Well, how about that? The 2025 Orioles are still capable of surprising us.
The O’s just swept a three-game series on the road against the postseason-bound Padres, sealing the deal with a 7-5 win in the finale. They did it with a lineup that didn’t include Gunnar Henderson, Dylan Beavers, or Samuel Basallo, and survived a near-meltdown despite all the momentum swinging in San Diego’s way in the late innings. The victory secured a winning west coast road trip for the Orioles, who head back to Camden
Yards on Friday.
Baseball can still be fun sometimes! And stressful. Very stressful.
Against long-ago former Orioles southpaw Nestor Cortes Jr., the O’s fielded a right-handed heavy lineup that left Henderson, Beavers, and Basallo on the bench. So of course that patchwork offense delivered a huge performance early, clobbering Cortes for six runs in just 2.1 innings. The fun began right away when Jackson Holliday blistered a 407-foot homer on the third pitch of the game. Nice way to set the tone.
The O’s loaded the bases later in the first, but Cortes got out of it by striking out Colton Cowser and retiring Coby Mayo on a pop-up. Don’t worry — both of those guys would totally redeem themselves. That happened in a delightful top of the third, one of the Birds’ most prolific offensive innings of the season.
Ryan Mountcastle got the rally started with a leadoff walk, and Emmanuel Rivera singled. With one out, Cowser got another at-bat with ducks on the pond. This time he did not disappoint. Colton jumped on a four-seamer in the middle of the zone and demolished it 420 feet over the wall in right-center for an Earl Weaver special. Note to pitchers: don’t throw fastballs to Colton Cowser! On one mighty swing, the Orioles’ lead jumped to 4-0.
Oh, but there were a couple more mighty swings to come. The next batter, Mayo, unleashed some of his oft-heralded but heretofore little-seen power, crushing a 401-foot shot to left field. Before Cortes could even get his wits about him, his very next pitch was swatted out to a nearly identical spot by Alex Jackson. Back-to-back-to-back home runs! It marked the Orioles’ first four-homer game since July 29.
Even the beautiful San Diego weather couldn’t keep frustrated Padres fans from voicing their displeasure at Cortes, and he was yanked from the game. His replacement, Sean Reynolds, didn’t provide much relief. He walked the first two batters he faced and gave up an RBI single to Mountcastle, who was batting for the second time in the inning. Make it a 7-0 Orioles lead.
While all this was happening, Cade Povich was pitching a gem for the Orioles. He cruised through the first four innings with such ease that the Padres never got a runner into scoring position. When they finally did so in the fifth — putting runners on the corners with one out — Povich got exactly what he needed, a sharp grounder to third that Rivera deftly turned into a double play.
Through five innings, the Orioles were up big and everything seemed to be going their way. I’m sure it’s nothing but smooth sailing from here!
Heh. Nice try. You must not be familiar with the 2025 Orioles.
In the bottom of the sixth, Povich’s previously breezy outing began to collapse around him. After a Luis Arraez infield single, former Oriole Manny Machado came through with his first big hit of the series, launching a two-run homer into the left-field seats. Ah. Well, Manny’s been known to do that. Just shake it off, Cade. You’re still up by five runs. Just focus on the next batter and…
Oh. The next batter singled. And the one after that walked. And the one after that walked, too, after a 2-2 pitch that seemed to catch the strike zone was called a ball. Povich was unraveling, and getting squeezed by the umpire wasn’t helping matters. He didn’t retire a batter in the sixth and left with the bases loaded, nobody out, and the Padres building all the momentum.
Tony Mansolino called on Keegan Akin to play fireman, but Jake Cronenworth’s first-pitch soft grounder turned into an infield single to short, plating a run. Still, Akin did an excellent job of getting out of the jam after that, inducing a double-play grounder from Jose Iglesias — which plated San Diego’s fourth run — and striking out Elias Díaz.
But Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the seventh with an emphatic dinger off Akin, making it 7-5, and you could start to sense this game slipping away from the Orioles. After their six-run third inning, their offense went completely silent, getting held scoreless for the final six innings by the Padres’ bullpen. After Mason Miller pitched an immaculate inning in the eighth — striking out the side on nine pitches, all of them sliders — I was positive the Orioles were going to lose. I was even more sure of it after the recently traded ex-Oriole Ramón Laureano robbed Cowser of a second home run with a spectacular leaping catch in the ninth.
And yet, somehow, the cobbled-together O’s bullpen held on. After Akin’s two innings, the Orioles’ eight-inning setup guy was…Shawn Dubin?? OK, whatever. Just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. And it worked out! Dubin gave up a leadoff single to Laureano and then proceeded to strike out the next three batters. He capped it with a foul-tip strikeout of Gavin Sheets in which home plate umpire Emil Jimenez literally took the ball out of Jackson’s glove to inspect it for dirt marks. When he didn’t find any, he rung Sheets up, bringing a bewildered Padres manager Mike Shildt out of the dugout. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an umpire do that before. Anyway, good job, Dubin.
On to the ninth, and here comes closer…Yennier Cano? Again: whatever. Throw stuff at the wall, etc. And Yennier was really good! He mowed through the Padres 1-2-3, striking out two and getting a game-ending groundout from Arraez. That was vintage Cano. And hey, there’s a sweep! I did not see that coming.
