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The trade deadline can’t touch Trevor Rogers and Tyler O’Neill. They aren’t on expiring contracts. They aren’t expected to go anywhere except on the team charter.
Cedric Mullins is a pending free agent and could be moved. Fans seem to be cheering him a little louder these days. Twice tonight, for sure.
The Orioles didn’t make any deals and all three players, controllable and vulnerable, stepped up in an 18-0 thrashing of the Rockies, which set the club record for largest shutout win. The previous mark was 17-0 against the White Sox on July 27, 1969.
Rogers allowed one hit over seven scoreless innings, retiring 20 of 22 batters. O’Neill hit his second homer in two nights, a two-run shot off Colorado starter Antonio Senzatela, and reached base four times. Mullins made a spectacular diving catch and belted a three-run homer. And the Orioles evened the series before an announced crowd of 20,188 at Camden Yards.
Thirteen batters came to the plate in a nine-run seventh, with Gunnar Henderson doubling twice and driving in two and Coby Mayo contributing a walk and two-run double off the bench, and the Orioles improved to 46-58. Kyle Farmer went from designated hitter to emergency pitcher in the eighth and Alex Jackson greeted him with a pinch-hit homer.
The Orioles set a franchise record with 12 different players scoring, and they tied a franchise record with 12 different players collecting a hit.
"It’s just nice to see our guys swing the bats well, and it’s kind of one of those nights," said interim manager Tony Mansolino. "I feel like everybody for the most part put good swings on the ball. Just proud of our guys, and despite everything kind of surrounding us right now with trades and not meeting expectations and everything, I do feel like there’s positivity in that clubhouse every day.”
Mullins’ big swing in the fourth brought another milestone. He’s only the third Oriole with 100 homers and stolen bases, joining Brady Anderson and Paul Blair. A fan retrieved the ball and passed it along to him.
The crowd gave Mullins a standing ovation as his accomplishment was shared over the public address system, and he waved in appreciation while jogging to center.
“We’re proud of Cedric for everything he’s done," Mansolino said. "He’s had some great moments here throughout his career. Some of the playoff stuff last year was awesome. Cedric is a guy that we love internally, and I feel like externally he’s loved, as well, by the fans. Yeah, I am happy for him.”
“It's a crazy milestone, just for the organization," Mullins said. "Hearing it over the broadcast, the announcer said it was the third one in history, it’s special. So I'm going to take it in and enjoy the moment, but understand that and getting ready to play tomorrow.”
Ramón Laureano, a possible departure via trade, led off the fourth with a double, O’Neill walked and Mullins deposited a fastball onto the flag court for a 6-0 lead.
Mullins has 100 homers and 139 stolen bases. The season has disappointed, with a .219 average and .297 on-base percentage, but the 14 homers are tied with Laureano and Jackson Holliday for the team lead. And he put on quite a show tonight.
“That’s him. That’s what we’ve seen," Mansolino said.
"Ced’s streaky in some ways and I’ve got a feeling he’s coming up on a good streak.”
Mullins isn't ready for nostalgia. He knows that he might be traded, he knows what's in his heart, but he can't let it get inside his head.
“I don't know if it's quite hit me that way yet," he said. "I think I'm still focused on the day to day, trying to improve my game every single day, battling through some struggle. Just moving forward. So I don't think it's gotten to that point."
Asked about his connection to the fans, Mullins said, "I'd say very connected. Baltimore has taken my family in since the beginning. I got drafted by Baltimore and just one of those things where you just feel welcome. The engagement that I have with the fans over the course of the years has been nothing short of awesome. It's just been fun, really fun being here.”
Mullins also reached on an infield hit after back-to-back walks to Colton Cowser and O’Neill in the sixth. Reliever Ryan Rolison fielded the ball and threw it away, allowing Cowser to score. Rolison tried again on Jacob Stalling’s roller, and this time he airmailed the throw to score O’Neill.
Rogers could have subsided tonight on one run.
The left-hander struck out four of his first seven batters and five of 10. The only hit in seven innings was Thairo Estrada’s one-out single in the second on a shallow fly ball to center at 74.1 mph.
Eighteen of the first 19 batters were retired before Ezequiel Tovar drew a 13-pitch leadoff walk in the seventh, which pushed Rogers’ pitch count to 87. Hunter Goodman bounced into a double play on the second pitch of his at-bat.
“That fastball plays way up," Mansolino said. "I don’t feel like we’ve seen the same fives and sixes that we saw the first couple of starts now that he’s on regular-like rotation work. Those threes and fours play like fives and sixes. There’s huge extension.
"It’s a very attacking style on the mound. I don’t feel like he’s beating around the bush much regardless on who’s at the plate in the lineups he’s seen the last couple of starts. Just a ton of confidence. There’s a ton of presence on the mound."
Rogers was removed after 96, with his ERA at 1.49 in eight starts.
"There’s always that voice in the back of my mind that’s like, ‘Maybe it’s just a fluke,'" he said. "I’ve had a lot of practice shutting that voice down and staying within my process, staying within myself. On the other hand, I’ve prepared for this, these couple starts, since I got traded over here.
"Obviously, we know the whole story from last year and up to this point. I’ve worked my butt off to get here and I’m trying to enjoy it but also stay in the moment, because I know how quickly things can turn in this game. So, just trying to stay even keeled, stay in the middle, appreciate and be grateful for the starts that I do have. And if they go my way, enjoy it for the next five hours or so, and then move on to tomorrow.”
Orlando Arcia drove a sinker into left-center field in the third, a liner at 105 mph, and Mullins sprinted over and back and made the diving catch with full extension. The crash landing didn’t pry the ball from his glove.
Rogers put both hands on his head and his jaw dropped, no caption needed with the expression of disbelief.
"It was the best catch I’ve ever seen," he said. "I still have no words for you. It was unbelievable. I mean, just his night in general, 100 home runs with this club and what he means to this organization and this city. My hat’s off to him. Great teammate, great person. Best catch I’ve ever seen. It was unbelievable."
Rogers mistakenly had assumed the ball touched grass.
"And then, everyone went berserk," he said. "I thought there was no chance he got that ball, and he got it. So that’s kind of why my reaction was shocked. It was just unbelievable. Best catch I’ve ever seen."
Mullins isn't ready to rank it No. 1 ahead of his April 15, 2024 catch that led Cole Irvin to promise him a bottle of whiskey.
“Looking at the video, it's so similar to the play last year," he said. "Just one of those things, it's like, OK, well, which one do you put above the other? I said I personally put the one last year above that one, just based off of how it felt. I almost want to hear someone else's rankings at this point. So it was awesome.”
After hitting four homers in the first two innings last night, the Orioles scratched out a run tonight in the first frame when Jordan Westburg took a 96 mph fastball off his left hand, Henderson walked and Ryan O’Hearn poked an RBI single into left field on his 32nd birthday. O’Hearn also had a run-scoring single in the seventh.
Cowser began the second inning with a single and O’Neill jumped on a full-count 96.7 mph fastball, sending it 417 feet to center field at 108.1 mph.
O’Neill, with his first Orioles season harmed by two stops on the injured list and, most recently, general soreness, has eight hits in his last six games. He’s doubled twice and homered twice. He drew two walks tonight and added a run-scoring single in the seventh.
Mayo pinch-hit for Laureano in the seventh. Dylan Carlson batted for Mullins later in the inning and collected an RBI on a fielder’s choice. No hug watches at this point. More likely a reaction to a huge lead. But they could be coming.
* Ryan Mountcastle had three hits tonight on his rehab assignment with Triple-A Norfolk, and Adley Rutschman caught and went 0-for-4 with a walk. Keegan Akin retired both batters he faced in relief, striking out one, and should be reinstated from the injured list Monday. Emmanuel Rivera was 4-for-4. Chayce McDermott allowed five runs in 1 1/3 innings.
Samuel Basallo didn’t play after going 5-for-5 with two doubles, two singles and his 20th home run last night in his return from a sore oblique.
Basallo, the No. 9 prospect in baseball in MLB Pipeline rankings, is getting closer to his much-anticipated promotion to the majors.
He makes it impossible to ignore.
“There’s a plan in place for him right now,” Mansolino said. “You guys don’t know what it is, and we’re not gonna tell you. But there’s definitely a plan in place. Mike (Elias) is thinking about him every day. Our front office is really smart, there’s a lot that goes into those decisions.
“We talked earlier in the year about knocking the door down. It feels like he’s starting to do that in a lot of ways. The obvious is the box score and the hitting. What you’re not seeing is the catching. There’s no catching in the box score. So that’s still a really important piece for us.
“We’ve got to have catchers that are great catchers. They affect 13 other guys. They affect the defense, they affect the whole team every night. So his development right now is probably mostly coming on the catching side. The bat’s probably ahead of that. But all reports are that the catching’s massively going up.”
* The Orioles signed right-hander José Espada to a minor league contract, per their transactions page.
Espada’s only major league appearance was with the Padres on Sept. 24, 2023, when he tossed a scoreless inning with two walks and two strikeouts. He had a combined 3.38 ERA this year in 29 relief appearances between Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A El Paso. He struck out 58 batters in 37 1/3 innings.
The Blue Jays drafted Espada in the fifth round in 2025. The Padres released him four days ago.
* The transactions page also shows the Orioles signing the following draft picks: left-hander Holden De Jong (11th round), second baseman Brayden Smith (13th), right-hander KK Clark (15th) and left-hander Braeden Smith (17th).
