Cade Povich was brilliant, and the bullpen locked things down, while the lineup was quiet outside of one inning.
Are they allowed to win like that? The Orioles ended up on the right side of a pitching duel in D.C. Cade Povich bested MacKenzie Gore and led the O’s to a sweep-avoiding 2-1 win at Nationals Park on Thursday night.
This is not the type of game that the 2025 Baltimore Orioles have been able to win. Literally. Prior to tonight, these Orioles had not won a single game in which they scored fewer than five runs. Much of the blame there is on a horrendous starting pitching staff, and a little is the fault of a streaky offense. Tonight, the pitchers led the way.
Cade Povich entered this game under as much pressure as anyone on the staff. The 25-year-old struggled mightily in his previous start. While he has not been the worst performer of the group, he has been bad enough and he is inexperienced enough that a demotion could be on the table. But that won’t happen right away given how good Povich was on this night.
It was among the finest showings of Povich’s young career. Over 6.2 innings he allowed just one run on four hits, a walk, and five strikeouts. He was a Gunnar Henderson error away from completing seven innings.
Povich was peppering the strike zone. He stayed ahead of the Nationals hitters constantly, and he used the sweeper liberally. Coming into the game, the sweeper had been the southpaw’s second or third-most used pitch, accounting for 18% of his offerings. Tonight, more than half of his pitches were sweepers, and it looked good. He had an extra tick or two of velocity on it, and got a whiff rate of 42% on the pitch.
For Povich, the key part of his formula tends to be walks. When he avoids free passes, he can survive the hard contact he is prone to because his stuff is just good enough. When he puts men on base, things fall apart fast. He gave up just one walk in this one, and was rarely even deep into counts. Across his 6.2 innings he threw just 87 pitches.
From there Brandon Hyde was able to turn to his A-squad in the bullpen. Yennier Cano threw one pitch to wrap up the seventh inning. Gregory Soto worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning. And Félix Bautista recorded his third save of the year, although he did allow the tying run to get all the way to third base (infield single, stolen base, advanced on an out) before closing things out.
There was far less to talk about on the offensive side of things. The Orioles did not fare too well against Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore, and they did nothing against the bullpen. But on a night where Povich and the relievers were so good, they did enough.
Both of the O’s runs came in the fifth inning. Ramón Laureano doubled with one out. Ryan O’Hearn, getting a rare start against a left-handed pitcher, singled in Laureano and advanced to second on the throw home. That savvy baserunning put him in position to score on a Cedric Mullins single up the middle to give the good guys a 2-1 lead that they would hang on to.
That fifth inning included three of the Orioles’ four total hits on the night. Throughout the entire game they worked two walks and struck out 13 times. The only other time they seemed close to scoring was in the second, when Ryan Mountcastle walked and Jordan Westburg singled to put two runners on with no outs. But the next three hitters failed to even advance them a base.
The 2-3-4 hitters of Adley Rutschman, Henderson, and Mountcastle combined to go 0-for-10 with two walks and four strikeouts. The team needs more out of the middle of its order. Heston Kjerstad had a tough night, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
But let’s not nitpick. The Orioles were due for a win like this. For the second straight night, the starting pitching was quite good. It gave the offense a chance to win the game. That didn’t work out on Wednesday, but it did on Thursday. Given how bad the team has looked recently, we’ll take it and hope that they can build upon it.
Next up is a trip to Detroit. Brandon Young (0-0, 6.75 ERA) will make the second start of his MLB career. He will be opposed by former number one overall pick Casey Mize (3-1, 2.22 ERA). First pitch is 6:40 p.m. from Comerica Park.