This game will actually be on MASN and Félix Bautista is scheduled to pitch.
Since the start of Grapefruit League games, the Orioles have played the Pirates four times. Tonight will be the fifth. They’ve lost all four games so far.
This fact does not matter yet. Three of the four games to date had a decisive number of runs given up by pitchers whose fortunes are not expected to impact the 2025 Orioles season in any way. With one exception, that will be true again tonight. The following pitchers are scheduled to get in work for the Orioles: Matt Bowman (start), Félix Bautista, Levi Stoudt.
It’s nice that we will get to see Bautista in action on MASN. Not only will tonight’s game be televised, so will tomorrow afternoon’s. What do they think this is, the regular season or something?
The Orioles sure know it’s not the regular season with this starting lineup:
Orioles lineup
- Jackson Holliday – SS
- Jordan Westburg – 3B
- Ryan O’Hearn – 1B
- Gary Sánchez – DH
- Heston Kjerstad – RF
- Ramón Urías – 2B
- Samuel Basallo – C
- Daz Cameron – LF
- Dylan Carlson – CF
Holliday and Kjerstad are among the Orioles who’ve gotten the most action in spring training to date. Kjerstad leads the team with 27 AB and Holliday is in the top 5 at 23.
This would be a grim lineup even for a so-called “Sunday forfeit” kind of game. Sánchez as the cleanup hitter, in particular, is a real “none of this matters” sign. So is having both Cameron and Carlson at the bottom of the lineup. And Bowman as the starting pitcher. They aren’t exactly lining up for Opening Day yet.
Starting pitchers for the next few games: Albert Suárez, Dean Kremer, Cade Povich. I think it would take another injury for both Suárez and Povich to end up in the Opening Day rotation. There are 17 days before the games start mattering.