The Orioles unveiled a 2026 slogan, to much self-paid fanfare, that says: Fly Different. Setting aside any grammatical quibbles with this particular slogan or motto, if the team is going to live up to it, they are going to have to do something better than what happened last year, whether this is to be described as different or differently. Their main problem two games into the season is that they are flying same. This continued on Saturday afternoon against the Twins as the O’s lost a 4-1 game for
their first setback of 2026.
The most important thing there is to say about this game is that Orioles batters struck out 16 times. That’s twice as many strikeouts as they had in their Opening Day victory over Minnesota. Despite out-hitting the Twins, 5-4, the Orioles had just one hit with runners in scoring position and they ended up leaving a total of 11 men on base. The first seven spots in the starting lineup combined for just one hit in the game. All of these things create a tough environment to get a win, since they pretty much demand that everything else will go perfectly.
Saturday’s Orioles starting pitcher, Kyle Bradish, was not perfectly. We all want Bradish to be able to pick up where he left off from the 2023 season, before Tommy John surgery and rehab interrupted his career. In six starts after coming back last year, he showed that he might be able to do so. That did not continue on into today.
Bradish was not able to complete five innings in his first start of the season. He lost command of his elevated fastball as the game went along and it seemed that he was losing velocity as well. Only in time can we know if these are continual trends of concern. Bradish’s struggle was encapsulated when he allowed a two-run home run to Twins #8 hitter Royce Lewis. Don’t blow it against the #8 hitter! And yet, here we are. These two runs were the decisive ones in the game, and the only earned runs allowed by Bradish on the day.
There was also an unearned run against Bradish. This one was much less his fault. It started with Byron Buxton beating out a ground ball for an infield single. Jeremiah Jackson’s throw from the shortstop side of second base was initially ruled to be an out but overturned on replay. Buxton advanced to second base on a fly ball, showing the kind of disrespect a fast runner can afford to show Colton Cowser, who has not demonstrated accuracy with his arm.
Buxton made it to third base when Adley Rutschman attempted a back pick at second base and ended up throwing the ball into Buxton’s helmet. That was dumb. It cost the Orioles on the very next batter, when the speedy Buxton was able to score on a not-particularly-deep flyout to left field. This was the first Twins run of the game and erased what had been a 1-0 Orioles lead. Earlier in the game, the team cashed in on back-to-back hits by Cowser and Jackson to score the game’s first run. For the Orioles offense, this proved to be the only run.
When the Orioles offense largely struggled on Opening Day, that was, at least, against Joe Ryan, a guy who was pretty good a year ago. That easy excuse is not available for the Saturday loss. Minnesota’s Taj Bradley dropped a 5.05 ERA in the 2025 season and brought a 4.86 career ERA into the game. The O’s did a solid job early in the game of pushing up Bradley’s pitch count, and although they didn’t have much to show for it, and indeed struck out against him nine times, they chased him after only 4.1 innings.
Often, getting the starter out before the fifth inning is step one towards a good outcome. Unfortunately, this involves successfully executing later steps by doing good things against a team’s bullpen. The Orioles could not manage to do this. They had two hits for the rest of the game after Minnesota’s bullpen got involved. That sucks.
If you want to find a silver lining from the loss, that could be found in the major league debut of reliever Anthony Nunez. Acquired from the Mets last July, Nunez probably only made the Opening Day roster due to the injuries to Keegan Akin and Andrew Kittredge. Nunez looked great in the losing effort, pitching for two perfect innings while striking out three batters. I think that’s the first sign, but not the last, that he is ticketed for eventual higher-leverage innings.
With the press conference announcing Shane Baz’s contract extension earlier on Saturday drawing apparently the entire Orioles roster, this could have been a great chance for a fun win to leave everybody feeling good about the direction of the franchise. Instead, the Orioles turned in the kind of loss that they have authored all too many times since around the All-Star Break in the 2024 season.
It’s only one game out of 162, and it only feels so important because it is 50% of the games so far. But even in the one game that the Orioles won, the offense didn’t do much to make anybody feel like the problems have been solved.
Even so, the Orioles can get a season-opening series win on Sunday afternoon starting at a scheduled 1:35 Eastern. That will depend on Baz making a strong first impression on the organization after signing his new contract extension, and probably also on the offense doing something other than stinking against Twins #3 starter Bailey Ober. At least they aren’t the Giants, who got shut out two games in a row to start the season. That doesn’t make me feel much better.
