So… here we are. The trade deadline has come and gone, and Adley Rutschman, Taylor Ward, Dean Kremer and Tyler Wells are no longer Orioles. MASN analyst Kevin Brown called it a “dark-hearted and depressing couple of days.” Good for all the Birdland faithful still keeping a candle burning for this team—especially those of you who made it to the Yard a day after Monday’s dramatic events. You’re made of strong stuff.
Despite everything, there was still a game to be played. Tonight, it featured two former
Orioles teammates, Cade Povich and current Angel Grayson Rodriguez, facing off on the mound. Neither has been good this year—Povich has mostly been in the minors, while Rodriguez entered this start with an ERA above seven. Yet somehow, of course, the two pitchers threw their best games of the year. In fact, for Rodriguez, it was his first quality start since July 2024… when he was an Oriole! (Does that make you feel good or bad?)
Still, a win is a win is a win. The Orioles scored two runs off Rodriguez, courtesy of a Pete Alonso single in the third, and Tyler O’Neill contributed a pinch-hit home run in the eighth to make it 3-1 Baltimore. That was enough, thanks to an unexpectedly strong Povich.
If you teleport back to the 2024 season, when the Orioles finished 91-71 and made it to the Wild Card series, you might remember that Rodriguez and Povich were rotation mates, along with Corbin Burnes, Albert Suárez, Cole Irvin and Dean Kremer. If you have a strong memory, you might remember that Rodriguez was good that year, making 20 starts and going 13-4 with a 3.86 ERA before getting shelved in July. G-Rod wouldn’t throw a pitch as an Oriole again, missing all of 2025 and getting traded before the ’26 season. Back in 2024, Cade Povich, meanwhile, made his MLB debut in June, then put up some terrible numbers, a 3-9 record with a 5.20 ERA and nearly four walks per game in his rookie season.
Consistency has bedeviled both of these starters since, but of the two former teammates, I must say Rodriguez looked stronger early on. Povich allowed five hits in three innings, stranding a pair of runners in the second and third innings both. It looked a bit dicey. As for Rodriguez, he struck out the first two O’s swinging, then sat Baltimore hitters down in order in the second.
Then, suddenly, Rodriguez got (just for the span of one inning) hittable. It was a hiccup, but it was just enough for the O’s to eke out the win.
The third inning saw Orioles new guy Christian Franklin, a longtime Nationals farmhand, get a warm Oriole Park welcome in his very first MLB at-bat, then reach by free pass! Colton Cowser singled, and Franklin chugged impressively from first to third. (Great game for the new guy, who also racked up his first stolen base in the seventh, and made a nice catch at the wall, too.) New catcher Carlos Narváez got aboard in his very first Orioles at-bat, too, getting hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Rodriguez has struggled this season with runners in scoring position. He did again tonight, leaving a ball up for Pete Alonso, who hit a two-run single to center field. Franklin scored, so did Cowser. It was 2-0, O’s.
At that point, you may have realized that Cade Povich was on some kind of a roll. He pitched a dominant fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. His pickoff game was astonishing. Povich allowed a leadoff walk in the fourth, picked off the runner and rung up the next two! In the fifth inning, Povich allowed only an infield single, then picked off the runner—his second of the night! A pair of flyballs and a bouncer to third wrapped up the sixth.
Ben McDonald described Povich as having “a slow heartbeat”—like a lizard, I guess? Well, tonight, the lefty, stashed in the Orioles minors since May, threw six scoreless with seven strikeouts. Even if the Orioles weren’t down Chris Bassitt (to back problems) and Dean Kremer (to trade), this was a convincing audition for another turn in the rotation.
As for Povich’s counterpart on the mound, if somehow what had you worried today was whether old Oriole friend Grayson Rodriguez would have a nice time in his return to Oriole Park, don’t worry. O’s hitters went down in order in five of seven innings tonight, scoring just the two runs on four hits, as Rodriguez completed seven innings—not just his first quality start of the year, but his first QS since July 2024, when he was an Oriole. Talk about a revenge glow-up. (Alternatively, this O’s lineup may be bad.)
Three more innings to be played. How would this somewhat ransacked O’s bullpen handle their responsibilities? Not gorgeously, but well enough!
In the seventh, Rico Garcia, lately hittable, allowed a Zach Neto deep flyball that nearly tied the game. Instead, new guy Christian Franklin reeled in at the wall.
Andrew Kittredge had a shaky eighth, allowing a run on a couple of strange plays. Contact hitter Nolan Schanuel hit a double, then scored on a ball booted by third baseman Christian Encarnación-Strand. (CES is in the lineup for his bat, let’s say.) With two outs, Moisés Ballesteros hit a tapper back to the mound that Kittredge fielded, then hit Ballesteros in the back! But the home plate ump ruled the runner way out of the basepaths. So Kittredge was out of trouble.
Tyler O’Neill entered in the eighth as a pinch hitter, and got served a high fastball. Mr. Canada blasted it into the bullpen, giving his team a vital insurance run.
This made you feel a little better about Yennier Cano appearing as the closer. Though it wasn’t a breeze for the newly-extend righty, who allowed a leadoff double, it was pretty good. Cano got a groundout, struck out Wade Meckler on a challenged strike call, and whiffed Zach Neto swinging.
“The Orioles needed this one,” summed up the MASN booth after Cano got the save. As of this writing, the O’s stand to gain ground in the Wild Card race, too, as Cleveland and Minnesota are both down in their respective games. Yeah. So maybe the Orioles aren’t out of contention entirely. It doesn’t fix all the vibes magically at once, but it’s something.
So who is your Most Birdland Player of the night (and don’t say Grayson Rodriguez)? Cade Povich, the little backup starter who could? Pete Alonso, author of the game-winning two-run single? Tyler O’Neill, big bopper in a pinch-hit role? New guy Christian Franklin, who walked, stole a base and scored a run in his MLB debut? Sound off about these, and all other matters, in the comments below.
