The game felt like it was over.
The temperature at Camden Yards was frigid, and Baltimore’s bats were even colder.
The Orioles didn’t have a hit heading into the fifth inning. They were down 3-0, which on days when the offense starts slow seems like an insurmountable deficit. Their starting pitcher didn’t make it through five innings, forcing the bullpen to once again carry the load.
The game was over. Until the 2023 Orioles showed up.
They brought the fans at Camden Yards to their feet with mammoth homers to tie the game. A rebuild survivor remained cool under pressure and delivered a clutch hit to take the lead. They debuted a home run celebration prop — one inspired by that 2023 team. Their fundamentals were sound with clean defense, evidenced by five double plays. The bullpen was stout, and Félix Bautista slammed the door on a one-run win.
“Good teams come back and find ways to win games,” first baseman and team leader Ryan O’Hearn said after the 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. “That’s what we did today.”
Saturday’s victory is one that felt intimately familiar. It was almost a carbon copy of the type of game they won repeatedly in 2023. No MLB team won in comeback fashion that year more than the Orioles when they did so a whopping 48 times.
Those Orioles trailing 3-0 in the middle innings was barely a speed bump; these Orioles falling behind by three runs has been a sign to turn off the television.
That’s why Saturday’s comeback felt more important than a typical April game.
“There’s gonna be a lot of days where we have to fight and grind for those wins just like today,” center fielder and team leader Cedric Mullins said. “We proved to ourselves that we can do that.”
Manager Brandon Hyde was standing on the dugout’s top step as his offense continued to look listless, and he could sense his players’ tension. It was similar to the second half last season when the injury-plagued Orioles played mediocre baseball to limp into the playoffs. He could feel his players “trying a little bit too hard” amid a 5-8 start with what seemed like a year’s worth of sloppy performances.
Blue Jays right-hander Bowden Francis had a perfect game bid going against the Orioles entering the fifth inning. Baltimore’s last hit came in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The last time they scored a run was in Tuesday’s seventh inning.
“We just needed a spark,” Hyde said.
It came from someone who didn’t join the 2023 team until late in the season.
Heston Kjerstad cranked a home run to center field to bring Oriole Park back to life and the club within one run. In the dugout, Kjerstad’s teammates brought out the hydration station — the 2024 celebration propped that evolved from 2023’s homer hose.
“The hydration station is a cool thing that’s become part of our identity over the last few years, and guys wanted to keep it going,” O’Hearn said.
Nothing silent about that one. pic.twitter.com/d9KbS85lBu
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 12, 2025
An inning later, Adley Rutschman, whose 2024 slump mirrored the club’s downturn, cranked a long ball to right field to tie the game. His bat flip after met the moment — worthy of the ball he just hit and what it could mean to a team off to a sluggish start.
“Adley delivered exactly what we needed there — not only with the home run but with his attitude after, too,” Mullins said. “Someone who’s ready to get after it and someone who’s ready to get this win.”
A few batters later, Mullins did what he did so often in 2023: stay cool in a high-pressure moment. With two outs and two strikes, Mullins ripped an opposite-field double off Francis to drive in two runs and give the Orioles the lead.
The Orioles were one of the best clutch-hitting teams in baseball two years ago. That trait is difficult to replicate year over year, though Mullins has been able to do it as a clutch performer since he posted a .320 OPS and 1.025 OPS with runners in scoring position in 2023. He’s back at it again this year with a whopping .583 with a 1.750 OPS across 15 plate appearances in those situations.
“It did. It was a great feeling,” Mullins said when asked if the win felt like 2023. “We want to learn from a win like this, continue to have confidence moving forward. We’re never out.”
The bullpen then walked the tightrope to get the ball into Bautista’s hand, and “The Mountain” finished it off the way he did frequently in 2023 before his season was cut short because of an elbow injury. His save Saturday was his first in about 600 days.
“Definitely ’23 where we were the best team in baseball in one-run games because of the big fellow on the mound,” Hyde said of the win reminding him of two years ago. “You don’t want to always have one-run games. That gives everybody a heart attack at times like 2023 did. Good teams win those types of games.”
Battling back to win was a central part of the 2023 team’s identity as it turned into a regular-season juggernaut, winning 101 games and claiming the American League East crown.
But O’Hearn doesn’t want to just be the 2023 team again. Of course, he wants the 2025 Orioles to have the same grit as the 2023 team, but a clubhouse can’t will an identity into submission.
It just happens.
“I think we’re creating our own identity in 2025,” O’Hearn said. “You’ve got to go out and play and let it happen organically. That’s the best possible way for a team to come together. You can talk all day long about who we want to be and what we’re trying to be, but until you go do it, I think that’s where a team’s true identity is.”
Saturday’s win was just one game, and it’s only April. It’s up to the Orioles whether there’s more to it.
Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.