O’s get blanked for second night in a row, lose 5-0 to Red Sox
· Yahoo Sports
For the second consecutive night, the Orioles offense was an absolute no-show, getting blanked yet again in a 5-0 defeat at the hands of visiting Red Sox on Saturday night at Camden Yards.
The sixth inning of this game felt like a a death knell for the 2026 Orioles.
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At the time, the game was in a scoreless tie. Chris Bassitt, the O’s starter, was in fine form, but likely on borrowed time given how most of his season had gone. The veteran hurler was in the midst of his third time through the order. He had loaded the bases with two outs, which prompted a visit from manager Craig Albernaz. Rico Garcia was ready and waiting in the bullpen, but after a quick conversation on the bump the skipper stuck with Bassitt to face Eli White.
It was the sort of anti-analytics move that would have been quite inspiring if it worked, the spark to push the Orioles towards a much-needed win. Instead, White flared a jam shot over the head of third baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand to score a pair. A frustrated Bassitt left the mound moments later, his hat askew and glove gnashed between his teeth. Same here, Chris.
Garcia then entered, and he didn’t immediately shut things down anyway. Connor Wong also singled to make it 3-0 for the visitors. And then the O’s reliever finally recorded the final out of the inning.
A three-run deficit is no easy gap to make up, but its’ manageable for most big league offenses. This currently slumping Orioles lineup is not your run-of-the-mill offense. They might as well have trailed by 20 runs. A comeback in either scenario was just as likely.
Those odds got even longer in the seventh inning, when Isiah Kiner-Falefa delivered a two-out, two-run double to score Mickey Gasper and Trevor Story off of O’s reliever Albert Suárez. That pushed the Red Sox lead to 5-0, and it’s where the game could have stopped, if we’re honest.
The Orioles did momentarily threaten a comeback in the eighth inning. They opened the inning with a Dylan Beavers single followed by a Coby Mayo walk. Eventually, after a later Gunnar Henderson walk, they would load the bases, but not before recording two outs. That brought Pete Alonso to the plate with a chance to get the O’s back in the game with one swing. It wasn’t to be. The slugger struck out on three pitches.
That was the story of the game for the Orioles. Once again, they went hitless in chances with runners in scoring position, 0-for-8 here. They also wasted doubles from Henderson and Colton Cowser earlier in the game, then left Encarnacion-Strand, well, stranded at second base to end the game.
Jackson Holliday went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts as the DH batting lead-off tonight. He has been in a bad slump since the start of August. Putting him atop the order doesn’t make much sense right now.
There was an odd moment in the seventh inning where Samuel Basallo flew out to the warning track. He reacted on contact as if he had hit a home run. And then, as he reached first base and saw the left field Wilyer Abreau corral the fly ball with several feet to spare, Basallo turned his palms upward in a confused manner as if to say “How did that not go over the fence?” He had hit the ball hard (107 mph), but at a pretty severe angle (38 degrees.). To his credit, it would have been a home run in 13 parks, according to Baseball Savant. But Camden Yards is not one of those parks.
It’s a shame the Orioles offense was so putrid that it stole the headlines. We could have been talking more about how good Bassitt was prior to the sixth inning. The veteran had extra juice on his sinker (up 1.5 mph on his season average), and he was getting oddles of whiffs overall (35% whitt rate). He looked really good! And if the offense had given him any support, he would have been pulled earier and been given a better final line. As it stands, he went 5.2 innings and allowed three runs on five hits, four walks, and six strikeouts. His ERA sits at 4.96 on the season.
This loss pushes the O’s streak of futility to five straight. They have scored a total of 12 runs in those five games, zero of which have come the last two nights at Camden Yards. It’s next to impossible to win when you average a little over two runs per game, and it is absolutely impossible if you don’t score at all. They should probably figure that out.
Elsewhere in the big leagues, the Blue Jays won and the Guardians lost. That means the Blue Jays now possess the final wild card spot in the AL, but the Orioles still trail by the same three games that they did coming into the day. So no ground was lost there, but it’s tough to feel anything positive right now. They Orioles can’t score runs, which means they can’t win games. The standings will be irrelevant while that is the case, and they are running out of time to develop any sort of solution.
Is their season officially or mathematically over? No. But it sure feels like it anway.
The Orioles and Red Sox will wrap up this series on Sunday afternoon. It’s a match up between Kyle Bradish (7-12, 4.01 ERA) and lefty Payton Tolle (8-6, 3.23 ERA). First pitch is set for 1:35 if you dare subject yourself to the misery that is sure to follow.