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TAMPA – The Orioles took a quick lead again this afternoon with Jackson Holliday’s leadoff home run. They built on it in the third inning with Alex Jackson’s first homer since last July. They keep playing to win, as reflected by the lineups, but there’s no escaping the reality of their situation.
Today’s 5-3 victory over the Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field featured a 2-hour, 36-minute rain delay – longest of the season - prevented a sweep and left the Orioles 10 games below .500 at 44-54. They’re playing four this week in Cleveland before returning home. And each day that passes makes them wonder how much the clubhouse will change.
If it’s a distraction, the Orioles pushed it aside today. They led 4-0 by the third on Henderson’s 109.2 mph, two-run double off Ryan Pepiot. The only losses came later in the inning when plate umpire James Hoye ejected Ramón Laureano and interim manager Tony Mansolino.
Laureano thought he checked his swing on a strikeout, flung his helmet and protective padding at home plate and was tossed. Mansolino picked up the argument after Laureano walked away and received his first career major league ejection.
Ramón Urias entered the game at first base and Ryan O’Hearn moved to right field.
Hoye also tossed Laureano in the sixth inning in Game 1 of a May 14 doubleheader against the Twins at Camden Yards. Another helmet spike.
"Ramón Laureano is a guy that we love, that’s passionate, that’s an incredible leader that does so many things right," Mansolino said. "James Hoye’s a great umpire, and it just was a tough situation and it just turned out the way that it did.
“In the minor leagues I have plenty and I think that’s why I’ve stayed pretty calm. I’ll just kind of leave it at that. I won’t give too many details. But I know there’s a lot of people watching and it’s important to be steady at all times, right? And there’s certainly times where emotions get involved and taking up for your players, getting involved. But I think as much as we can be steady and stay off the roller coaster, so to speak, for the players, I think that kind of starts with me.
"In the minor leagues I think I probably learned that the hard way in some ways managing down there, and I think over the years you kind of learn that you’ve got to make them count in terms of when you do them and why.”
Gunnar Henderson found it amusing.
"I told him I need to see a little bit more fire when he got ejected," Henderson said. "Yeah, I’m going to give him a hard time about that. It was cool. Yeah, Manso always has our backs. He’s been awesome."
What did Mansolino do during the rain delay?
“I’m just hanging out in there," he said. "I’m just talking trash to everybody and trying to lighten the mood.”
Laureano and O’Hearn, who hit his 12th home run leading off the sixth inning, are garnering trade interest, and executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias confirmed earlier today on MLB Network Radio that he’s exploring potential matches with other clubs interested in his pending free agents.
Elias described the season as “a huge disappointment,” adding that “none of us wanted to be here, expected to be here.” He’s in seller mode, but only to a degree.
“There’s a number of reasons for it, and we’re taking account of how we got here,” he said. “But the reality is, when we’re at that point in the standings and 11 days away from the trade deadline, we’ve got to be realistic about our situation. And the conversations that I’m having right now are more oriented towards seeing what’s out there for some of our available major league players.
“We’re not blowing up the team, and we think we’re going to be very good again in 2026, and have that intention, and we’re not interested in changing the foundation of the team, but to the degree that we have players that interest other clubs that are coming towards the end of their contracts, we’ve got to listen to that. So that’s what we’re spending our time on. You talk about everything, you listen to everything and you explore opportunities. But we’re trending in that direction right now, and it’s not what we want to be doing.”
Elias said he’s got to weigh opportunities and “be fluid.” The commitment to next season was always clear. Elias just stated it with more authority today.
“We don’t want to close the door to conversations,” he said, “but to the degree that we’re going to be selling, our front office is investing its time in setting ourselves up for 2026 and beyond."
Other executives have checked on Félix Bautista, but a team that believes it can contend in 2026 won’t part with a dominant closer who’s under control through 2027. Time is wasted just talking about it.
Trevor Rogers also figures to be back next season, and he produced a fifth quality start in seven outings with two runs in six innings. He allowed five hits, walked two batters and struck out three, but his ERA actually rose from 1.53 to 1.74.
Holliday’s home run came after his 401-foot fly ball last night with two outs in the ninth inning that center fielder Chandler Simpson caught at the fence. Today’s shot was measured at 373 feet to right-center.
"What a crazy game, right?" Mansolino said. "With how last night ended. We’re about two feet short on Jackson hitting a possible go-ahead homer, and leads off the game against Pepiot with a solo shot. The game’s poetic in a lot of ways. I’ve said it before and it’s true. It’s an amazing thing."
Jackson led off the third with a 405-foot homer to left, a week shy of the one-year anniversary of his most recent while playing for the Rays. Holliday walked, Jordan Westburg singled and they scored on Henderson’s double.
The Orioles were 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position through the third after going 2-for-11 last night, but they tallied their most runs since July 11.
"We’re obviously up early this morning and then that awesome rain delay right there in the middle didn’t help," Henderson said. "But I was proud of the way we came back out and had competitive at-bats there and had a chance to score a couple more runs, but ultimately came out with the win."
Rogers escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, walking Christopher Morel on nine pitches before retiring Jake Mangum on a ground ball. He needed only nine pitches to retire the side in order in the second, striking out two, but Yandy Díaz doubled with two outs in the third and scored on Junior Caminero’s single.
Rogers left a slider over the middle of the plate to Danny Jansen with one out in the fourth inning and surrendered only his second homer in seven starts. The lead was down to 4-2.
José Caballero singled and raced to third base when Jackson fielded Taylor Walls’ bunt in front of the plate and fired the ball into center field, but Simpson popped up a bunt to Rogers and Ha-Seong Kim flied out.
O’Hearn pushed the lead to 5-2 in the sixth when he launched a changeup to right field.
Rogers cruised through the bottom of the sixth and it began to pour, one of those Florida “passing storms” that took its sweet time and wouldn’t have been an issue at Tropicana Field. Passing a kidney stone would be less painful than a long delay on getaway day.
Rogers threw 91 pitches, and the extended pause sealed his departure from the game.
"I think that was my last inning there," he said. "I think I kind of hit the end in terms of energy level. I gave it everything I had that last inning. Execution-wise was really important today, stuff-wise was probably one of my least quality outings in terms of stuff. But against that team, going six full innings with two runs and giving my team a chance to win, I’ll take that any day."
Rogers can't escape the heat, making two starts here and one in Sacramento.
"I think I’ve gotten better at handling it, I don’t think I’ll ever get better at pitching in it," he said. "I don’t know who makes the schedule, but someone’s out to get me, it seems like. It’s kind of the way it’s been dealt. I think pitching in Miami all those years have prepared me for that.
"Me and Pepiot had to pitch in it, so everyone’s dealing with it, everyone was struggling. So you’ve just got to suck it up, toughen it out and just go out there and compete."
Yennier Cano retired the side in order in the seventh and Andrew Kittredge stranded a runner in the eighth. Bautista surrendered a run but left the bases loaded with a full-count strikeout of Caminero to register his 19th save in his first appearance since July 10.
“I had Ramón Laureano sitting with me, and he was breaking down the biomechanics of the pitching delivery and the baseball swing throughout the whole inning," Mansolino said. "So as I was kind of stressing out watching it, I was trying to focus on Ramón’s explanation of the swing and the delivery … and also what was going on with Félix. It was actually the perfect distraction to have during the inning. Nonetheless, we got through it, we won, and that’s the important thing.”
Any distraction is appreciated around the trade deadline, except for the actual deadline.
"Whoever says they don’t think about it, I’d probably say they’re lying to you," Rogers said. "I’ve even thought about it a time or two, just thinking about last year when I knew it was a 90 percent chance I was going to get traded and never been in that situation before. But when the umpire says, ‘Play ball,’ we’ve got to just focus and execute on winning ballgames. When we’re away from the field, we can think of all the external stuff that we can’t control. But when we get across that white line, it’s go time."
"I mean but you can’t sit there and think about that," Henderson said. "You just got to go out there and continue to play and do whatever you can to help the team win, because you’re part of the Orioles right now and that’s all you can do."
* Jeremiah Jackson homered again today, giving him 10 with Triple-A Norfolk. TT Bowens hit a three-run homer, also his 10th.
The Tides turned a 6-4-3 triple play in the third inning on a line drive to Jackson.
High-A Aberdeen’s Michael Forret tossed three scoreless innings with two hits. He’s the No. 7 prospect in the system, per MLB Pipeline.
