Back-to-back home runs by Cedric Mullins and Gary Sánchez made the difference for the Orioles.
Saturday afternoon’s Orioles game against the Angels had a number of hallmarks of games that the 2025 Orioles have lost. The starting pitcher was not particularly good. Two different relievers gave up a home run to the worst position player in baseball. Each of these things happened in a game where the opposing team deployed a left-handed starting pitcher. The Orioles offense overcame these challenges and the team held on for a 6-5 win.
There was something good for just about every fan, except for Tomoyuki Sugano fans. If you like it when the Orioles hit home runs, the Orioles took the lead on back-to-back homers in the sixth inning. If you like when the Orioles score runs without getting a hit, you got that. If you like aggressive baserunning, the Orioles turned an alert advance on a wild pitch into a run, then immediately turned a stolen base into a run because, amazingly, they got two hits in a row with a runner in scoring position. Or if you just like to see Félix Bautista throwing 100 – the first time since his Tommy John surgery – this game had that, too.
The Orioles had to mount two different comebacks in this game, the first of which was unfortunately needed in the very first inning. Sugano, who typically has excellent command, walked the Angels leadoff hitter Zach Neto on four pitches. After getting one out, Sugano, who typically gives up a lot of home runs, faced down future Hall of Famer Mike Trout. You could guess how that would end, and you’d have been right.
Trout reached inside and pulled a fly ball high down the left field line, almost hooking foul but not almost enough because it hit high off the pole for a two-run home run. That was home run #389 in his career, his first in 12 days. The Angels led, 2-0. On MASN, former Oriole Brian Roberts noted that Trout looked “hitterish” today. O’s pitchers must have known it too after the home run, because they pitched around Trout enough for him to walk twice afterwards.
Rather than looking shell-shocked after falling behind before even batting, the Orioles offense started responding right away. Jackson Holliday jumped on the first pitch he saw, picking up a double. After Adley Rutschman drew a walk, the next two O’s batters advanced the runners with groundouts. Jordan Westburg collected an RBI for the second of these groundouts. As former manager Buck Showalter would say, POFO: Productive outs for Orioles.
Two innings later, the Orioles grabbed their first lead of the game by starting a two-out rally from nothing. Rutschman hit a grounder to the shortstop Neto that would have required an amazing play that Neto was unable to make: Infield single. Some alert baserunning got Rutschman to second base as Angels starter Tyler Anderson spiked a ball in the dirt. This was an aggressive play: The ball bounced so close by that its next ricochet was the home plate umpire, then right at his feet.
The 2025 Orioles have specialized in failing with a runner in scoring position, so in an extremely sarcastic way, by advancing Rutschman to second base, the Angels had the Orioles right where they wanted them. That’s the easy joke. Henderson hit a laser of a line drive that found the right field grass. Substitute third base coach Buck Britton aggressively sent Rutschman, who scored as the throw home was cut off.
Tie game, but not for long. Henderson stole second base and Westburg hit almost the exact same line drive that Henderson did, falling in right field. Britton again tested Angels right fielder LaMonte Wade Jr. and it paid off as catcher Logan O’Hoppe couldn’t catch the wide throw. Henderson scored to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead.
The lead did not last. Sugano hit a rocky patch in the fifth inning, hitting two batters and allowing a single and a double over a stretch of six hitters. The double, hit by LA’s Taylor Ward, tied the game at 3, and the second hit by pitch loaded the bases. With a lefty, Wade, due up, the Orioles summoned Keegan Akin. The Angels pinch hit righty Scott Kingery. Joke on them: Akin is a reverse splits guy this year. He induced Kingery to ground out with little drama.
In all, Sugano gave up six hits, two walks, two hit batsmen, and three runs over a 4.2 inning start. That was not very good. He is lucky Akin held the line to keep the run column from expanding again. Which is not to say we have all good things to say about Akin. Brought back out for the sixth, Akin could not put up another zero. Embarrassingly, he gave up a home run to the #8 Angels batter, Luis Rengifo.
When I mentioned earlier giving up two home runs to the worst position player in baseball, this is it. He’s the guy. Rengifo brought a .214/.248/.262 line into the game. He had hit all of one home run before today. And then Akin gave up his second, giving the Angels a 4-3 lead. In 2025, that is the magic of Orioles baseball.
Yet the Orioles offense is not without its own quality. In the sixth inning, Ramón Laureano led off with a walk. After the walk, Cedric Mullins came up and ambushed a first-pitch changeup, going deep to the first row of seats in center field. That’s a team-high 11 for the year for Mullins, and after he touched home plate, the Orioles held a 5-4 lead. Before the next at-bat was over, make it 6-4. Gary Sánchez, freshly off the injured list, made it back-to-back with a home run into the Mr. Splash area of Camden Yards. This was his first hit against a lefty all season.
All of this came against the Angels lefty Anderson. It really happened. The Orioles scored six runs in five innings against a left-handed starting pitcher. Maybe it won’t be the last time. That sixth run proved crucial because, in the eighth inning, Rengifo struck again, this time off reliever Andrew Kittredge. Like, really. That guy? Come on. Former Oriole Joey Ortiz has got to wear the “worst hitter in MLB” badge tomorrow now that Rengifo has passed him. Rengifo’s second home run made it 6-5, the final score.
Holding a one run lead into the ninth, the Orioles turned to Félix Bautista for a second consecutive day. We are past the early weeks of not pushing him. Bautista got one out, hit 100mph while retiring Trout for the second out, then made it a little more interesting, walking Ward on four pitches and working a full count to the next batter, O’Hoppe, before striking the catcher out on a sinker to save his 14th game of the season. Cue the Rutschman-Bautista hug. It’s still adorable.
That’s two wins in a row for the Orioles and a series win in the books. They picked up 11 hits in a game where they needed the offense and where, thanks to the lefty starter, it was no guarantee they’d get it. That was nice to see. They’re going to have to do it again tomorrow if they’d like to sweep because another Angels lefty, Yusei Kikuchi, awaits. Cade Povich is set to start the 1:35 Father’s Day game for the Orioles.