Ramón Laureano, who didn’t even start the game, hit two home runs to help the O’s overcome a nine-walk pitching performance.
Let’s just say it: this is a game the Orioles had no business winning.
The O’s had a pitcher making his major league debut facing off against the best pitcher in baseball. Orioles pitchers allowed 13 hits and nine walks, with the Reds getting 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Had just one or two of the 365 pitches in this game gone differently, we could well be talking about another depressing Birds defeat.
And yet: the Orioles pulled it out. Thanks to a five-homer Birds attack and Cincinnati stranding a small army of baserunners, the O’s got back on track, winning 9-5. What a way to make a living.
The all-orange-clad Orioles took the field with an all-new pitcher, Brandon Young, freshly recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to make his major league debut. The shaggy-haired right-hander wasn’t exactly fooling anyone early. He gave up four hits in the first inning, but limited the damage to one run with help from his defense. After leadoff man TJ Friedl singled, Young retired the next two batters before Austin Hays, Gavin Lux, and Santiago Espinal knocked consecutive hits. Lux’s single drove in a run, but Espinal’s did not, thanks to a great throw by right fielder Tyler O’Neill to cut down Hays trying to score. Nice one! O’Neill may have the defensive range of a potted plant, but his arm is no joke.
The Orioles answered back immediately, all the more impressive because they did it against Hunter Greene, who’d entered the game as the most dominant starter in the majors this year (0.98 ERA in four starts). Leadoff man Cedric Mullins continued his scalding 2025 season with a 393-foot smash to right-center, tying the game at one. Just two pitches later, Gunnar Henderson went two feet further with a blast of his own to center. The fans in Mr. Splash’s section, still soggy from Mullins’s blast, were promptly re-doused.
How about that? Hunter Greene had allowed only one home run in 27.2 innings before today. Then he gives up two to the first two Orioles he faces. As Jayson Stark would say: baseball! It was the Birds’ first instance of back-to-back homers to lead off the game since June 7, 2022, which also involved Mullins (and Trey Mancini).
Greene clearly was off his game. The rest of his first inning saw him drill not one but two Orioles hitters, including Heston Kjerstad in the arm with a 100-mph fastball. Though he was wearing an elbow pad, Kjerstad was in obvious pain, as we all would be. He initially stayed in the game, but was pulled in the third inning with a right elbow contusion. Poor Heston just cannot catch a break.
Handed his first lead, Young immediately gave it back, coughing up a Eutaw Street blast to Jake Fraley to begin the second. Welcome to the show, Brandon. For the second straight inning, the Reds got four runners but just one run, thanks to an excellent pickoff by Young, who caught Jeimer Candelario leaning at first after walking him. The next two batters both doubled, so, you know, good thing Candelario wasn’t still on base. The Reds did take a 3-2 lead, though.
Still, the Orioles continued to hound Greene. Hunter became the hunted, you might say. Doubles by Ramón Urías and Henderson tied the game at three, and by the time the second inning ended, Greene was already at 59 pitches. Kudos to the O’s offense for putting together some really good at-bats against a very tough pitcher.
The onslaught continued in the third when O’Neill drew a leadoff walk and Ramón Laureano — Ramón Laureano, of all people! — crushed a two-run homer to left, giving the Orioles a 5-3 lead. Laureano was only in the game because he replaced the injured Kjerstad, so Greene’s master plan to intentionally knock Heston out of the game really backfired. Greene finished the inning but, at 77 pitches, he didn’t return for the fourth. This from a guy who had pitched 7.0, 8.2, and 7.0 innings in his last three games. Go figure.
We can officially say that Brandon Young outpitched Hunter Greene in his major league debut, so that’s something to hang his hat on. Young had his first perfect inning in the third, then erased a walk with a double play in a scoreless fourth. He came back out for the fifth but walked the leadoff man, bringing Brandon Hyde out of the dugout for a pitching change.
Young threw 81 pitches, giving up seven hits, three walks, and three runs. It wasn’t the prettiest debut, but he seemed to get better as the game went on. Young flashed five pitches — a cutter, four-seamer, curveball, slider, and changeup — and got all three of his strikeouts on the change. We’ll see if he gets another start or if Kyle Gibson will replace him the next time through the rotation.
It was time for the Orioles bullpen to white-knuckle it through the next few innings. Bryan Baker replaced Young in the fifth and got himself into a bases-loaded mess with a pair of walks, but retired Espinal on a liner to right to escape. Keegan Akin started the sixth and walked the first batter — the third straight Reds inning with a leadoff walk — and that turned into a run after a Candelario double and a Friedl bunt single that Ryan O’Hearn muffed at first base.
The O’s lead was shaved to 5-4, with the potential tying run at third with only one out. But Seranthony Dominguez got the desperately needed double play, with third baseman Ramón Urías niftily spearing a sharp Matt McLain grounder and turning the 5-4-3.
The seventh inning was a similar high-wire act. Elly De La Cruz led off with a single and, with one out, stole both second and third base, putting the tying run 90 feet away. Again, the Orioles somehow survived. Southpaw Gregory Soto pulled some reverse-splits shenanigans and walked both left-handed batters he faced but retired both righties, ending with a bases-loaded groundout by Candelario. Once more: exhale. The Reds went 4-for-17 with men in scoring position in this game, stranding 13 runners on base.
Tired of the walking the perpetual tightrope, the O’s set out to add some insurance runs. They did it in the seventh thanks to another set of back-to-back homers, this time from Laureano — his second of the game — and Jordan Westburg, who finally snapped an 0-for-30 drought in the most prodigious fashion. Good for Jordan, but how about that Ramón Laureano? It was his fifth career multi-homer game. The supposed lefty-masher has hit all three of his homers this year off of right-handers.
With Félix Bautista warming, the Orioles added two more in the eighth on consecutive RBI singles by the O’s — O’Hearn and O’Neill — off of Carson Spiers. The righty Spiers did yeoman’s work, throwing 94 pitches to work the final four innings, even though he had been slated to start tomorrow’s finale.
Now up 9-4, Bautista sat down and Matt Bowman started the ninth instead. But Félix didn’t get the day off he’d hoped, because Bowman was awful, coughing up a leadoff homer to Hays followed by a double and a walk. Sigh. Nothing is easy in this game. With the tying run now on deck, Bautista came in for the save situation and, fortunately, put out the fire. He struck out Fraley and retired Candelario on a grounder for two outs, and Laureano, appropriately enough, made a nice leaping catch on a Jose Trevino liner to left to seal the win.
Boy, that one was a slog. But you can’t argue with the end result. The Orioles are back in the win column.