In homage to the 1970’s Lay’s Potato Chips commercial, “they tried but they just couldn’t do it“, the Baltimore Orioles could not get past the Houston Astros (71-58) on Friday night. Houston established a 4-0 lead in the third inning and never looked back, defeating the Orioles 10-7 in front of 24,224 fans.
After taking that 4-0 lead, Houston would see the Orioles draw close before extending the lead again. Houston had leads in the game of 4-0, 4-3, 7-3, 7-5, 7-6 and finally 10-6 before the Orioles scored their final run of the night in the bottom of the eighth.
Houston touched Orioles starter Cade Povich (2-7) for 6 runs over 4.2 innings. Povich struggled, needing 96 pitches (60 K’s) to record those 14 outs; he issued a pair of walks and struck out 5 in the loss. The big blow against Povich came on a three-run homerun by Jeremy Pena in the third inning. Povich left the game with two on and two out in the fifth and saw those two runners score when Baltimore reliever Yennier Cano immediately gave up a three-run homerun.
For the second game in a row, Astros first baseman Christian Walker homered against the organization that drafted him. Walker took a 92.6 mph Cano sinker 396 ft. to left field.
Pena’s eighth inning double plated Houston’s 10th run right after Victor Caratini doubled in two runs.
The Birds could only counter with solo HR’s
Colton Cowser hit his 10th homerun, a solo shot in the seventh inning that made the score 7-6 at the time.
Delivery from The Milkman
pic.twitter.com/mJVWFfrZZ3
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) August 23, 2025
Vimael Machin, called up earlier in the day when Jordan Westburg was placed on the 10-day IL, hit his first homerun as an Oriole in the eight inning. His solo shot traveled 397 ft.to center field.
The offense presented itself well
Jeremiah Jackson continues to hit, going 2 for 5 with a double and 3 RBI. The right fielder is slashing .327/ .339/ .436 with 6 runs scored and 7 RBI since his debut on August 1st.
Gunnar Henderson, Luis Vazquez and Alex Jackson each recorded a pair of hits in the contest. As a team, the batters went 3 for 14 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base.
The bullpen continued to produce mixed results. Kade Strowd walked one in a scoreless sixth inning while in contrast, Matt Bowman gave up 2 runs over 1.1 innings and Corbin Martin gave up a run in 1.2 innings.
Despite the loss, not much could dampen the mood in Birdland as it was announced earlier in the day that Uber Prospect Samuel Basallo had signed an eight year $67M contact extension with a club option for 2034. The extension was the first completed during the Mike Elias era.
2025 Record: 59-69
Next Game: Sat. 8/23 @ 7:05 pm vs. Houston Astros