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Orioles rookie catcher Samuel Basallo has avoided a serious injury after taking a bunted ball off his right hand last night and exiting the game.
Basallo is out of today’s lineup, but he would have been on the bench anyway against Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw.
“It feels good, feeling much better today,” he said via interpreter Brandon Quinones.
“I got a bit scared, I think a few of us were scared. But thankfully nothing came out bad, so thank God I’m pretty healthy.”
Basallo was a spectator for the remarkable comeback, when the Orioles were no-hit for 8 2/3 innings and won 4-3 on Emmanuel Rivera’s two-run, walk-off single.
“I’ll definitely say it was crazy, for sure,” Basallo said.
Basallo hit a walk-off homer against Tanner Scott on Friday and Rivera singled against Scott to set off another wild celebration.
“If he did indeed learn something, then I’m glad he did,” Basallo said of Rivera. “I think he tried to not do too much yesterday. He was able to put the ball in play and obviously gave us a great result.”
These endings won’t carry over to the 2026 season but Basallo and others are confident that the Orioles will be much better.
“Of course, I think as a group we’re gonna be able to make an impact next year,” he said. “As long as we stay healthy and continue to play good baseball the way we’ve been doing now, I think we’re gonna set ourselves up pretty nicely for next year.”
Dean Kremer threw today to test his right forearm and also appears capable of staying on the active roster.
“They checked him this morning,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino. “Seemed like asymptomatic, things are good.”
The Orioles aren’t listing their starters for the three-game series against the Pirates that begins Tuesday night. Pittsburgh is starting right-handers Mike Burrows, Paul Skenes and Johan Oviedo.
Kremer’s next turn will be skipped and the Orioles briefly could go with five starters due to Monday’s off-day, but they seem more inclined to plug in another pitcher. Albert Suárez, who earned the win last night, is one possibility.
“We could have a bullpen game somewhere in there,” Mansolino said. “We’re still kind of working through who would start that. Obviously, Big Al throwing three innings last night helps that out. Gives us kind of a candidate for it. But with the off-day and being able to shuffle some things around, there’s gonna be some moving pieces to that.
“Would it necessarily be on Dean’s day? It might be after that. But just with how things go, we’ll see where it goes, how we get there.”
Outfielder Tyler O’Neill (right wrist) starts his latest rehab assignment today at Double-A Chesapeake. He won’t stay long, moving up to Triple-A Norfolk for his next game.
Reliever Colin Selby (left hamstring) could go on a rehab assignment later this week.
Infielder Jordan Westburg did more fielding work yesterday and ran sprints as he tries to return from a right ankle sprain.
“I hit him ground balls out on the grass yesterday and I moved him laterally pretty hard,” Mansolino said. “Over the years, I’m usually the guy that works with these rehab guys and tries to get a gauge on them, and he looked pretty good to me. The issue right now is kind of coming down to the back foot, pushing off when he throws. So he’s starting to move better laterally, just throwing is bugging him a little bit. For me, that’s a pretty good indicator that he’s getting close.”
For the Dodgers
Shohei Ohtani DH
Mookie Betts SS
Freddie Freeman 1B
Michael Conforto LF
Alex Call RF
Miguel Rojas 3B
Hyeseong Kim 2B
Enrique Hernández CF
Ben Rortvedt C
Clayton Kershaw LHP
