or however you like to refer to the guy who starts on second base in extra frames. Arizona had a fast guy lined up in the form of Carroll. They even spotted Wells an out. They made the tactically-questionable choice to have their #3 hitter bunt Carroll to third base on the road, when the Orioles would still have the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the inning.
Wells didn’t make them pay. What he did do was give up a home run to Del Castillo, the catcher’s first of the season, giving him five RBI in the game. He gave up two more hits and the Diamondbacks had an 8-5 lead at the end of it. No Orioles batter reached base in the bottom of the tenth and the frustrating game finally ended.
Would it have gone so much better if Tyler O’Neill was not on the injured list and if Taylor Ward was not used as the designated hitter? I am not so sure that it would have. The Orioles did not construct this roster with corner outfield defense as a priority. This is not the first game where we’ve seen the effects of that. It’s just the most egregious because the second wave of guys, playing out of position, might be even worse than the first wave.
After getting us to feel good about them on Monday, the Orioles are back down to .500 at 9-9. They now head to Cleveland, where they’ll start a four-game series with the Guardians on Thursday evening. Cleveland is 10-9 so far this season. Shane Baz and Parker Messick are the scheduled starting pitchers for the 6:10 game.
