Two in a row. Write it down somewhere. Frame it, even! The 2026 Orioles, playing a 3:10 afternoon matinee in the cold because apparently, temperate weather is too much to ask of Chicago even in late April, have won consecutive games for the first time this season. They did so courtesy of a 4-2 Tuesday afternoon win led by six strong innings from Trevor Rogers, three perfect innings from the bullpen, and a late rally kickstarted by new guys Blaze Alexander and Taylor Ward and capped off by Gunnar Henderson’s two-run bomb in the eighth.
It could have been easier—I certainly wish, against the lowly White Sox, that it had been. Entering the eighth, Baltimore was down 2-1, a frustrating lack of production given they’d already posted five hits and been walked seven times by what cannot exactly be a great Chicago pitching staff. Nonetheless, the eighth inning turned the tables. With one out, the new guys set to work. Blaze Alexander started the rally with a double to right. Taylor Ward followed him with a game-tying double into the right field corner, easily scoring the runner, who came home with blazing speed. (Sorry.) The White Sox changed relievers to challenge Gunnar with a lefty. Right decision, but bad result: Gunnar hammered a high sinker into the bleachers, and this was a 4-2 game.
Prior to that there wasn’t a ton of offense to report, although the hitters were not so much inept against Chicago’s Shane Smith (in the sense that many Orioles reached base) as inconsistent (in the sense that they didn’t score). Smith kept walking people—to wit, two in the first inning, two more in the second, plus a HBP of Blaze Alexander, and one in the fourth—but got enough strikeouts in key spots that he kept the O’s off the board. If I were Chicago’s manager, I’d say that five walks in 3.2 innings from my starting pitcher is not great, but Smith did allow zero runs and strike out eighth.
On that last, it feels like the Orioles’ team approach is partly to blame. When the starter is wild, it makes sense to take the walks. But it’s hard to deny, on a day the Birds struck out 13 times, that the approach is still frustratingly aggressive. In fact, every hitter in the starting lineup struck out at least once, except Alexander.
The one Orioles run prior to the eighth inning came thanks to yet another leadoff walk from Chicago. After Samuel Basallo took a free base, Tyler O’Neill was brought in to pinch-hit against lefty Sean Newcomb, and he delivered, with a well-timed single to advance Basallo to second. A groundout moved Basallo over, and Ryan Mountcastle plated the O’s first run with an RBI groundout off a big Newcomb curveball. Productive Outs for Orioles.
As for Orioles pitching, Trevor Rogers was very good today, which we’ve come to expect from our No. 1 starter, if not the rest of the rotation in April. The lefty went six innings, gave up two runs on six hits, struck out six, and walked none.
After a perfect two innings, he ran into some trouble in the third with two outs. With a runner on first, Rogers heaved a ball down the middle, and infielder Chase Meidroth served it into left field to put the White Sox up 1-0. A Lenyn Sosa single made it 2-0 immediately thereafter. This was a good piece of hitting where Sosa connected on a pitch maybe six inches off the dirt and golfed it into center field. I wouldn’t lay that one at Rogers’ feet. A popout ended the damage, and Rogers got through the fifth and sixth innings without great difficulty.
It wasn’t his prettiest start, given that Rogers needed 101 pitches to go six innings, but it’s a total luxury to have an ace who can pitch deep into games, especially given how unreliable the bullpen has been. Happily, that wasn’t the case today. Yennier Cano tossed a perfect seventh, including with one swinging strikeout. Grant Wolfram struck out two in the eight, but was lifted for Anthony Nunez after a HBP. Nunez threw a wild pitch, bringing up the faintest prospect of a blown inning, but with the count 3-2 against catcher Edgar Quero, he got a huge swinging strike three.
Closer Ryan Helsley then struck fear in our hearts with a leadoff walk in the ninth—apparently that’s just his thing now, as he’s walked a batter or more in his last three appearances. But that’s as nerve-inducing as things got: the O’s closer struck out Tristan Peters with 99 at the bottom of the zone, made slugger Munetaka Murakami swing through 100 at the corner, and got Derek Hill to fly out to the end the game. When Helsley is on, it’s simply beautiful stuff. Save No. 4, O’s win. Now everybody go party.
The Orioles are 5-6. This may not inspire visions of a ticker-tape parade come October, but they are, however improbably, sitting pretty in third in the AL East, just a game back of Tampa Bay at the time of this writing. It’s April, after all, and anything can still happen.
Who is your vote for Most Birdland Player today? Gunnar Henderson, who went 2-for-4 with the big bomb in the eighth? Blaze Alexander, who took one for the team, stole a base, started the rally in the eighth, and is hitting .320 in the nine spot? Your team ace, Trevor Rogers, who gave six good innings even on what was not his best day? Let us know in the comments.
