The Orioles overcame a two-run deficit to Seattle thanks to timely dingers. We’ll always take it.
After two months of disappointment, the Orioles cannot be beaten. They pulled off another come-from-behind win as they closed out a sweep of the Mariners on Thursday afternoon, rallying from two runs down to storm ahead to a lead after back-to-back home runs by Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson. Games like this 4-3 win are something closer to what we might have imagined from the team before the season began.
The Orioles are now winners of six straight games, a season high streak for them. Five of these six games had a margin of one or two runs. The O’s are winning some tight ones that have required a level of good play that they just weren’t playing in April and most of May.
Good (or at least good enough) starting pitching, enough timely hitting to matter, and a bullpen that doesn’t collapse at the idea of a slim lead. All are being combined. When the Orioles did this against the White Sox, it could be reasonably dismissed: Well, that was just the White Sox. Now they’ve gone and done it to the Mariners too, a team that was in first place until they blew what they probably thought was a slam dunk series against the woeful Orioles. Surprise! You got something else instead.
This was never going to be an easy one for the Orioles as they were sent up against Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo, who’s been very good going back a full season worth of games now. The Orioles lineup had a number of guys who are of the “seen most frequently in getaway day game” ilk – Jorge Mateo in center field again, Emmanuel Rivera at the hot corner, Maverick Handley behind the dish. You could look at that lineup and think it would stink, and you would have been right! They got six hits all game. They won anyway.
As it turned out, Handley was involved in the first run scoring for the Orioles, and he didn’t even need to get a hit. Woo ended up walking Handley. It’s not like Woo is always walking guys. He brought a 1.2 BB/9 into this game. Having let Handley on base for free to lead off the third inning, Woo let fly a wild pitch that advanced Handley to second base. This is unusual for Woo, too: He’d last tossed a wild pitch in 2023.
Handley took third base as Rutschman hit a fly ball deep enough to right field. At this point, there were two outs, so it would take either a base hit or something weird to score Handley. The Mariners chose something weird. Woo spiked another pitch, at which catcher Cal Raleigh made a half-hearted stab. The pitch bounced a long way away. Raleigh didn’t strain himself chasing it down and Handley didn’t do more than jog home to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead.
Not that this slim lead lasted for long. With the top of the lineup batting again in the third inning, J.P. Crawford led off with a single off of Zach Eflin. As the inning played out, Seattle had a man on second base, two outs, and Raleigh at the plate. Raleigh brought an MLB-leading 23 home runs and an OPS over 1.000 into the game.
A case could be made to intentionally walk such a slugger in that situation. I dislike that kind of loser thinking – the Orioles should be able to count on their top starter getting out a good hitter. The results didn’t go in that direction, though. Raleigh lined a single to left and the Mariners easily tied up the game.
That’s where things stood for another couple of innings. Raleigh came up to face Eflin, again with two outs and a man on base. Is the man they call the Big Dumper really worth being in that auto-walk territory? Again I say: No. But having said that, Eflin pitched to Raleigh and left a 1-0 cutter right about belt high and in the middle of the plate. Raleigh did not miss, and after he rounded the bases, Seattle held a 3-1 lead.
Even through this winning streak, the Orioles offense hasn’t been a powerhouse. They had only four hits over the course of Wednesday’s win and through five innings on Thursday they’d collected just two hits. Woo is pretty good. Very easily, Raleigh’s 24th homer of the season could have been the effective end of the game. It could have been that, except it wasn’t.
Instead, Jackson Holliday drew a walk to lead off the sixth inning, which meant he was on base as Woo threw an 0-2 mistake slider right in the heart of the zone to Rutschman. The Orioles catcher continued his Pacific Northwest tear, muscling a fly ball into the wind that just barely cleared the right field fence. Just barely is just enough, and suddenly the game was tied again.
There was no time to digest the newly-tied state of affairs because Henderson followed Rutschman and delivered a home run of his own, putting the Orioles back on top by a 4-3 margin. Rutschman’s seventh homer and Henderson’s eighth of the year could hardly have come at a better time. Eflin, who had been on the hook for something of a tough luck loss, was flipped around to a win, if the bullpen could hold on.
The bullpen held on. There was not a ton of drama involved. Keegan Akin didn’t allow anyone to reach in the seventh. Andrew Kittredge sent them down 1-2-3 in the eighth. Bryan Baker, okay, he made it a little hairy by starting off with a 3-0 count to his first batter, Rowdy Tellez, but he rallied to get Tellez and the next guy too before allowing a cheap little blooper to Miles Mastrobuoni. The tying run was on base for pinch hitter Dylan Moore. Baker blew three fastballs right by him. Good morning, good afternoon, and good night. Game over!
The Orioles were out-hit, 9-6. They did not get any hits with runners in scoring position. They were facing Seattle’s toughest starter. They won anyway. That’s six in a row. It is almost certainly too late for things to matter for the 2025 postseason standings, but it is nice to get a reminder that, yes, this team can be fun and it can win even when not everything goes right. That feeling may continue for as long as the good starting pitching continues.
Next up is Oakland. Sorry, it’s Sacramento, and as far as MLB is officially concerned it’s just “Athletics.” Whoever they are, they’ve won just two games dating back to May 14. One of those two wins was a butt-kicking of the Twins, 14-3, just today. The Orioles have passed these guys in the standings during their current winning streak and if they want to keep the good vibes rolling, this is who they need to beat. Friday’s series opener is set for a 10:05 Eastern start time.