Author: MLB Baseball News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

Coming into this game, the Braves had exorcised a lot of their 2025 demons with their 6-2 start, but one remained conspicuously absent: the one-run loss. Well, in their ninth game of the season, they finally had a one-run decision, and, in somewhat-reminiscent-of-2025 fashion, it was a loss that probably could have, and at times begged to, go a different way. In brief: Bryce Elder was outstanding, but his own defensive miscue doomed the Braves, who couldn’t find the hits that have made the start of their season a success thus far.

Elder was, as noted, really good — but former teammate and Braves Country favorite son Michael Soroka was… not. Still, as we’ve seen repeatedly in the first few games of this season, a pitcher’s performance is only part of the equation as far as the box score is concerned, and that disparity didn’t matter in the end result here.

Soroka ended up with a 3/3 K/BB ratio in five innings of work. The Braves plated a run in the second on a leadoff walk by Mike Yastrzemski, a groundout that moved him to second, a barreled out (sigh), and then Dominic Smith rolling a seeing-eye grounder through the infield for a two-out RBI. The Braves then shot themselves in the foot (shades of 2025) in the third — Ronald Acuña Jr. drew a leadoff walk but then was thrown out trying to steal, which sucked because Matt Olson crushed a double that would’ve easily scored Acuña a few pitches later. In Soroka’s final inning, the Braves seemed almost destined to score: Mauricio Dubon “singled” on a ball that actually went through shortstop Geraldo Perdomo’s glove, Drake Baldwin was grazed by a pitch after Acuña popped out, and then Olson avoided a double play when Soroka dropped the relay throw at first. That brought up Austin Riley, but for the third time in game, he failed to come through (the WPA vortex is already looming large for him), hitting a routine grounder to short.

Meanwhile, Elder was really good, but to little avail in the end. After a 1-2-3 first, the Diamondbacks got a couple of singles off him in the second, though the second would’ve been an easy double play had the infield been playing Nolan Arenado up the middle. Then, Jose Fernandez dropped down a surprise bunt, and Elder ill-advisedly threw it to first. Even if the throw had been on target, it wouldn’t have been on time. It wasn’t on target either, though, and Arenado ran through a stop sign while Acuña failed to come up throwing. Just like that, it was 2-1 in favor of the home team, and that’s how the score would stay.

Elder kept dealing, though. He faced the minimum after his own error, thanks to a couple of double plays. He finished with an 8/1 K/BB ratio — his best start since that 12-strikeout performance against the Giants in San Francisco while the Braves’ 2025 season slipped away from them. He threw a bazillion pretty well-located sliders and the Diamondbacks had few answers, if they were even aware Elder was posing a question to them. But, in the end, his throwing error stood.

The Braves did nothing against a procession of Arizona relievers in the one-run contest — they went 12 up, 12 down. There was the hope that they could stun Paul Sewald again, but no dice. Last night, both Ozzie Albies and Olson homered on in-zone fastballs after seeing and not offering at some sweepers; tonight, Sewald basically threw sweeper after sweeper, and got strikeouts of Yastrzemski and Albies. Michael Harris II battled for a while, but ultimately hit a routine flyout on a hanging sweeper to end the game.

Ah, well, you can’t win them all. It’s just a shame to waste such a great Bryce Elder performance like this. Maybe the good times will keep rolling tomorrow — winning a four-game set on the road without Chris Sale pitching would still be pretty good, and better than expected. Hopefully the Mets and Phillies lose, too.

Cody Bellinger has had himself an action-packed past two days.

It started with his circus catch in left field in Friday’s win, when he somehow snagged a ball he’d already dropped.

And it continued in Saturday’s 9-7 win, as Bellinger was first involved in a costly slapstick play that cost the Yankees a run before he made up for it with a homer that helped get them back in the game.

He finished it off with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

It was Bellinger’s first home run of the young season and sparked a comeback that saw the Yankees erase what had been a four-run deficit.

“It gave us that spark we needed,’’ Giancarlo Stanton said. “It turned us on a little bit. We started getting on base a lot more from there.”

Before that, though, there was an uncharacteristic blunder.

Already trailing 3-0 in the top of the fourth — and with Paul Blackburn having replaced the ineffective and inefficient Ryan Weathers — Agustin Ramirez reached on a two-out infield single to third.

Jakob Marsee followed with what seemed to be a relatively harmless flare single to shallow left off Blackburn, but that’s when things got interesting.

José Caballero and Ryan McMahon both chased after the ball before it landed in front of Bellinger.

Bad defense from the Yankees allows another Marlins run to score, it's 4-0 pic.twitter.com/9kLINmxP55

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) April 5, 2026

With no one covering third base, Ramirez raced toward the bag, as McMahon tried to recover and get back. Still on the run, McMahon tried to catch Bellinger’s throw — which was off the bag — and it went into foul territory as the Yankees scrambled after it.

Ramirez scored on the play — no one was at the plate, either — to give Miami a four-run lead, with Marsee moving to second.

“Just an awkward play with the shift on,’’ Bellinger said. “[McMahon] had to run a long way to third and my ball sailed.”

Blackburn whiffed Otto Lopez to avoid further damage.

It was an ugly anomaly for the Yankees, who had played relatively strong fundamentally to get off to a strong start to the season.

And then Bellinger got the offense going.

The Yankees had just one hit against Miami right-hander Max Meyer before Aaron Judge’s two-out single in the fifth.

Bellinger followed with a shot to right-center to cut the Yankees deficit to 4-2 and get Meyer out of the game.

“Meyer was throwing the ball well and all of a sudden it was a shot in the arm and we were right back in the game,’’ Aaron Boone said.

The Yankees then feasted on Miami’s bullpen and held on for another victory.

The Texas Rangers didn’t score but the Cincinnati Reds scored two runs.

Kumar Rocker had a wait some tens days to make his season debut and he was immediately greeted with perhaps the worst defensive inning by the Rangers so far this season, and that includes a game in Philadelphia where a dropped easy popup nearly cost them a win.

After a ground out to start the evening, Rocker allowed a hard hit single off the bat of Matt McLain that Josh Jung couldn’t field with McLain moving to second on a wild pitch. McLain scored the game’s first run when Elly De La Cruz dropped a broken bat single just beyond the reach of Corey Seager before he himself scored from first on a single to right field.

De La Cruz is one of the planet’s fastest humans, and he was moving on the pitch, but the sequence that saw him score seemed like a preventable play as right fielder Brandon Nimmo tossed the ball into second base as De La Cruz just never stopped running.

One batter later, Eugenio Suarez reached via an error by Josh Smith and the Rangers were lucky that the Reds didn’t add to their early 2-0 lead as Rocker got out of the inning with two outs on the next three pitches.

An infuriating start to the game only became an infuriating rest of the game as the leather-aided two runs proved all Cincinnati would need as their own fielders were all doing their best Roberto Clemente and Brooks Robinson impressions with solid plays all over the field to snuff out hard contact from Texas.

In the end, the poor defense cost the Rangers but they also scored zero runs and had a total of four hits. Welcome back to The Shed indeed.

Player of the Game: Despite the loss, Rocker allowed just the two first inning runs on six hits, a walk, and three strikeouts over five innings. While he was only given 80 pitches to work with after sitting around for basically two weeks, Rocker did well in his season debut.

A couple of things in particular that were encouraging about Rocker’s outing include the former first-rounder showing a solid changeup that was eliciting weak contact. And, after McLain reached third with no outs in the top of the 5th, following a single and an error on a steal attempt, Rocker buckled down and made some of his best pitches of the night to keep McLain stranded and keep Texas within bloop-and-blast territory.

Unfortunately, the blast never came and the Rangers have their first three-game losing streak of the season.

Up Next: The Rangers and Reds close out this series tomorrow with Texas hoping to avoid a sweep and with RHP Jack Leiter making his 2026 home debut opposite RHP Chase Burns for Cincy.

The Sunday afternoon first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 1:35 pm CDT and will be aired on the Rangers Sports Network.

When Jake Bird arrived in a trade from the Rockies at last year’s deadline, he was looking forward to finding out what made the Yankees so good at making relief pitchers better.

One example he was keenly aware of when he was in Colorado was another right-hander who had come to the Yankees and turned his career around: Luke Weaver.

“What Luke had done really stood out,’’ Bird said. “To go from struggling to starring in the playoffs here and then continue to have success, that made an impression, in particular.”

Bird’s time as a teammate with Weaver proved to be quite short, as Bird was almost immediately sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after getting to the Yankees because of his ineffectiveness.

“I was excited to pick his brain, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to him that long,’’ Bird said.

Instead, Bird made the most of what turned out to be an extended run with SWB, where he reconnected with the team’s pitching coach, Spencer Medick, whom Bird met briefly when Medick still worked with Driveline.

“I had talked to Spencer about pitch design and knew he was a smart guy,’’ Bird said. “The whole organization is good at finding what makes guys good.”

For Bird, his focus changed after getting sent down to the minors.

“When I first got here, it was kind of ‘Do your thing,’ ” Bird said. “But when I went down, it was more about working on my stuff to at least get back to earlier last season.”

So his shaky performance — or worse — at SWB following the trade didn’t shatter his confidence.

“You never want to [struggle], no matter where you are,’’ Bird said. “But I knew they were helping me build my strengths and improve my weaknesses.”

The results have been excellent so far this year.

After another strong performance in Friday’s win over Miami, Bird entered Saturday having allowed just one hit — and no walks — while striking out five in 4 ¹/₃ innings this season.

“They had thoughts on my repertoire [at SWB] and presented it through a lens of who I was as a pitcher,’’ Bird said.

Bird’s stuff has intrigued teams in the past — which is what led the Yankees to acquire him despite poor overall numbers.

Perhaps he’s now pitching at the level organizations had believed he’d get to and showing what his ceiling could be.

“I don’t think about that,’’ Bird said. “I just want to find out and be the best I can be and have the right approach… It’s been a decent start for me, but I think there’s a lot of room to improve.’’

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for NC State baseball, as you may have noticed. Some close games go the wrong way, you get a bit of a slump at the plate, and next thing you know it’s panic, panic everywhere. Such is baseball season. Fortunately, it’s the first week of April.

NC State put a seven-game losing streak to bed with a 7-3 win over Notre Dame on Thursday night thanks to strong work from Ryan Marohn and Anderson Nance. The Pack clinched the series the next time out with another 7-3 win, this one highlighted by Ryder Garino and Cooper Consiglio out of the pen—they struck out 10, walked just one, and gave up one run in 4-1/3 IP.

Saturday was Dude Day, and he was excellent, throwing 7-2/3 of one-run ball. NC State took a 5-1 lead into the ninth inning, and then promptly gave up five runs because this is just how baseball works sometimes, and then scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to win the game, because this is just how baseball works sometimes.

Ty Head was the hero.

Scientists have been trying for centuries to explain how baseball works*, but no one can do it. It simply can’t be done. What can you say about this? It’s another result in the middle of a long, grueling season, no more or less definitive than the one that came prior to it. It’s nice to get even in league play, though.

(*Bill James since like 1985.)

Here’s something I never thought I’d say: I am excited to watch Emerson Hancock pitch tonight.

The Mariners look to win their first series of the season Saturday against the Angels. They won Friday’s opener 4-0 in a long, frustrating, 10-inning game that didn’t really get going until the end. The bats did eventually come alive, just in time to ruin the Angels’ home opener.

Hancock will take the mound looking to make it two in a row for the Mariners and for himself. Hancock threw six no-hit innings last week against the Guardians, striking out nine in the process. He seemed to pick right up where he left off after switching to the bullpen at the end of last year, with improved velocity capable of generating a competitive number of whiffs.

One change he made in that first start was lowering his arm slot even further, continuing his trend from his brief days as a reliever. The improved Stuff+ numbers held in his first start of 2026. With three kinds of fastballs, a changeup, and a sweeper — all thrown from a low arm slot — Hancock now has all the makingss of a contemporary starter, even if “just OK” velocity limits him to a mid-rotation arm. There’s still a lot more to prove, of course, but the lack of depth in the Mariners’ rotation last year is what kept them from a more impressive win total. Hancock pitching anywhere above replacement level would be a crucial development early in 2026.

The Mariners will face Angels’ righty Jack Kochanowicz, who Jake Mailhot covered in our series preview. Brendan Donovan is out of the lineup after exiting Friday’s game with a leg injury after stepping awkwardly on first base while trying to leg out a grounder. Leo Rivas takes his place at third, and Luke Raley moves up to the leadoff spot.

Lineups

News

Brendan Donovan has been announced as day-to-day with a groin injury. He got imaging yesterday and the team will review before offering an update. He is not in tonight’s lineup.

Brennen Davis (hamstring) and Victor Labrada (oblique) have been activated in Tacoma. Both are expected to play tonight.

Game Info

First pitch: 6:38 PM PDT
TV: Mariners TV. For how to watch, Kate’s got the details.
Radio: Seattle Sports (710 AM)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Dodgers are old.

That is their reality, and that will remain their reality, regardless of what a scheduled MRI examination reveals about the lower-back pain that forced Mookie Betts out of a 10-5 win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday.

The 33-year-old Betts could be bound for the injured list only eight games into the season, and that should renew concerns of what could happen to this team.

Because if the upcoming months don’t unfold as the Dodgers envision, age will be the main reason why.

Just when the Dodgers looked as if they were off and running, and they literally were, Betts’ premature departure offered an unpleasant reminder of how Project Three-Peat could unravel.

With Kyle Tucker in front of him at second base, Betts was on first in the top of the first inning when Freddie Freeman lined a ball into the right-center field gap. Tucker scored, and so did Betts, who upon returning to the bench was complimented by manager Dave Roberts for the walk he drew. Roberts was later informed there was a problem.

“He felt it as he was running,” Roberts said.

Roberts described the injury as “certainly more moderate than significant” but said Betts is “unlikely” to play in the series finale against the Nationals on Sunday. The manager also acknowledged how this could be a setback for Betts.

“Any time you miss, it’s going to take some time to kind of get your footing,” Roberts said.

That’s less than ideal for Betts, who was coming off a down year.

What was particularly striking about Betts’ back problem was how it seemed to come out of nowhere. Ignore his .179 batting average. Betts was back.

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He looked as if he regained whatever muscle mass he lost when he contracted norovirus early last season, particularly in his upper body.

He displayed his old power, homering the opposite way at Dodger Stadium and sending a ball into the visiting bullpen at Nationals Park. His play at shortstop was better than it had ever been, enough to where an uninformed observer probably wouldn’t guess he was a converted outfielder.

“Disappointed for him because we were sort of starting to get going a little bit, and the way he’s playing defense, and he’s a big part of what we do,” Roberts said.

But as much as Betts prepared himself for this marathon of a season, he encountered a formidable obstacle in a 270-foot sprint 

Age does that to a player, and Betts isn’t the only important player on the team who is closer to the end of his career than the start.

The Dodgers made concerted efforts to turn back the clock, the front office instructing players to focus on recovering in the offseason and the players ensuring they reported to camp in better shape.

Teoscar Hernandez, 33, is lighter than he was last year, the benefits of which were shown on Friday when he legged out a couple of infield singles. Max Muncy, 35, also lost weight and looks to be moving better.

Freddie Freeman, 36, has hit into some bad luck, which is why he’s batting only .242. But he’s back to hitting line drives and his defense at first base is at the level it was when he first signed with the Dodgers. Miguel Rojas, 37, looks as if he’s prepared to take over as the team’s primary shortstop while Betts is sidelined.

But what happened to Betts is a reminder of how quickly any of that can change, underscoring the importance of Roberts’ practice of giving his veterans occasional days off. On Saturday, that veteran was Hernandez, who was replaced in the lineup by Alex Call.

The Dodgers have the best player in baseball in Shohei Ohtani. They have the most powerful offense in the major leagues. They have a rotation that includes four Cy Young-caliber starters.

But they also have several key players who are old, and the question regarding them isn’t if they will eventually fall apart but when. The World Series is in six-plus months. As much as they have worked to ensure they will hold up between now and then, one man is already down.

After a very good series opener on Thursday, and a very bad follow-up on Friday, the San Francisco Giants will look to take the lead in their four-game set with the New York Mets this evening.

Taking the mound for the Giants is right-hander Landen Roupp, who will look to reprise his phenomenal season debut last week. Against the San Diego Padres, Roupp pitched six shutout innings, while allowing just four baserunners and striking out seven. Last year, in 22 starts, the 27-year old went 7-7 with a 3.80 ERA, a 3.91 FIP, and 102 strikeouts against 45 walks in 106.2 innings.

For the Mets, it’s righty Clay Holmes, a 33-year old veteran who is also making his second start of the year. In his season debut, Holmes gave up seven baserunners and two earned runs against the St. Louis Cardinals, while striking out five batters in 5.2 innings. He made 31 starts last year (plus two relief appearances), and went 12-8 with a 3.53 ERA, a 4.11 FIP, and 129 strikeouts against 66 walks in 165.2 innings.

Enjoy the game, everyone. Go Giants!

Game #9

Who: San Francisco Giants (3-5) vs. New York Mets (4-4)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 6:05 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area, KNTV

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Mets Lineup

1. Francisco Lindor – SS
2. Bo Bichette – 3B
3. Jorge Polanco – DH
4. Brett Baty – RF
5. Mark Vientos – 1B
6. Jared Young – LF
7. Marcus Semien – 2B
8. Carson Benge – CF
9. Luis Torrens – C

Clay Holmes – RHP

Giants Lineup

1. Willy Adames – SS
2. Rafael Devers – DH
3. Heliot Ramos – LF
4. Luis Arraez – 2B
5. Matt Chapman – 3B
6. Jung Hoo Lee – RF
7. Harrison Bader – CF
8. Patrick Bailey – C
9. Jerar Encarnacion – 1B

Landen Roupp – RHP

Broadcast info

First pitch: 9:05pm EDT
TV: SNY
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2

The Athletics’ second home game of 2026 was exactly the opposite of its first game. After the A’s blew out the Houston Astros 11-4 in yesterday’s series-opener, the Astros responded with a blowout win of their own, taking advantage of porous A’s pitching and defense to win 11-0.

Playing in front of a crowd full of A’s fans clad in the team’s new Sacramento jerseys, the hosts looked to make it two wins in a row.

Yet, from the first pitch, it became apparent that today was not the A’s day.

A’s starting pitcher Luis Morales hoped to bounce back from a rough first start against the Toronto Blue Jays. That did not happen as he actually pitched worse this afternoon. The visitors scored two runs in the top of the first to seize the early lead. Astros starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai proceeded to get through his first inning unscathed. The inning ended on a double play combination with Imai striking out Tyler Soderstrom and catcher Christian Vázquez throwing out Nick Kurtz trying to steal second base.

Morales escaped a bases-loaded jam unscathed the next inning. Unfortunately, he was not as lucky in the third. Astros first baseman Christian Walker led off with a solo home run to left field. Later that inning, the A’s defense came back to bite them. Third baseman Max Muncy let a grounder off the bat of an Astros player get by him into left field for the second straight inning. Then, left fielder Soderstrom lost a fly ball in the sun; the baseball found grass for an RBI double rather than his mitt for the third out. Both looked like errors but were ruled base hits.

Athletics manager Mark Kotsay finally removed Morales after he walked the first batter of the fourth inning. He allowed five runs on eight hits and walked six while recording zero strikeouts, an outing that should earn Morales a demotion to the bullpen or Triple-A Las Vegas to work on throwing strikes and limiting hard contact.

The A’s relievers who succeeded Morales did not fare much better. Right-hander Elvis Alvarado, who replaced Morales in the fourth inning, allowed the Astros to score three more runs that frame. He pitched a scoreless second inning before left-hander Hogan Harris gave up three runs on four hits in the sixth inning.

Looking at the A’s team pitching stats, one would think that this was a Cactus League or minor league game. A’s pitchers allowed 11 runs, 18 hits and 13 walks, the latter the most since they walked 17 batters in a 2023 game against the New York Mets. Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez drew walks his first four plate appearances. The Astros finished seven-for-22 with runners in scoring position, left 17 runners on base and would have scored more had they not grounded into four double plays.

While the Astros enjoyed endless base runners and scoring chances, the Athletics offense went silent, a stark contrast to what happened last night. Imai showcased the ability that made him a multi-time All-Star in Japan, recording nine strikeouts in 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

The A’s ended the game with the same number of strikeouts on offense as walks allowed by their pitchers. Muncy had two of the A’s five hits, all of them singles. The A’s had limited scoring opportunities. Looking for an immediate answer after going down four, the team had two on with two out in the bottom of the third inning, but Imai struck out catcher Shea Langeliers to end that threat. In the sixth inning, Astros reliever Kai-Wei Teng got A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson to ground out to end the inning and strand two runners in scoring position.

Now that each team has blown out the other, tomorrow afternoon’s Easter Sunday contest will be the rubber-game with the victor winning the weekend series between these two division rivals. Left-hander Jacob Lopez will toe the rubber for the A’s, looking to pitch a bit more efficiently and further into the game in his second start of the season. He will be opposed by longtime Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr, who pitched seven innings of one-run ball in his first start of the season.

It should be a good matchup tomorrow. Hopefully the Athletics can emerge victorious to win their first series of the season!

After exiting yesterday’s game with calf tightness and undergoing an MRI earlier today, Juan Soto revealed that he has been diagnosed with a minor right calf strain. That’s about the extent of what we know, as Soto said he does not know how long he will be out and is hoping to avoid an IL stint. Speaking to the media prior to the game, Soto said, “We’re going to see how I wake up the next couple of days and go from there.”

Soto, who has appeared in at least 150 games in each full 162-game season dating back to 2019, has not made a trip to the injured list since April 2021, so this is a unique situation for the Mets’ left fielder. Soto exited Friday’s game in the first inning after appearing to injure his calf running first to third on a single. It was the lone negative in the team’s otherwise stress-free 10-3 win.

For now, the Mets have seemingly avoided the worst-case scenario, but it will be a few days before we know definitively. Losing Soto for any amount of time would be a huge blow for the club, especially with Francisco Lindor struggling following hamate surgery, and several of the team’s newcomers, including Bo Bichette and Marcus Semien, scuffling in the early stages of the season with their new club. Soto is hitting .355/.412/.516 with one homer, three runs scored, five runs batted in, and a 162 wRC+ on the young season. Last year, Soto finished second in NL MVP voting while slashing .263/.396/.525 with 43 home runs, 105 runs batted in, 120 runs scored, a 156 wRC+, and a 5.8 fWAR in 160 games.

For the eighth game in a row to kick off the 2026 MLB season, the Boston Red Sox failed to score more than five runs. They are the only team in baseball that has yet to do so this season. Get used to this.

The lineup isn’t going to be this anemic all season long — and it certainly won’t be bitterly cold with an easterly wind whipping off the harbor all season long. But the 2026 Red Sox just aren’t going to scare many opposing pitchers.

Yes, there is Roman Anthony. And in in the fifth inning he laced a triple to put the game-tying run on third base. The problem for Anthony and the Red Sox, though, is that there were already two outs and the man hitting behind him doesn’t belong near the top of an MLB lineup. It’s now been six years since Trevor Story was a real asset on offense. And in the key at-bat of the middle innings with Anthony 90 feet from home, he weakly grounded out to second.

On the pitching side of things, Connelly Early wasn’t that sharp today. He walked four batters in just four innings and spent a lot of the game nibbling around the edges. But he limited hard contact, struck out Fernando Tatis twice, and kept his team in the game, making him one of the few Red Sox players who did his job today.

Three Studs

Willson Contreras, 1-4 R, K

He scored the first run of the game and blasted a ball that would’ve been an extra base hit if Fernando Tatis didn’t cover more ground than any other right fielder I’ve ever seen. He’s seeing the ball well and is going to be massively important this season.

Marcelo Mayer, 1-3, RBI, 2 K

He knocked in the Sox first run of the game with a sac fly and, once again, looked good out there in the field. There’s no advance stat for this, but he continues to just look like a ballplayer, y’know?

Roman Anthony, 2-4

Triples are sexy, ergo Roman Anthony is sexy. Also he’s the only guy on the team who got multiple hits.

Three Duds

Trevor Story, 0-4 K

It wasn’t just the groundout with Anthony on third. He also came up with two on and no out in the 8th and struck out. The Sox ended up scraping a run across in that inning anyway, but it’s at-bats like that one that make it hard to put crooked numbers on the board.

Caleb Durbin, 1-3

Just as Story doesn’t belong at the top of a lineup, Durbin doesn’t belong in the six hole. Yes, he got a hit today. But it was an infield dribbler and he continues to swing the bat like a man who is afraid to hurt the baseball. And while Freddy Fermin’s RBI double down the third baseline definitely wasn’t his fault, it is, unfortunately, a fact that someone other than the shortest third baseman in the league might’ve been able to get a glove on it.

Aroldis Chapman, 1 IP, 2 H, K, 1 ER

He was brought into a tie game in the 9th and tasked with keeping it a tie game. He did not.

Play of the Game

I’m not putting a Padres game-winner here, so let’s take another look at Roman’s triple.

After misplays from Anthony Nunez and Coby Mayo allowed the Pirates to tie the game in the 8th, a Nick Yorke walkoff single in the 9th doomed the Orioles to their second straight loss in Pittsburgh.

Despite being tied at 2-2 heading into the bottom of the 9th, manager Craig Albernaz turned to close Ryan Helsley to bring the game to extras. After starting the inning by getting Brandon Lowe to ground out to second, Helsley left a fastball over the plate to Bryan Reynolds. The former All-Star smashed a line drive to deep left field that sailed just over Dylan Beavers’ glove for a one-out double.

After intentionally walking Ryan O’Hearn, Yorke came to the plate looking to end the game. With the count knotted at 2-2, Helsley fired a fastball at Yorke’s knees that seemed to catch the bottom of the zone. However, home plate umpire Dan Iassogna incorrectly called it a ball, and the Orioles were out of challenges after a failed challenge in the top of the 9th from Gunnar Henderson. The very next pitch, Yorke lined a single to left field to bring home Reynolds and walk off the O’s.

While the 9th inning stung, the real pain point for Birdland came in the 8th. Albernaz gave the rookie Nunez his first high-leverage opportunity of the season, sending him in for the penultimate frame with Baltimore up 2-1. The first batter Nunez faced reached base when Marcel Ozuna dribbled a ball up the third base line that Mayo failed to field cleanly. The O’s 3B somewhat redeemed himself on the next AB, throwing out new Pirates star Konnor Griffin on a grounder as pinch-runner Yorke went to second. Spencer Horwitz then grounded out to second to put the tying run at third.

Pirates manager Don Kelly then pinch-hit former Ray Jake Mangum for No. 9 hitter Joey Bart. The slap-hitting outfielder chopped a ball into the triangle between the pitcher, 1B and 2B. The grounder barely evaded Nunez’s glove, allowing Mangum to reach and Yorke to score the tying run.

The O’s held that lead for most of the game thanks to a two-run rally in the 4th. With the game tied at 0-0, Gunnar Henderson led off the inning by lining a hanging CB into right field for a single. Adley Rutschman then singled sharply up the middle to move Gunnar to third. Dylan Beavers followed Rutschman’s lead, attacking a first-pitch splitter from Pirates starter Carmen Mlodzinski and sending it to center field to bring home Gunnar. After Mayo walked, another rocket single from Leody Taveras gave Baltimore a 2-0 lead.

Throughout most of the afternoon, it looked like two runs were all the O’s would need thanks to starter Shane Baz. The right-hander had dominated the Pirates in his only previous outing vs. Pittsburgh and continued that dominant streak Saturday in PNC Park.

Early on, it looked like we might see a repeat of his up-and-down Orioles debut. Baz walked leadoff batter Oneil Cruz on a 3-2 fastball, replaced him with Brandon Lowe on a fielder’s choice and then gave up a single to No.3 hitter Bryan Reynolds. Instead of unraveling, however, Baz locked in; he punched out Ryan O’Hearn on a 3-2 fastball up and away, before striking out Marcell Ozuna looking on a fastball away.

From there, the former Pirates first-round pick entered cruise control against his former employers. He sped through the 2nd inning on only 11 pitches, getting a groundout from baseball’s No. 1 prospect, Konnor Griffin, a soft lineout from Spencer Horwitz and a flyout by Nick Gonzales. Baz was even more efficient in the 3rd, setting down Joey Bart, Cruz and Lowe just eight pitches, including making the Pirates CF look silly on a knuckle curve for the right-hander’s third strikeout.

The only blemish on his record came in the form of an unearned run in the 4th. Pitching with a 2-0 lead, Baz allowed Reynolds to reach on a tapper down the first base line, which the Orioles’ pitcher fielded but couldn’t get out of his glove in time.

The former Oriole O’Hearn followed that E1 with a hard single to right field. Both runners advanced on a groundout to Coby Mayo at third, who bobbled the grounder, forcing him to only take the out at first. After Baz hit Griffin to load the bases, Horwitz flicked a well-located curveball into left for a sac fly. Baz then got Gonzales to softly line out, ending the scoring threat and preserving a 2-1 Orioles lead.

The 26-year-old started to show some signs of fatigue in the 5th. After striking out Bart looking with another excellent knuckle curve, and getting Cruz to fly out, Baz issued two walks on 10 pitches to put the tying run at second. O’Hearn couldn’t play hero agains the O’s, though, sending a towering fly ball to center for the final out of the inning.

Perhaps unexpectedly, Baz returned for the bottom of the 6th, having already thrown 83 pitches. He picked up his fifth and final strikeout of the afternoon on another well-spun curveball to Ozuna. After getting Griffin to ground out to Mayo, Baz looked to finish off his quality start against Horwitz. Instead, the Pirates 1B would slice an automatic double into the left field bleachers to chase the Orioles starter.

After Rico Garcia came in and got the last out of the 6th, it closed Baz’s line at 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 3 BB and 5 K. While he only managed to get one more out than in his debut, the Orioles’ newest flame-throwing Texan showed the quality of pitching that earned him his recent $68M/5 years extension.

The bullpen arms followed Baz’s up until the 8th inning. Garcia walked the first batter he faced in Gonzales, but got Bart to roll over a slider to end the scoring threat. Lefty Grant Wolfram was equally cool under pressure; after giving up a single to Cruz to lead off the 7th, he struck out Lowe and Reynolds before getting O’Hearn to ground out.

The offense was not a particular bright spot either for the Orioles, as the bats only went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base. However, given the late-inning meltdown by the pitching and defense, the offense will dodge most of the blame.

The Orioles will once again try and salvage the third game of an already-lost series tomorrow afternoon, when Chris Bassitt takes the mound on Easter. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35pm ET.

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

For the Rockies:

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