Mullins provides plenty of Orioles Magic in Baltimore’s 18-0 bashing of Colorado

Orioles set the mark for biggest shutout win in franchise history, as the offense beat down the MLB-worst Rockies and Trevor Rogers looked dominant again.

We’ve seen Cedric Mullins Games before. The cycle in 2023, the away win in Seattle—where he robbed a home run and hit the game-winning long ball in extras. Saturday was perhaps the last Cedric Mullins Game of his Orioles career, as the O’s CF propelled Baltimore to an 18-0 over the Rockies.

The first sign that it’d be one of those games for Mullins came on the defensive side in the 3rd inning. With one out, Rockies’ No.9 hitter Orlando Arcia lashed a ball to the left-center gap. At first, it looked like Mullins had little chance at snagging the fly ball, but he got on his horse and laid out to make an impeccable diving grab.

For many CFs, it’d be one of the best plays of their career. For Mullins, it was a warm reminder of the defensive brilliance he’s shown throughout his Orioles career.

The peak of Mullins’ evening, however, came an inning later and with the bat in his hands. With the Orioles up 3-0 and runners on first and second, Mullins jumped on a first-pitch fastball in on his hands. In typical Ceddy fashion, he blasted it onto the flag court for a Weaver and his 100th career home run.

Mullins would then start a mini-rally in the 6th, with a little help from the Rockie defense. After Colton Cowser and Tyler O’Neill worked back-to-back walks, Mullins got to show off another element that’s defined his Orioles tenure: his speed. The Baltimore CF tapped a ball down the third base line, and Mullins’ speed forced Rockies reliever Ryan Rollison to rush his throw to first.

The throw sailed over the first baseman, allowing Mullins to reach on an infield single and Cowser to score from second for the 7th run of the game. Baltimore would score their 8th run of the game in the same fashion the very next batter. Jacob Stalling

Mullins Mania and the Orioles’ overall offense performance stole the headlines, but equally important was the excellent outing from starter Trevor Rogers. The southpaw savant was locked in from the 1st inning, generating five swings and misses en route to a two-strikeout first frame.

Rogers gave up his only hit all evening in the second on a softly-hit Thairo Estrada single, before closing out the frame with back-to-back Ks. Those strikeouts started a streak of 14 consecutive batters that Rogers set down from the top of the 2nd until the top of the 7th. When Colorado finally broke that streak with an Ezequiel Tovar leadoff walk in the 7th, Rogers rolled a double play ball to immediately erase the runner.

The O’s new de facto ace finished with a final line of 7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB and 5 K. It was the second time this season that Rogers pitched 7+ innings of shutout baseball, joining his outing of eight shutout innings against the Rangers a month ago. The Orioles’ lefty now has four straight quality starts, six quality starts in eight appearances and a staggeringly low 1.49 ERA.

While the O’s got the scoring starter early on thanks to a Ryan O’Hearn RBI single in the 1st, Baltimore’s biggest inning of the night came in the 7th. Already up 8-0, Gunnar Henderson kick-started a nine-run rally with a double off the wall in right field. O’Hearn then singled Henderson home to start a parade of RBI singles in the inning.

After Coby Mayo and Colton Cowser walked to load the bases, Tyler O’Neill singled to left to move everyone up one base and give Baltimore a 10-0 advantage. It was an excellent night overall for TON, who launched a two-run homer in the 2nd and reached base in all four plate appearances.

Dylan Carlson followed O’Neill with an RBI groundout, before back-to-back-to-back singles from Jacob Stallings, Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg saw the Orioles lead balloon to 13-0. That trio of singles also meant that every single Orioles starter recorded a hit Saturday, as Baltimore piled it on against MLB’s worst team.

Henderson and Mayo capped the rally with a pair of two-run doubles as the O’s finished the inning with eight hits and nine runs. The offensive output became historic thanks to an Alex Jackson home run in the 8th. The Rockies turned to position player Kyle Farmer to pitch he 8th, and pinch-hitting for O’Neill, Jackson Happy-Gilmored the first pitch he saw into the center field stands for the 18th run of the game.

After Kade Strowd completed the shutout win with a scoreless 9th, it capped the largest shutout win in Orioles history. Following the disappointment that came from Friday’s loss, Saturday’s pummeling of the Rockies certainly felt cathartic and like a jolt of fun for a fanbase that experienced way more misery than fun.

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With his 100th HR, Mullins joins Brady Anderson and Paul Blair as the only players to put up 100 HRs and 100 SBs with the O’s.

The 1.49 ERA from Rogers gives him the third-best ERA for any Orioles starter through their first eight starts in a season. He trails only Hoyt Wilhelm in 1959 (0.49) and John Means in 2021 (1.21).