It’s almost a shame the Orioles have another game of baseball to play today, because it’s going to be hard to top their game one performance.
The O’s opened a doubleheader with an all-around fantastic win over the Astros, 10-3. Chris Bassitt posted his most impressive outing as an Oriole by a long shot, shutting down the AL’s best offense for just one run in 6.2 innings. The Orioles didn’t score until the fifth but opened the floodgates after that, crushing two grand slams — by Adley Rutschman and Jeremiah
Jackson — to reach double digits for the second time this season.
This game pitted a guy with a 6.75 ERA this season against one with a 6.15 ERA in five career seasons. So of course it turned into a pitcher’s duel. But for Chris Bassitt and the Orioles, that was just fine. Bassitt was in dire need of a quality performance as an Oriole, and boy, did he get it this afternoon.
From the get-go, Bassitt was absolutely dealing. It was impressive enough that he started his day with two straight strikeouts, but even more impressive that the second one came against Yordan Alvarez, who historically has crushed Bassitt in his career (9-for-22 with five home runs, his most against any pitcher). But Bassitt carved him up with no issues on his way to a perfect inning.
Bassitt allowed a baserunner in the second but twice got help from Adley Rutschman, who first pulled off a successful ABS challenge to eventually strike out Yainer Diaz and then threw out Jose Altuve trying to steal. Bassitt worked past another baserunner in the third and two more in the fourth, and he followed up with his second perfect inning in the fifth. The veteran right-hander looked every bit like the pitcher the O’s thought they were signing. He was hitting his spots, mixing his pitches, and generally making a very good Astros offense look very silly.
Early on, the O’s had trouble giving Bassitt any support. They were stymied by Peter Lambert, who’d had a very bad MLB career with the Rockies (something that happens to a lot of pitchers, to be fair) before reinvigorating his career in Japan last year. Lambert started the game with three scoreless innings of his own before the O’s broke through in the fourth. Pete Alonso walked, and with two outs, Jeremiah Jackson started his excellent day of work by lacing a double down the left-field line. Alonso huffed and puffed around the bases as fast as his Polar Bear legs could carry him, crossing the plate with the game’s first run.
From then on, the Orioles scored lots and lots of runs, and none of them required a lumbering slugger to breathlessly chug around the basepaths. The O’s chased Lambert from the game in the fifth on a Blaze Alexander one-out double, snapping his 0-for-14 drought. Lefty Steven Okert tried to defuse the rally and instead poured gasoline on the fire. Gunnar Henderson reached on a check-swing squib infield single to third and Taylor Ward walked, loading the bases for Adley Rutschman.
Folks. Adley is so back. If you hadn’t gotten the memo, allow Rutschman to demonstrate. He crushed a sizzling fly ball to deep center field. Astros center fielder Brice Matthews made a leaping attempt at the wall and nearly pulled off an incredible, home run-saving catch. Nearly. The ball was in his glove, but it popped out into the O’s bullpen when Matthews slammed into the wall. The Orioles’ relievers, with an up-close look at the play, erupted into cheers and celebrations while Matthews looked forlornly at his empty glove. GRAND SLAM, Adley Rutschman! The O’s catcher has 11 hits, four homers, and 14 RBIs in his six games since returning from the IL. See my earlier comment re: Adley and his backness.
During the home run call, MASN announcer Kevin Brown gleefully exclaimed that analyst Jim Palmer was now obligated to eat a chicken wing, something that the Hall of Fame O’s legend somehow had never done in his 80 years on this earth. Apparently Palmer made an on-air promise during a 2025 game that he’d eat a chicken wing if the O’s hit a grand slam during a game he was calling. Here it was, and so he delivered: Palmer dug into some chicken wings in the bottom of the eighth, proclaiming, “These are actually pretty tasty.”
Good times at Camden Yards, everyone. And they only got better.
Two innings later, the Astros turned to long reliever Jason Alexander, and today definitely was not the Summer of George. The O’s battered the poor guy for five runs with an incredible rally after there were two outs and nobody on base. It started harmlessly enough with a Ward walk, and then Rutschman did his thing again with a single and Alonso walked. Alexander couldn’t find the strike zone, walking Dylan Beavers on four pitches to force home a run.
Alexander was gifted an automatic strike when Jeremiah Jackson didn’t get to the batter’s box in time. No matter. Jackson swung at the next pitch and blasted it 380 feet into the left-field seats, to a very similar spot as his comeback-inspiring grand slam against the Diamondbacks a couple of weeks ago. It’s another salami for Jeremiah! He increased his team-leading RBI total to 24. Where would the Orioles be without Jackson this year? My goodness.
The offensive explosion made things easy for Bassitt, not that he needed any help. The right-hander ultimately 6.2 strong innings, giving up just one run on seven hits. His seven strikeouts were a season high by far; his previous best was three. Wonderfully done, Chris. That’s exactly what the O’s needed to save their bullpen in the first game of a doubleheader.
Rico Garcia stranded two of Bassitt’s baserunners in the seventh. Anthony Nunez gave up two runs in the eighth, but both were unearned thanks to two O’s errors (good thing the Orioles were already way ahead). Newly recalled Jose Espada, a second cousin of Astros manager Joe Espada, worked through a ninth-inning jam with help from Jackson, who made a nice defensive play at second to start a double play.
And there you have it. A fun, easy, 10-3 Orioles win. What a beautiful day of baseball. Any chance we can keep it up in game 2, guys?
