What happened? It was a difficult night for the Orioles. They had just four hits. Charlie Morton lost his third straight start. They were involved in a bizarre umpiring sequence and found out that their Opening Day starter, Zach Eflin, has a strained right lat.
Morton allowed four runs on five hits, walking five and striking out four in five-plus innings as the Orioles lost, 4-3, to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Tuesday night.
The Orioles scored two runs in the first inning, and Morton allowed a run in the bottom of the first after two walks and a hit batsman. Corbin Carroll scored on Josh Naylor’s double play.
Carroll’s third home run in the bottom of the third tied it at 2-2.
Naylor’s two-run double in the fifth against Morton (0-3) gave Arizona a 4-2 lead.
Cedric Mullins’ two-run single against Merrill Kelly in the first had given the Orioles (5-7) a 2-0 lead.
“We let him off the hook in the first inning,” manager Brandon Hyde told reporters in Phoenix. “We had really good at-bats up to that point. Then we didn’t do much offensively after that.”
Then, the Orioles’ offense stopped until they scored a run on a bizarre sequence in the seventh.
Mullins doubled. Tyler O’Neill walked one pitch after he appeared to strike out while attempting to check his swing, but first base umpire Laz Diaz didn’t rule him out. The walk chased Kelly, who was ejected for yelling at Dias as he walked off the mound. Arizona manager Torey Lovullo was also tossed for objecting to the call, Gary Sánchez was hit by a pitch with one out, loading the bases.
Jackson Holliday, who took a questionable strike one, flared a two-strike pitch toward leftfielder Lourdes Gurriel, who caught the ball just above the turf. Gurriel threw wildly toward home, and Mullins tagged at third and scored to make it 4-3. Even though third base umpire Mike Estabrook failed to signal an out, O’Neill was ruled out for failing to tag up at second.
After an extraordinarily lengthy review initiated by the Orioles, the call was affirmed.
In the top of the eighth, Adley Rutschman singled with one out. Jorge Mateo ran for him and stole second and third base. Mateo ran on contact and was tagged out as he tried to score on Ryan Mountcastle’s tapper back to reliever Shelby Miller. Jordan Westburg struck out to end the inning.
Kelly (2-1) allowed three runs on four hits in six-plus innings. Before Mullins’ double, he had retired 16 of 17 batters, with only Holliday reaching on an error.
Miller, A.J. Puk and Nick Martinez combined to record the final nine outs without allowing a hit. Martinez hit O’Neill with a pitch and Heston Kjerstad ended the game with a double-play grounder.
The Orioles have yet to win consecutive games. This was their first one-run game in 2025.
What is the outlook for Eflin? Eflin left Monday night’s game after six innings and 73 pitches because of “shoulder fatigue.” After Tuesday’s game, Hyde said that Eflin had a “low-grade” lat strain and wouldn’t be throwing for a week.
“Then we’re going to reassess from there,” Hyde said. “Hopefully he’ll be back throwing at that point.”
Reliever Colin Selby was on the taxi squad for Tuesday’s game and presumably will be activated for Wednesday. Hyde said the Orioles would discuss how to replace Eflin in the rotation.
“I’ve been on some really good teams the past couple of years that went through the same thing,” Morton told reporters in Phoenix. “We lost some really good players in Atlanta and we were able to accomplish some really good things.”
What happened in the 7th inning? Hyde said that Gurriel made an excellent catch of Holliday’s soft liner, and that Mullins astutely tagged up and scored.
“Tyler got too far off. The bottom line is the run scored before the appeal, so I thought when [the umpires] were coming over, they said that Ced didn’t tag so I reviewed the entire play,” Hyde said. “We didn’t see a call on the field. That’s a little bit of the problem that I had. Nobody saw a call on the field. It’s a tough play for everybody. I’d like to see a call on the field. Nobody saw it. Ced ran the bases extremely well and did the right thing.”
Should Mateo have been running? The Orioles regularly use the contact play at third base, and Hyde emphasized they’ll continue to employ it with Mateo.
“Let me make this clear. Mateo is going to run on contact every single time he’s at third base, and we also got [Mountcastle] to second base,” Hyde said. “Mateo steals second, steals third. Unbelievable job. We don’t put the ball in play hard enough or at least get the ball to the outfield. You can tell the league Mateo is going to run on contact at third base.”
How was Morton’s outing? Morton was displeased with his outing.
“If I could have limited some of those walks, even still I was able to pitch into the sixth inning, it wasn’t like I had 100 pitches,” Morton said. “It was just really bad timing and walks. They had a couple of really clutch hits with men on.
“Regardless of how poor my command was, I still pitched my way into a spot of where I could have gotten out of it, and that’s the most frustrating.”
Hyde is hoping for better from the 41-year-old right-hander.
“I thought his command with five walks, obviously early was not there. Settled in a little bit, then kind of went away from him later in the outing,” Hyde said.
What does it mean? The Orioles had just four hits. In three of their seven losses, they’ve had five or fewer hits. While they were hurt by the poor umpiring, they need more offense to win.
What’s the word? “I’ve got to get going. If I’m going halfway decent and I have a game like that, I don’t really beat myself up too bad.”-Morton on his start.
What’s the stat of the day? 187. Morton hit Carroll with a pitch, his first of the season, and the 187th of his career. He’s now in sole possession of sixth place on the all-time hit batsman list.
What’s going on in the minor leagues? Catcher Maverick Handley’s 10th-inning RBI single gave Triple-A Norfolk an 8-7 win over Gwinnett. Leftfielder Jud Fabian drove in three runs and hit his third home run. Third baseman Coby Mayo and Handley drove in two.
Rightfielder Tavian Josenberger drove in two runs as Double-A Chesapeake beat Erie, 5-4.
Jared Beck allowed six runs on three hits and three walks while recording just two outs in High-A Aberdeen’s 8-3 loss to Jersey Shore. Starter Nestor German allowed two hits in four innings. Leftfielder Austin Overn homered.
Single-A Delmarva’s game with Fayetteville was rained out and will be made up on Wednesday.
What’s next? Dean Kremer (1-1, 6.52) will face Brandon Pfaadt (1-1, 5.25) on Wednesday at 3:40 p.m.
Call for questions: Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com