The Baltimore Orioles fell to the Cleveland Guardians (49-50) by a score of 10-5 on Monday at Progressive Field. Dropping a game by five runs is bad but considering that the Guardians were 3 for 20 with runners in scoring position and left 15 men on base, the final deficit could have been greater.
A Fast Start, Then Nothing
Three consecutive singles to open the game by Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead. Following Henderson’s steal of second, Ramon Laureano singled to center, extending the Baltimore lead to 3-0.
Hit parade
pic.twitter.com/o3l19Yz4IL
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) July 21, 2025
Cleveland evened the score in their half of the first on a three-run homerun to right by Jose Ramirez.
In the third inning, with Ryan O’Hearn on first as a result of a fielding error, Laureano homered to left to put the Orioles back in front 5-3. Laureano finished the night with 2 hits and 4 RBI.
NO DOUBTER
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— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) July 21, 2025
It all went downhill from there; the Orioles had just one hit, a Holliday single, over the final six innings and as a result of a fifth inning double play, presented the minimum number of batters over that span as well.
A Mixed Bag Start
Starter Tomoyuki Sugano struggled with his command, throwing 90 pitches (50 K’s) over just 3.2 innings of work. He surrendered the Ramirez homerun in the first but escaped a bases-loaded and no out situation in the second, inducing two infield pop ups and a ground out on four pitches to do so.
Sugano issued a walk and hit a batter in the third with no resulting damage. A fielding error, a walk and a single, all with two outs, resulted in a Cleveland run and marked the end of the night for the right-hander. Sugano left with the lead and a line of 4 runs allowed, 3 earned, on 6 hits (HR), 4 walks, 4 strikeouts, a hit batter, a wild pitch and a pitch timer violation.
The Bullpen Was Ineffective
Corbin Martin relieved Sugano and got out of the fourth with a strikeout. In the fifth, however, he gave up a homerun to Cleveland catcher Bo Naylor, knotting the contest at 5.
Colin Selby (0-1) was next and he allowed a sixth inning lead-off homerun to Kyle Manzardo. Consecutive singles followed but Selby escaped the inning before it got worse. He was tagged with the loss, however.
Cleveland pulled away by scoring 4 runs off of reliever Grant Wolfram in the seventh. Two bases loaded walks and a single, all coming with one out, did the damage.
Putting an exclamation point on the night was O’Hearn’s ninth inning ejection by third base umpire Phil Cuzzi following a strike out.
In the end, the Orioles remain 8.5 games back in the Wild Card race and are once again 11 games below .500 and they received more injury news. Grayson Rodriguez will get a MRI on his elbow and Scott Blewett with get a second opinion on his. At some point reality has to set in on this lost season, doesn’t it?
2025 Record: 44-55
Next Game: Tues. 7/22 @ 6:40 pm vs. Guardians in Cleveland