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Is this my most strained pun headline yet? Most likely. Also, please don’t crochet your socks. That’s just asking for blisters. 

After chasing Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez early last week, tonight they ambushed 2025 AL Cy Young runner-up Garrett Crochet for 11 runs in the first two innings. To say the lineup has come to life over the past week would be an understatement. The fact they’re doing it off of the best pitchers in baseball and, notably, left-handed ones, has this lineup looking more complete than they have in two years. 

Minnesota had a clear game plan against Crochet and executed it to perfection, swinging early and often against a pitcher that likes to pound the strike zone. They swung at 5 of the first 7 pitches of the game, leading to a Buxton pop out and back-to-back hustle doubles down the left field line by Austin Martin and Luke Keaschall to plate the first run. Ryan Jeffers followed with an RBI single to give the Twins a two run lead before Crochet had a chance to get settled. 

Crochet was able to retire Josh Bell, but issued a five-pitch walk to Victor Caratini and nailed Matt “cement bones” Wallner with a 95 MPH sinker to load them up for Brooks Lee. Lee didn’t hit it hard, but a perfectly placed infield singled plated two more. 4-0 Twins after the first.

The Twins weren’t done there. The first six Twins of the second inning reached, highlighted by a Caratini three-run dong dong to give Minnesota a 10-0 lead. Not to be outdone, known power hitter Ryan Kreidler delivered the kill shot, a 110 MPH laser over the left field fence and finally put Crochet out of his misery. 

On the pitching side, Bailey Ober still didn’t have very good velocity on his pitches, but was clearly fooling the Boston hitters, generating 13 whiffs and racking up 7 strikeouts in his 6 innings of work, all season-best figures. He allowed too many baserunners, but he was also likely attacking the zone more than usual with a generous 11 run lead to work with. Ober doesn’t look like he will recover the velocity he showed earlier in his career, but you can do a lot worse than this version of Ober as your fifth starter, especially given the emergence of Taj Bradley. 

The Twins weren’t done there though. Ryan Jeffers and Byron Buxton added homers of the own, the latter putting Buxton alone atop the all-time Target Field home run leaderboard, a well-deserved honor for unquestionably the most exciting Twin since leaving the Metrodome. 

Boston didn’t go quietly, tacking on a few more runs against Eric Orze in the 7th, but luckily the Twins had Garret Action Acton warmed and ready to silence the Boston bats over the final two frames. 

The win makes Minnesota the first AL team to reach 10 wins, while trailing only the Dodgers who have 11 pending the rest of tonight’s games. They’ve won 7 of their past 8 and have a chance to clinch their third straight series facing old friend Sonny Gray. I don’t know if the Twins can keep this up all season, but for now, let’s enjoy the ride and rack up some W’s. 

STUDS

• Ryan Jeffers: 3-4, 1 HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB
• Victor(y) Caratini: 1-2, 1 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB
• Byron Buxton: 2-5, 1 HR, 2 R, 1 RBI, Target Field Home Run KING
• Ryan Kreidler: 110 MPH EV home run off Crochet for a player with a career .376 OPS? You definitely get a shoutout, buddy

DUDS

• NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!!

Comment of the game goes to gintzer for their soothsaying talents and top notch preparedness. As any true Minnesotan knows, the best time to invest in winter gear is over the summer. 

It appears Edwin Díaz and the New York Mets will have a reunion this week after all.

Score-willing, of course.

Before Monday’s series-opener against the Mets, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that he expected L.A.’s new $69 million closer –– who is facing his former Mets team for the first time since leaving as a free agent this winter –– to pitch at some point this week, if the Dodgers have a save situation.

That represented news in the wake of a strange weekend for Díaz, who squandered a three-run lead in a blown save on Friday, was bypassed for a save situation on Saturday, and seemed to be potentially unavailable Sunday had another ninth-inning opportunity cropped up.

The reason for the conservative usage, Roberts said, was concern over Díaz’s diminished fastball velocity early on this season.

During the two days Díaz didn’t pitch, the team did manual tests –– but no medical imaging –– on the knee he blew out back in 2023.

Díaz noted this weekend that he’s had early-season velocity problems in the three seasons since that injury, though also emphasized that he has felt good physically since this campaign began.

“He’s wanting to pitch, says he’s available,” Roberts said. “I think now it’s just me kind of consulting with the training staff to figure out what’s the best case.”

Roberts struck a more optimistic tone with his Monday comments than he had over the weekend, voicing hope that this recent episode with Díaz –– who was 4-for-4 in save situations prior to Friday’s clunker –– was “behind us.”

“I talked to Edwin briefly, just a little bit ago, and he feels great, which is a good thing,” Roberts said. “I think now it goes to me having a conversation with the training staff … But now, just watching with my eyes and having him playing catch and talking to him, we feel very confident that he’s in a good spot.”

Though Díaz has dealt early-season velo dips before, his 95.8 mph average so far this season was almost a tick and a half below what he threw last year. On Friday, the three-time All-Star also struggled to keep a seemingly flat slider from hanging in the middle of the strike zone. 

Though Díaz told reporters on Saturday that he felt good physically, Roberts revealed on Monday that Díaz told the team following Friday’s outing that “he just didn’t feel right.”

Thus, at this early stage of the season, the club wanted to ensure he didn’t have any underlying health problems before sending him back to the bump.

“I would say a huge part of it is based on the calendar,” Roberts said. “Obviously his health is paramount. But I do think that us just being even more conservative right now certainly is that.”

Now, moving forward, Roberts said the Dodgers expect to see Diaz’s velocity start to tick back up.

“If he feels good,” Roberts said, “then the expectation is that the velocity will mirror that.”

Injury shuffle in the bullpen

The Dodgers did have another injury concern in their bullpen on Monday, placing right-hander Ben Casparius on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.

Kyle Hurt was called up to replace him.

A third-year big-leaguer, Casparius had struggled mightily early this season, posting a 9.64 ERA with four walks and four strikeouts in five appearances. 

With his injury, Hurt will get his first opportunity in the big leagues since undergoing a Tommy John procedure back in 2024. A USC product and former fifth-round draft pick, Hurt made only four career appearances before that surgery, but impressed with his performance in spring camp this year and pitched scoreless appearances in five of his six triple-A outings to begin this season.

Aaron Judge homered twice, and Mike Trout thought he got the last laugh, but Trent Grisham's second home run tied the game in the ninth before Angels closer Jordan Romano's wild pitch plated the winning run as the Yankees outlasted the Angels for an 11-10 win on Monday night in the Bronx.

The Yankees saw leads of 4-0, 7-4, and 8-7 all evaporate before Trout’s second home run with one down in the top of the eighth appeared to put the visitors from Los Angeles ahead for good.

But Romano imploded in the ninth, allowing all five batters he faced to reach in the three-run inning, with his final offering a 3-2 wild pitch to score the game-winning run from third, closing the 3:36 marathon game.

The battle of the three-time MVPs lived up to its billing as Judge finished the day 2-for-5 with three batted in on his two long home runs, the 373rd and 374th of his big league career. And Trout matched him with a 2-for-5 day with two homers and five RBI, representing his 407th and 408th of his career. He also came close to a grand slam in the fourth.

Even with the 11 runs, the Bronx Bombers - who only scored all but one run via the long ball – nearly let a win slip away at the plate, going 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base.

But the win snapped New York's five-game losing streak to improve to 9-7. The visitors fell to 8-9.

Here are the takeaways...

- Judge took a pair of curveballs outside the zone from Angels’ starter Yusei Kikuchi before drilling a hanging changeup for a towering two-run home run to left in the bottom of the first. The middle-middle pitch soared out of the yard 456 feet and 116.2 mph off the bat.

In the second, he reached on an error on what could have been a double-play on a ball he just smoked (103.9 mph) to third. He went down swinging against righty reliever Shaun Anderson with a runner on second in the fourth.

Judge got revenge on Anderson and put the Yanks ahead, turning on a changeup right over the plate for a 398-foot homer down the left field line. He just crushed the 1-2 pitch, 111.4 mph off the bat to make it an 8-7 game with one down in the sixth. He hit another ball hard, 107.1 mph, in the eighth, but it was a simple lineout to center.

- Grisham, pinch-hitting with two in scoring position for Randal Grichuk in the fifth, got a hanging 2-1 changeup down-and-in from Anderson and just stayed behind it enough and got under it enough to sneak it over the short porch in right. He hit it relatively hard (99 mph) and got it to travel 355 feet to right-center for a three-run shot in the only park it would have been a homer in, for his first round tripper of the year.

After lining out to center in the seventh, Grisham got a low slider from Romano and turned on it for a 391-foot shot to right to tie the game at 10. 

- José Caballero fouled the first pitch he saw off his left foot and needed a bit of time to shake off the pain. It worked as he lined the very next Kikuchi pitch (another hanging changeup) into the seats 370 feet down the left field line for a two-run home run to make it a 4-0 Yanks' lead in the bottom of the second. He went hitless in his next three times up, but doubled down the third base line before stealing third base without a throw and scoring the winning run. 

- Ryan McMahon, who entered at third for the top of the sixth in Paul Goldschmidt's spot with Ben Rice shifting to first, grounded out and lined out before he worked the 'walk-off' walk Romano that saw the winning run score.

- Giancarlo Stanton opened the fifth by drilling a double off the wall in center. The liner was just smashed, 110.5 mph off the bat, and beat Trout to the wall for a 412 feet two bagger. He added a second hit of the night with a two-out single to left. He finished 2-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts swinging.

- Will Warren’s only blemish through three innings was a two-out hit batter in the top of the second, as he collected five strikeouts through the first nine outs on 52 pitches. The righty allowed his first hits of the game in the fourth, and they proved costly. Of course, the downfall all began with Caballero letting a ball scoot right past him for an error as he tried to take the hard shot from Trout off his side. 

After a groundout put Trout in scoring position, Warren left a sweeper in the middle of the zone to Jorge Soler, who turned on it for an RBI double to left. After another strikeout on a good changeup, Warren left a fastball belt high to Jo Adell, who smacked it (109.7 mph) to right for an RBI single to left.

After a mound visit by pitching coach Matt Blake, Warren lost a battle to Josh Lowe for an 11-pitch walk and then surrendered a single past a diving Caballero to plate the third run of the inning and Aaron Boone had to come get the starter. 

Fernando Cruz entered, but walked Adam Frazier to load the bases and, after getting ahead of Zach Neto 1-2, walked in the tying run with a splitter in the dirt. After another Blake mound visit, Trout, who started the inning, got a down in the zone fastball and cranked it 393 feet to left-center, but there was enough room for CodyBellinger to end the inning. The fly ball, hit 106.8 mph, would have been a grand slam in four big league parks.

Warren’s final line: 3.2 innings, four runs (none earned) on three hits, a walk, and hit batter with six strikeouts on 89 pitches (60 strikes). 

- Tim Hill got the fifth and had two men on with one out after a couple of singles, but got Adell to bounce into a 6-4-3 twin-killing. 

Hill left after a two-out single in the sixth, giving way to Jake Bird, who surrendered a bloop single to center and a game-tying, three-run bomb by Trout. The future Hall of Famer crushed the up in the zone sweeper 421 feet, 108.7 mph off the bat to left-center.

Bird stayed on and got a strikeout to start the seventh, but a hard hit single and a smashed double down the third base line sent Blake back to the mound for a visit with two in scoring position. Bird got ahead 0-2, but couldn't get the strikeout as a sac fly to right tied the score.

Camilo Doval stranded the go-ahead run at third to end the seventh, but let the lead slip in the eighth after a leadoff single, strikeout, and two-run shot by Trout. Doval's sixth pitch of the at-bat was a 3-2 slider down that Trout launched 445 feet into the visitor's bullpen in left (109.2 mph off the bat).

Paul Blackburn had a 1-2-3 ninth with three flyouts to center and earned the win as the pitcher of record.

- Goldschmidt, in the lineup against the lefty starter, opened the bottom of the first by roping a double (106.2 mph) into the left-center gap before coming around on the Judge homer. The veteran, who just seems to wear out southpaws, naturally went down swinging in his next at-bat. He finished 1-for-2 with a walk against the lefty starter.

- Jazz Chisholm Jr., hitless in his first three at-bats with a strikeout swinging on a breaking pitch low and away, got a chance against lefty reliever Mitch Farris with runners on the corner and two down in the sixth. But waved at a changeup well below the zone. He added a single to start the ninth ahead of Grisham's game-tying homer.

- Bellinger went hitless in his first four times to the plate, the middle two times coming up with runners in scoring position. But he did smack a one-out single in the eighth.

- Austin Wells walked twice and grounded a single off a lefty in the seventh to finish 1-for-3.

- Amed Rosario, who singled the other way on a two-strike, 0-2 pitch in the first, had a chance with the bases loaded and two away in the second, and on a 2-2 delivery cranked a down in the zone fastball to center, but Trout managed to range back to haul in the 104.8 mph, 390-foot out. He would finish 1-for-2 before exiting for a pinch-hitter in the fifth.

- Grichuk, after walking his first time up, looked to have his first hit in pinstripes, but Trout made a leaping grab just short of the wall in the deepest part of the ballpark for a 413-foot out. The ball was tattooed (106.9 mph) and would have been a homer in 22 of 30 big league parks. He finished 0-for-1 before being lifted in the fifth.

- Rice walked as a pinch-hitter for Rosario in the fifth, singled off the lefty Farris in the sixth, but went down swinging to the lefty Drew Pomeranz.  

Highlights

Aaron Judge to the bleachers for his fifth homer of the season! pic.twitter.com/Cr5icfhBWZ

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 13, 2026

Jose Caballero with the Yankees’ second two-run homer of the game! pic.twitter.com/8kdesSP4Lv

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 13, 2026

A pinch-hit three-run home run for Trent Grisham and the Yankees take the lead back! pic.twitter.com/133x6y8YAN

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 14, 2026

Aaron Judge’s second of the night! pic.twitter.com/gLXhRK1vji

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 14, 2026

TRENT GRISHAM AGAIN AND IT’S A 10-10 TIE IN THE 9TH pic.twitter.com/UToTUYzkmd

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 14, 2026

A wild pitch and a walk-off win for the Yankees! pic.twitter.com/NA1XWHWvNi

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 14, 2026

What's next

The two teams continue the four-game set with a 7:05 p.m. first pitch on Tuesday.

Left-hander Ryan Weathers (2.81 ERA, 1.375 WHIP in 16.0 innings) looks to repeat his great outing last time out against fellow southpaw Reid Detmers (4.60 ERA, 1.277 WHIP in 15.2 innings).

Monday night’s game at Busch Stadium had its good points, but the end result was a somewhat sloppy night for the St. Louis Cardinals as the Cleveland Guardians ended their 5-game losing streak in the head-to-head against St. Louis by winning 9-3.

Cleveland got on the scoreboard quickly thanks to a 1st inning Angel Martinez home run in the 1st inning off of Matthew Liberatore making it 1-0 Guardians. St. Louis answered quickly with some nice small ball in the bottom of the first after JJ Wetherholt smoked a single into right field then advanced to third base on a nice hit-and-run single by Ivan Herrera and then scored on a golf stroke single by Alec Burleson tying the game 1-1.

The top of the 4th inning was a sloppy one for St. Louis. Ramirez walked and then stole second followed by a walk by Hoskins. Fry singled to left advancing Ramirez to third base and Fry to second. Schneemann singled to right field off of JJ Wetherholt’s glove in what could have been scored an error scoring Hoskins and Ramirez making it 3-1 Guardians. Hedges would then lift a sacrifice fly to left giving the Guardians a 4-1 lead. Matthew Liberatore would be lifted after 5 innings as he gave up 6 hits and 4 earned runs with 3 walks and just 2 strikeouts.

Cleveland would add 2 more runs to their lead in the top of the 6th inning on a 2-run shot by Brayan Rocchio. In the bottom of the 6th inning, Jordan Walker would provide one of the few bright spots as he slammed a laser shot over the left field wall. Yes, that’s 6 home runs in just 7 games for Walker. He is on fire. Jordan also now possesses a 9-game hitting streak.

Sloppiness would rear its ugly head again in the top of the 8th inning when Ryan Fernandez came in to relieve Gordon Graceffo after being recalled from Memphis today. After Fry had walked and Britto singled to center, Fernandez grabbed a dribbler infield single from Rocchio, but then overthrew third base when Fry overran the bag that allowed him to score and make it 7-2 Guardians. Kwan would follow that with another single giving the Guardians a 9-2 lead.

Since bright spots are hard to find in stretches like the Cardinals are currently in, Jordan Walker also legged out a hustle infield single in the bottom of the 8th inning. Nolan Gorman also muscled a single into right field from a ball in on his hands after Walker reached, too. Walker would eventually score on a sacrifice fly from Pedro Pagés to make it 9-3 Guardians which would be the final score despite a small Cardinals attempt at a rally in the bottom of the 9th inning.

The Cardinals will try again Tuesday night against the Guardians as Michael McGreevy will take his 1-1 record to the mound for a scheduled 6:45pm start time at Busch Stadium.

Garrett Crochet had a historic meltdown on Monday night against the Twins, with the Red Sox starter allowing 11 runs before he even pitched two full innings. 

He finished pitching a mere 1 ⅔ innings, giving up nine hits for 11 runs (10 of which were earned), three walks, one hit batter and without recording a single strikeout. 

The left-hander was pulled after throwing 55 pitches and was replaced by Jovani Moran, but the change didn’t do much to help the Red Sox, who ended up giving up two more runs in the fifth inning to put them down 13-0. 

Boston finally scored their first run of the night in the top of the sixth inning.

The outing has raised some concern, considering that the velocity on his four-seam fastball was averaging 94.9 mph on Monday, compared to the 96.1 mph it’s usually at.

He is the first Red Sox pitcher to ever allow 10 or more earned runs in less than two innings, according to the Associated Press’ Josh Dubow. 

Baseball Reference shows that there have only been 10 games in MLB history in which a starting pitcher has given up 11 or more runs without finishing the second inning, and that the last time it occurred was on May 7, 2024, the Boston Herald reported. 

On that occasion, Athletics starter Ross Stripling gave up 11 runs in 1 ⅔ innings of work against the Rangers. 

Ryan Kreidler smashes a 438-foot home run now

The @Twins can't stop scoring! pic.twitter.com/szi3xj7hq2

— MLB (@MLB) April 14, 2026

Crochet allowed back-to-back doubles in the first inning and a single to allow two runs to score. 

With the bases loaded, Brooks Lee was able to drive in some runs when Trevor Story was able to field a grounder, but ended up throwing it away in an attempt to start a double play. 

Things went from bad in the first to worse in the second inning when Crochet loaded the bases without recording an out and Ryan Jeffers hit an RBI single. 

Josh Bell hit a two-run double and Victor Caratini connected a three-run home run to give the Twins a 10-0 lead. 

Ryan Kreidler hit a solo home run before Red Sox skipper Alex Cora made the move to yank him from the game.

The Atlanta Braves took on the Miami Marlins in at Truist Park in a game that looked to be in the home team’s favor. Grant Holmes and his sterling ERA backed by an offense that leads the NL East in run differential by a large margin. The Marlins starter, Eury Pérez, has a career ERA of 12.19 against the Braves in his three starts against them.

The Braves went 5-2 against the Marlins last season at home. The Braves currently have an all-time record of 325-217 against the Fish since the franchise started in 1993.

Matt Olson made some history tonight playing in his 799th consecutive game, which places him in sole position of eleventh longest streak of consecutive games played in MLB history. It would have been nice to celebrate this milestone with a win,

Grant Holmes started the first inning well like he has been doing the past few years. He was able to retire the side on only ten pitches to include a strikeout. The second inning was almost as sharp. He was able to retire the side on twelve pitches while picking up his second strikeout of the night.

Holmes looked to just be getting started as he retired the side yet again in the third, and this time it was three ground outs that only took seven pitches. Things fell apart in the fourth inning for him though. Rising star Jakob Marsee led the inning with a single and Holmes control disappeared and he walked the next two hitter to load the bases. After a sac fly, Otto Lopez singled to make the score 0-2 with one out. Holmes got a fly out, but then Norby hit a single to make the score 0-3 before the top of the inning was over. Holmes was then taken out of the game. Holmes ended his worst outing of the year with three ER, two walks, three hits, and three strikeouts in 4.0 innings pitched.

The Braves had a slow start offensively, but were able to respond to the three runs the Marlins put up, but not before some wasted base runners. In the third inning Dom Smith got things going with a double and then Michael Harris walked. That is not a typo, new dad Michael Harris walked. After a pop up, Ronald Acuña hit a long fly ball to left center that was caught close to the warning track. Smith tried to advance but was thrown out at third for the inning ending double play.

The fourth inning for the Braves looked a lot like the Marlins. Baldwin singled on a 109.1 MPH screamer that went almost three hundred feet, followed by Matt Olson also hitting a single. Austin Riley got in on the fun and singled, scoring Baldwin and moving Olson to third. Riley then stole second base.

The Braves were not done with singles. Yastrzemski hit the fourth single in a row in this inning, scoring Olson and then he also stole second after an Albies pop up. Smith hit a sac fly to tie the game 3-3 and then Harris reached on a single that deflected off the pitcher. Unfortunately, no more runs were scored that inning.

It did not take long for the Marlins to respond. Aaron Bummer came in to pitch the fifth and it is clear he is on his last leg with the Braves. He gave up two singles and then a three-run HR to Agustín Ramírez to make the score 3-6. He did eventually get out of the inning picking up two strikeouts along the way, but the damage was done.

It looked like the Braves may respond in their half of the fifth when Ronald Acuña singled, followed by a Baldwin walk, but they only mustered one run in the inning thanks to a passed ball that moved the runners and Riley having an RBI groundout. The score was manageable at 4-6, but that did not last long.

Newly recalled Rolddy Muñoz came in to pitch and the very first hitter he faced, Connor Norby, on the first pitch he saw. It was a 93.9 MPH sinker right down the middle. The runs did not stop there. Muñoz gave up three more singles and a walk this inning. Add in two steals and that is a recipe for the Marlins to go up 4-9. Rolddy Muñoz ended his 2026 debut with 2.0 innings with five hits, three ER, one walk, and three strikeouts.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Marlins practically begged the Braves to come back. Calvin Faucher walked three hitters to load the bases with two outs, but once John King came in to replace him, he was able to get Baldwin to groundout and no runs were scored. The Braves offense was silent in the seventh, but the Marlins were not in the top of the eighth.

The hits kept on coming for the Marlins as they picked up three more singles in the eighth scoring a run to make the score 4-10. The Braves did some work to try and stay alive in their half of the eighth inning. Harris singled with two outs, followed by a walk from Mauricio Dubón. Acuña worked a full count, but ended up striking out swinging to end the eighth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Olson mustered a single after a Baldwin strikeout, but like a perfect bookend to a terrible outcome of a game, Austin Riley hit into a double play to end the game with the Braves losing by six runs.

The story of the night is that the Braves’ pitching failed them the worst they have all season. For the most part, the Braves’ pitching has been some of the best in MLB. Not tonight. Holmes showed real signs of fatigue, and the lower echelon of the bullpen performed like non-high leverage relievers might. The bad news is that José Suarez came in to pitch and struggled. He gave up four hits and an earned run, raising his ERA to 8.64. The Braves gave up a ton of singles. The Marlins had sixteen hits, and fifteen of them were singles.

Another key to the game is that the Braves failed to get things done with RISP. They were 3-12 when the Marlins capitalized more going 6-14. The Braves left nine runners on base to the Marlins’ eight.

One positive is that Michael Harris came back refreshed. He had two hits and a walk, boosting his OPS to .687 on the year. The Braves’ offense was also patient, drawing six walks.

It was going to be hard for the Braves’ offense to bail out the pitching tonight, and it just did not happen. The Braves dropped the series opener, but will have a chance at redemption when Reynaldo López takes the mound tomorrow at the same time and same place.

OK, folks. That was fun.

The Orioles pulled off their most incredible victory of the young season, rallying back from a six-run deficit in the sixth to score eight unanswered runs and shock the Diamondbacks, 9-7. Jeremiah Jackson’s grand slam — the first of his two homers — whittled away the deficit in the sixth before Pete Alonso delivered his most momentous hit as an Oriole, a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh that sent Camden Yards into hysterics. It was the Orioles’ sixth win in their last seven games, and the kind of exhilarating, improbable victory that makes you think that — just maybe — this 2026 Orioles team might turn out to be a lot of fun.

The emotional whirlwind of tonight’s game was truly wild. I cannot stress enough how frustrating and lackluster the first 5.5 innings of this game were, before it brilliantly transformed into one of the most awesome O’s comebacks in recent memory.

People, this game was over in the sixth inning. Finished. Done. Finito. The Orioles were dead and buried. They were down by six runs, 7-1, and essentially doomed to a forgettable, uncompetitive defeat. It was all over but the shouting. And then, delightfully, it wasn’t.

We’ll start with the bottom of the sixth, where the game turned on its head. After five innings of getting dominated by Diamondbacks starter Ryne Nelson, the O’s offense roared to life. Pete Alonso led off the frame with a double, and Nelson was pulled after 5.1 strong innings. Had Arizona manager Torey Lovullo known what was about to happen to his bullpen, he might’ve stuck with his starter a bit longer.

The Orioles jumped all over reliever Taylor Rashi. Dylan Beavers and Leody Taveras both singled, plating Alonso, and Colton Cowser walked to load the bases. Rashi tried to fool Jeremiah Jackson with a slider, only to leave it flat in the middle of the zone, and Jackson didn’t miss. One mighty swing later, he’d deposited a momentum-shifting grand slam into the left-field seats, the first salami of his career.

Just like that, the Orioles’ deficit was whittled to just one run, 7-6. Five innings of offensive frustration were cast aside, and the Birds could suddenly sense that the game was there for the taking. And so the next inning, they took it.

Former Yankee Jonathan Loaisiga began the seventh by plunking Taylor Ward on a 2-2 pitch, bringing up Alonso. Now, it’s no secret that the Polar Bear hasn’t gotten off to the kind of start with the Orioles that he’d hoped. But that doesn’t matter now because HE CRUSHED A TWO-RUN HOMER TO LEFT FIELD AND GAVE THE ORIOLES THE LEAD. He even directed it straight at Mr. Splash, who was wearing a polar bear head. That happened!

It was bedlam at Camden Yards as the small but vociferous crowd celebrated the biggest hit in the early Orioles career of the Birds’ prize free agent slugger. Alonso pumped his fist and practically danced around the bases as his teammates went crazy in the dugout. What a scene. The Orioles, two innings after trailing 7-1, had taken an 8-7 lead. Remarkable.

For good measure, Jackson added an insurance run in the eighth with his second dinger of the game, a solo shot off Andrew Hoffmann. I should mention that Jeremiah, earlier in the game, had smoked a foul ball into the dugout that hit Craig Albernaz in the face, leaving a rather rough-looking bruise on the manager’s right cheek. I’d imagine Alby can find it in his heart to forgive the guy who drove in five runs tonight.

The Orioles’ late-inning relievers took it from there. Rico Garcia continued his dominant start to the season, working a perfect eighth, and has now pitched eight games this season without allowing a hit. He’s one shy of Yennier Cano’s record of nine hitless appearances to start a season, set in 2023. And closer Ryan Helsley didn’t mess around in the ninth, mowing down the D’Backs with two strikeouts and a weak grounder, to seal the memorable Orioles win.

Briefly let’s cover all the stuff that happened before the game turned awesome. Dean Kremer, after two weeks in Triple-A purgatory, made his long-awaited season debut for the Orioles…and his very first pitch was clobbered onto the flag court by Arizona’s Ketel Marte. His first pitch of the season! You can’t make this stuff up, folks. “And that’s why he was in the minors,” said every Orioles fan simultaneously, laughing at their own joke.

Kremer got through the rest of the lineup unscathed before Marte struck again with another moon shot to right in the third, almost to the same place as his first. Maybe just don’t give this guy anything to hit, Dean? Then the Orioles’ defense abandoned Kremer in the fourth when Gunnar Henderson (who’d hit an RBI triple earlier) made a throwing error on a routine grounder, extending the inning for Nolan Arenado to hit a two-run homer. Kremer ultimately allowed four runs (two earned) in five innings, though his nine strikeouts were his most since May of 2024.

Arizona extended the lead to 7-1 in the sixth when Arenado launched a three-run homer off Albert Suárez. The corpse of Arenado had entered the game with no homers and just one extra-base hit in his first 14 games as a Diamondback, but had no problem feasting on O’s pitchers tonight. That’s something I’d be complaining more about if the game had turned out the way I thought it was going to.

But it didn’t. The Orioles pulled a most unlikely victory from the jaws of defeat, and it was glorious.

Who is your Most Valuable Oriole for tonight, Camden Chatters? Does Jeremiah Jackson get the nod for his grand slam that brought the O’s back into the game and insurance-run homer that iced the victory? Or is it Pete Alonso for delivering the big hit Orioles fans have been desperately waiting for? Let us know in the comments.

Record: 9-8. Pace: 86-76. Change on 2025: -1.

Well, I guess it had to happen eventually. The D-backs looked to be cruising in this one, enjoying a 7-1 lead in the opening game at Oriole Park in the middle of the sixth. But the bullpen, which had been so impressive over the first two series of the road trip, had their most spectacular meltdown of the season. Oh, hang on, to channel Homer Simpson: their most spectacular meltdown of the season so far. They allowed seven runs over just 2.2 innings of work, with each of the three relievers used giving up a long ball. Taylor Rashi surrendered a grand-slam, and Johnny Lasagna got cooked, allowing the go-ahead home-run to Pete Alonso.

And it had been going so well too.

The Diamondbacks came into this game with only nine home-runs for the season: that put them ahead only of the Giants (8). They had hit a total of three home-runs over their first eleven games in April. That’s a total of 353 at-bats. Of course, this evening in Baltimore, they then went and hit four (below) before the middle of the sixth, a span of just 25 at-bats. It was their first four-HR game since August 11th last year. But more surprising than that, was likely who hit them. Oh, you won’t be surprised to learn that Ketel Marte was responsible for a pair, doubling his tally for the season to four. But the other two came off the bat of Nolan Arenado, who entered the day with zero home-runs and a mere one extra-base hit over his first fifty at-bats as a Diamondback.

Marte wasted absolutely no time, taking the very first pitch of the game deep. It was a high fastball, well above the strike zone, and the perfect execution of an ambush sailing the ball 443 feet and, literally, out of the park beyond right field. When he came up again in the third inning, he took advantage of a mistake pitch by Orioles starter Dean Kremer. He offered up a 78 mph lollipop curveball in the middle of the plate, and this one was deposited 409 feet: not quite out of the park, but certainly good enough for a 2-0 lead to Arizona. The Orioles did get one back, courtesy of former D-backs Blaze Alexander. Corbin Carroll couldn’t catch a foul ball, Alexander reached on a questionable catcher’s interference call and scored on a triple past Alek Thomas in center.

Enter Nolan Arenado, with two down in the fourth inning. Kremer had been offering up a series of splitters, and been having a lot of success with them. But Arenado was clearly looking for some high heat, and when it arrived, after an error had allowed Jose Fernandez to reach base, Nolan did not miss, and it was 4-1 to the D-backs. Better was to follow for him in the sixth. Adrian Del Castillo had singled, and Ildemaro Vargas hit a ground-rule double. Again, a mistake pitch – this time a cutter which really didn’t – was then disposed of, in the way a professional batter should. Arenado had himself his first two-homer game in getting on for three years, since July 7th, 2023.

Ryne Nelson had been very effective, relying as usual on his fastball, which he threw 63% of the time tonight. But he got it up there as high as 98 mph, and was eventually lifted with one out in the sixth. He had allowed three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts, and was at 92 pitches. Should he have been allowed to finish out the sixth? Obvious answer, in hindsight. But that was already a season high count for Ryne, his previous being 86. Nelson’s velo was also dropping: an average of 97.0 mph in the first inning had become 94.4 in the sixth inning. To be fair to Torey Lovullo, you should be able to trust a major-league bullpen to protect a six-run lead for 3.2 frames.

It’s not as if he was sending up Joe Ross either. Taylor Rashi had looked very good since being called up. Small sample size, but you can’t ask for better than retiring every one of the nine batters faced, three by strikeout. Tonight, however? He didn’t have it. Rashi entered with a man on base and one out. A single and RBI single made it 7-2 – to be fair, again, the latter was more fortunate than hard-hit. But the walk and grand-slam which followed? Yeah, that’s on Rashi. [The latter was hit by Jeremiah Jackson, and a neutral observer might well have appreciated it, since he had previously sent a screaming liner into his own dugout, leaving the Orioles manager with a bloody cheek.]

After that, while the Diamondbacks still have the lead at 7-6, it seemed almost inevitable that it wouldn’t hold. The offense sent the minimum to the plate the rest of the way. The only Arizona base-runner was Geraldo Perdomo, who walked in the seventh, but was caught stealing second, as he failed to sustain contact with the base. Meanwhile, Jonathan Loaisiga got the loss, after hitting a batter, and allowing a home-run to the Polar Bear. Only his second since signing a 5-year, $155 million with Baltimore this winter. Andrew Hoffman got the final four outs, but gave the Orioles another home-run, providing them with insurance they turned out not to need.

Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
Homers (good): Nolan Arenado, +20%
Also homers (good): Marte, +17%; Nelson, +15%
Homers (bad): Jonathan Loaisiga, -42%
Also homers (bad): Taylor Rashi, -27%

It was a positive and upbeat Gameday Thread, until it wasn’t. Blame can be leveled at a lot of places. Me, for deciding to start the recap when we were up 7-1. Mrs. SnakePit for coming home with Chinese and disturbing the fragile mojo. Still, it is only one game, and so I give Comment of the Thread to gzimmerm:

The post-game news confirmed what we more or less expected. Merrill Kelly comes back tomorrow, with Brandon Pfaadt going to the bullpen, and Taylor Rashi returning to Reno. And after tonight, I hope he has to pay his own bus fare there. We’ll look to bounce back tomorrow behind Kelly: it’ll be another awkward start time for us Arizonans, with first pitch scheduled for 3:35 pm here.