Sometimes you eat the road, and sometimes the road eats you. I’m not totally sure how relevant that is to today’s Orioles-Red Sox game, but what I mean is, this was a total inversion of Wednesday’s lopsided, 8-1 loss. As the O’s unsuccessful starter that night, Chris Bassitt, said after the game, “When your starter goes three innings and gives up three runs, that’s pretty much a recipe for disaster, so this one’s on me.” Today, however, Orioles starter Trevor Rogers looked just fine, thanks, and it was a recipe for a win.
An easy win, at that. Boston starter Brayan Bello has had a curiously bimodal 2026 season: when he starts games, he has a 9.68 ERA, but he’s under 1.00 when he comes in after an opener. Well, the Sox played with fate, and Bello got rocked in the first inning, to the tune of six runs. It wasn’t much of a nailbiter after that.
It started with the leadoff pitch, which leadoff hitter Taylor Ward did something predictable to—he doubled—and a Bello cutter hit Gunnar Henderson on the foot. Adley Rutschman singled to the gap, and Ward made it 1-0. Then, oh no!, Pete Alonso hit into a double play. I confess thought the rally was over.
I was very wrong. Samuel Basallo took a very grown-up walk. Leody Taveras singled through the infield and Gunnar scored. 2-0, Birds. Still not done: Colton Cowser walked to load the bases for Coby Mayo. Bello threw him a bunch of sweepers—one too many: Cowser skied a ball three-fourths of the way off The Monster, and all the little Orioles came home.
Baltimore had one more trick up their sleeve, still with two outs: Jackson Holliday walked, and leadoff man Taylor Ward came back to the plate, and singled up the middle, his second hit of the inning. 6-0, Orioles, after one.
Then, an improbable lull—or, a streak, I guess, if you’re in the Brayan Bello fan club. I can’t say many of us on this blog are. The 27-year-old recovered after that disastrous first inning to retire ten Orioles in a row. It was a gutsy effort to get some length for his team, give him that. At one point in the fifth, Brian Roberts, from the booth, said, “You might think this was a 0-0 game considering how these guys have been pitching since [the first inning].” Ohhh, Classic Roberts. (I have no idea if Brian Roberts is a jinx.) Right then, Pete Alonso singled to left, after which Sam Basallo torched a ball, 112.4 mph to right field. Surprising to me, this was the hardest-hit ball of Basallo’s young career. The Polar Bear chugged home to make it 7-0. Basallo, on third base after a groundout, came home and scored when Cowser hit a deep sac fly. 8-0, Orioles.
An 8-0 score tells you that things were going pretty well for Trevor Rogers. The Orioles lefty, who’d struggled in his first ten outings this season but may be turning a corner, had himself an easy shutout through five innings, in fact a no-hitter until into the fifth. His control was pinpoint, and his fastball had movement!
The only sour note was it looked, if we’re being honest, that he seemed to lose gas after that. He allowed three straight singles in the sixth inning, plus his first run of the game, and he couldn’t close out that frame against the Red Sox. Instead, manager Craig Albernaz lifted Rogers for Yennier Cano, who got one out and called it a day. Still, overall, progress for Trevor Rogers, who’d had an era of nearly eight on the season: one run in 5 2/3 innings will do. As MASN pointed out, Rogers now has five-inning-shutout starts in back-to-back appearances.
Not much suspense after that. Andrew Kittredge had a five-outing scoreless streak entering this one, but he served up a home run to Willson Contreras. There are worse things one can do. The veteran righty kept it suspense-free after that.
Any team can look great or terrible on any given day. Yesterday was the Orioles’ turn to be cannon fodder; today they were … the cannon? Either way, this team been stacking more of the good days instead of the bad days. Let’s see if it continues north of the border against Toronto.
Who is your Most Birdland Player of the game? Trevor Rogers, with a stabilizing outing of 5 2/3 and one run? Coby Mayo, with a three-run double? Taylor Ward with a casual 3-for-5 day, including a double?
