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“Leading off for the Dodgers, pitcher Shohei Ohtani.”
That's where the oddities began. The Orioles prepped for the wrong Dodgers starter. Their starter left with an injury. Their rookie catcher came within a strike of sending the game to extra innings before hitting a walk-off home run that spun the night into something worth celebrating.
And boy, did they celebrate.
Samuel Basallo went left-on-left against Tanner Scott and cleared the fence in center to give the Orioles a 2-1 win over the Dodgers before an announced crowd of 25,481 at Camden Yards. The count was 1-2 when Basallo barreled a 98.7 mph fastball and drove it 433 feet at 109.3 mph. Teammates mobbed him at home plate.
"He’s gonna be a big-time hitter," said interim manager Tony Mansolino.
The worries over Dean Kremer grew smaller. He exited after three scoreless and hitless innings and only 56 pitches with discomfort in his right forearm, but the news was more positive than expected.
“I just saw him in the hallway," Mansolino said. "He thinks it’s mild. So we’ll get imaging tomorrow, we’ll have more answers tomorrow to what it is, but the level of concern at the moment after the evaluation with the medical team was pretty low.”
The Dodgers arrived in town and their two-way star was a late addition to the series rotation, with Tyler Glasnow scratched due to back tightness. The Orioles saw him twice with the Angels. They were supposed to contend only with his bat this weekend.
They didn’t know that they’d also contend with their own starter’s health crisis, but this is 2025. Had to happen.
The dugout seemed to anticipate Basallo's heroics. Henry Urrutia was the last Orioles player whose first Camden Yards home run was a walk-off, on Aug. 19, 2015 against the Mets.
"I was thinking it," said Jackson Holliday. "I know Robbie (Chirinos, the Orioles' bench coach) and Tommy (Joseph, assistant hitting coach) were talking about it, and I was hoping for a cool moment for him. He put a great swing on it. Beaves (Dylan Beavers) was like, 'I have no idea how in the world he hit that.' It's an extremely impressive talent. I'm real happy for him."
Basallo put the ball in his locker, signed some new ones and posed for photos with fans who returned the souvenir. One young male said, "You should keep that one."
"I just was trying to take my best at-bat, trying to maybe put my best swing on the ball. And that just happened," Basallo said.
"I’ve been working for that. I just really won’t forget about that. ... To do it against that type of lefty is much better. Throwing 99, 100 (mph) and do that, be able to do that is impressive. Thank God for that.
"I’ve just been trying to take my best at-bats every time, trying to learn as much as I can for next year. And that happened, and I’m glad that happened at the right moment."
Every plate appearance is an education for Basallo, and especially lately. He's been exposed to other southpaws who bring serious heat, including Aroldis Chapman.
"I’ve been facing a lot of lefties the last couple days, and every single one has been throwing plus-96," he said. "I think that prepared me for that at-bat today."
Basallo gave the Orioles their second walk-off win, and the first via a home run since Anthony Santander on Sept. 19, 2024.
"He’s a young kid, he’s learning right now how big leaguers pitch him," Mansolino said. "They don’t really throw fastballs down the middle a whole lot and they’ve got nasty off-speed stuff and they know his weaknesses and they can kind of exploit those. He’s gonna figure all of that out, but just his general skills as a hitter are so advanced for such a young kid, so in due time we’ll see more of that. It’s a really big swing and really kind of like a jumping point in his career in some ways.”
"Thank God I have really good teammates here," Basallo said. "Good coaches here. Chirinos has been helping me a lot. We’ve been talking a lot. There’s been a lot of up-and-downs but we are gonna get there. I’m just learning right now."
No moment seems too big for him, which belies his age. No 21-year-old major leaguer should be this composed.
“None of this has been," Mansolino said. "I mean, he’s been fine since he got here, even Day 1. I’ve been fortunate to see all these young kids come here and do their debuts and do the whole deal and see the media circus and everything kind of around these guys. And these two kids (Basallo and Beavers) who have come up this year have probably been the most numb to it for some reason. I don’t know why, but they’ve been incredibly calm, and they’re pretty talented players, so we’re very excited about them both.”
"He's done a great job," Holliday said. "This game is tough, and it'll beat you down. I think he's taking good at-bats. He's putting good swings on the ball, and that's all you can control at the end of the day. I think it'll turn around pretty quick for him, especially with a swing like that, your confidence will definitely be pretty high coming into the game tomorrow."
Dietrich Enns replaced Kremer, who retired his first eight batters and finished with one walk and four strikeouts. Kremer seemed on his way to rebounding from back-to-back starts with a combined 13 earned runs and 16 hits allowed over eight innings. It wasn’t until Enns began to warm that an injury was suspected.
MASN cameras showed Kremer grimacing on a pitch to Mookie Betts, who grounded into a force to end the third. He was done, and the six-man rotation could be going through more changes.
Kremer was charged with seven runs and nine hits in three innings in San Francisco and he didn’t get any further tonight, but the forearm was to blame. Not the Dodgers.
"I didn’t know something was bothering him," Basallo said.
The Orioles have placed 28 different players on the injured list this season and used it 36 times. Kremer managed to avoid it up to this point, making his 28th appearance tonight.
Betts flied to the left field fence in the first inning and Freddie Freeman flied to the right field fence. Kremer stood with hands on hips, taking in the scene and pondering his luck before beginning his walk back to the dugout. Basallo waited for him near the first base line and they tapped gloves.
The Dodgers didn’t get a hit until Freeman led off the fourth with an infield single off Enns, who loaded the bases with two walks but struck out Dalton Rushing.
Miguel Rojas reached on Holliday’s fielding error with two outs in the third and Ohtani walked before Betts’ fielder’s choice grounder. That was the extent of any damage against Kremer, who lowered his ERA to 4.43.
"He was very good today," Basallo said. "We talked more today before the game. We’ve been getting more communication the last couple days before his start. And I think that was ... I’m glad he had that day. It’s bad he had to leave the game because something happened, but it’s good to have that kind of game."
Ohtani hasn’t gone more than five innings in 12 starts. He came out tonight after 3 2/3 scoreless with three hits, a walk and five strikeouts. He fanned the last two batters he faced in the fourth after Ryan Mountcastle’s leadoff double and a wild pitch. Eleven of his pitches had triple-digit velocity.
“It’s a unicorn right there in today’s game," Mansolino said. "I have not been paying close enough attention to him pitching, coming back. I had it in my mind that the stuff would be down a little bit coming off the Tommy John surgery. That was not the case. It was filthy."
The Orioles went ahead 1-0 in the fifth after Holliday and Gunnar Henderson walked and executed a double steal. Holliday kept going when Ben Casparius’ pitch bounced past Rushing and rolled to the backstop.
"I think it was just a split decision," Holliday said. "Just kind of felt right, I guess. Maybe it was an instinct kind of thing. Saw the ball bounce up. He had had a few of those where he kind of lost it, so I just went for it. Be aggressive.
"I'm glad I wasn't safe and then it got overturned or something like that. That seems to happen quite often. It was nice to be able to make a play for the team and put us ahead for a little bit."
“If you’ve been watching, we’ve been doing it for the last three or four months," Mansolino said. "That one just happened to work out. We’ve also had some blow up, too, but when it works, it sure works great, doesn’t it?”
The lead lasted one pitch. Freeman led off the sixth with a 420-foot shot to center field, and Kade Strowd replaced Enns.
Rushing fouled a ball off his right knee in the sixth, after back-to-back two-out singles created a jam for Strowd, and was carried off the field with a lower leg contusion.
Betts doubled off Grant Wolfram with two outs in the seventh and was stranded. Coby Mayo led off the bottom half of the inning with a 105.5 mph single into left field, and reliever Blake Treinen picked off pinch-runner Jorge Mateo. Rico Garcia retired the side in order in the eighth and Yennier Cano did the same in the ninth for his fifth scoreless appearance in a row.
“Listen, I’ll say this again because I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but some nights it’s gonna work and some nights it’s not, just kind of with how we’re constructed," Mansolino said. "We’re just trying to put the puzzle together every night. Last few nights we’ve been able to put it together. Do we expect to put it together every night? No. And even teams with legitimate major league bullpens with high-paid, high-leverage guys, they don’t always put it together right every night. So tonight was a good night. San Diego was good. We’ve got another one tomorrow.”
* Former Orioles executive Danny Haas is returning to the organization as a special assistant to the general manager and will begin working in his new role next week, according to an industry source.
Among the duties for Haas will be evaluating players across all markets - the amateur draft, international free agency, the minor leagues and the major leagues. He will assist in evaluating players within the organization and advise executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias and front office executives on all manner of baseball operations decisions and topics.
The Diamondbacks hired Haas from the Orioles as special assignment scout from 2019-23 before he joined the Nationals as vice president of amateur scouting. Haas worked for the Orioles from 2012-18, including his roles as a national crosschecker and then as special assistant to the executive vice president of baseball operations from 2015 to his departure.
The Red Sox named Haas their Scout of the Year in 2004.
Haas selected prep shortstop Eli Willits No. 1 overall for the Nationals in the 2025 draft prior to his departure.
The Washington Post first reported that Haas was leaving the Nationals.
