The O’s fell into an early 6-0 hole against the Rays. And then the fun began.
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
Look, it’s no secret that things haven’t gone well for the 2025 Orioles. But that doesn’t mean they’re incapable of playing a singularly awesome evening of baseball.
Last night’s series opener against the Rays may well be the most memorable — and improbable — O’s win of the season. A game that was shaping up to be another forgettable disaster, with the Rays jumping out to a 6-0 lead against an ineffective Tomoyuki Sugano in the second, turned on its head in a hurry. The Orioles not only clawed out of the six-run hole but just kept adding on more and more runs, turning the game into such a laugher that the Rays had to use a position player to pitch. It was nearly a mirror image of the Orioles’ painful loss in Tampa last week, when they stormed out to an 8-0 lead in the second before the Rays whittled away the entire deficit and eventually won.
It’s hard to fathom how unlikely this all was. This is the same Orioles offense that had been held hitless into the seventh inning or later three times in the past week. And they were facing Ryan Pepiot, a pitcher who dominated them for eight brilliant innings just 10 days earlier. And here they end up with 22 runs, 10 more than they’d scored in any game this year. Go figure. Check out Stacey’s recap for all the details of this wild game.
Will this feel-good victory give the O’s some momentum going forward? That would certainly be nice, but I’ve seen too much of the 2025 Orioles to think it will happen. There’s just as much of a chance that the offense immediately goes silent again and the O’s fall back into their losing ways. But for now, let’s bask in the Birds’ most decisive win of the year.
Links
Orioles erupt for 22 runs and rally from early 6-0 deficit, Mayo hits first major league homer (updated) – Blog
Congrats to Coby on his first big league dinger! It doesn’t matter if it came against a position player. It still counts.
Orioles’ Jordan Westburg exits vs. Rays with apparent injury – The Baltimore Sun
Memo to Jordan: please start sliding feet-first.
Jon Meoli: Inside Orioles top prospect Samuel Basallo’s offensive and defensive development at Norfolk – The Baltimore Banner
I want to see Basallo’s bat in the majors right now! His glove, though…
Injury update on Orioles’ Povich, Bradish, Wells, Rodriguez, Suárez, Mountcastle; O’Hearn ‘blown away’ as All-Star finalist – BaltimoreBaseball.com
There’s almost not enough room in that headline to name every injured Oriole. This season is cursed.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! The only Oriole in history with a June 28 birthday is the late Don Baylor (b. 1949, d. 2017). Baylor, a second-round pick of the Orioles in 1967, was just starting his breakout when the O’s traded him as part of the Reggie Jackson deal in 1976. He later won the AL MVP award with the Angels in 1979.
On this date in 1957, the Orioles threw their AL-record fourth consecutive shutout. Maryland native Ray Moore did the honors with a three-hit blanking of Cleveland, following the lead set by Hal Brown, Billy Loes, and Connie Johnson, who threw shutouts in the three previous games.
Random Orioles game of the day
On June 28, 2012, the Orioles lost at home to Cleveland, 7-2. Starter Wei-Yin Chen was tagged for six runs in 6.1 innings, including homers by Johnny Damon and Shin-Soo Choo. Despite the best efforts of J.J. Hardy, who doubled and hit a two-run homer, the O’s offense couldn’t manage much against three Cleveland pitchers. The loss was the Orioles’ seventh in their past nine games, a rare rough patch during an otherwise great season.