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ATLANTA – The last time the Orioles swept an opponent, Trevor Rogers was still pitching for Triple-A Norfolk.
At the time, Rogers had just one big league start in 2025. It came against the Red Sox in late May, with 6 ⅓ innings of shutout baseball.
Who knew if the lefty could make that dominant start a habit?
He’s done just that, and today, he led the Orioles to a sweep of the Atlanta Braves. Today, the O’s came out on top 2-1.
Rogers was dominant throughout the contest, with the Braves’ first runner in scoring position coming in the bottom of the fifth inning. He struck out six and induced weak contact, of both the ground ball and fly out varieties.
"I’m just really happy with this group and the way we’ve been playing," Rogers said after the game. "I’m really happy with myself against that team. Excuse my French, but they’ve beat my (guess that expletive) pretty consistently, and to finally go out and have a good start against that club, it’s really good for me. I was able to do my job, and at the end of the day, we won a ballgame."
Baltimore’s offense didn’t need to push too many runs across with Rogers on the mound, but Jackson Holliday provided just enough.
Holliday got the scoring started with a two-run home run in the top of the third inning. It was his second hit of the day after a high fly ball found some grass in the first, matching his hit total from the previous four games. He went on to record two more, including a double.
"Kind of battling coming into today," Holliday said. "Kind of grinding through some stuff and just up there trying to compete. Got some lucky knocks and some good ones. So, just part of the game. But very happy with how I felt during the game compared to what I’ve been feeling the past few days."
The sixth inning was the next sign of life from the O’s offense. But with runners on second and third and just one away, All-Star starter Ryan O’Hearn struck out, and Ramón Urías did the same. Holliday’s home run was the only damage surrendered by Braves starter Grant Holmes through six.
Jurickson Profar collected his second hit of the contest in the sixth inning, the only Brave to find much success against Rogers. But the lefty found another double play, the second of the game for the O’s, and he was through six scoreless innings again.
Another six scoreless marked the third time that Rogers has completed at least six scoreless innings this season. He’s only made five starts.
"Man, you take away that one start in Tampa, right, and it's been really incredible," interim manager Tony Mansolino said. "The velocity was solid today. I think I've said in the past, a little bit velocity-dependent in some ways, but it wasn't today. We didn't see as many fives up on the board, but a lot more twos, threes, some fours in there. The extension, the changeup kind of plays into the fastball playing up, the competitiveness."
In the seventh, Atlanta nearly put a run on the board. Sean Murphy hit a ball about as far to right as possible without it going out, and it ricocheted off the top of the wall and back into play. He had to settle for a double, though, and Rogers kept him at third after two more outs.
"That changeup I threw to Murphy, it was a bad pitch and he’s supposed to do that," Rogers said. "In the past, that would have bothered me. But I was able to flush it and move onto the next one. So it’s a really good feeling to have."
The lefty exited after yet another gem, having tossed 6 ⅔ innings and leaving one runner on third. Yennier Cano recorded the final out of the inning, and Rogers’ line was closed. He allowed just four hits, struck out six and walked two.
"It’s the most confidence I’ve had consistently in a couple years," he added. "It’s just really fun to just have that simple mindset of really just trying to execute a pitch and don’t really care what happens."
Holliday once again put the O’s in a good position in the eighth. After Jacob Stallings reached on a bloop single to right, the second baseman hit a double down the line to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Ramón Laureano and Gunnar Henderson couldn’t bring them home, and after an intentional walk to O’Hearn, Urías couldn’t convert either.
Excellent pitching can mask some offensive woes, though.
Cano recorded the first two outs of the bottom of the eighth, but with a runner on second and Matt Olson in the batter's box, Gregory Soto entered the game. And after falling behind 3-0, Soto threw four consecutive sinkers to get a strikeout. Another crisis averted.
After pitching for two straight days, though, Félix Bautista wasn't available for the ninth. That meant Seranthony Domínguez got the ball, despite the right-hander being unavailable the last two days with back discomfort.
Domínguez struck out Austin Riley, but surrendered a solo home run to Murphy, who was inches away from a homer back in the seventh. It was just of the solo variety, though, and Baltimore clung to a 2-1 lead. Ozzie Albies punished a splitter that found too much of the plate for a sharp single down the line, and all of a sudden, the winning run was at the plate.
Drake Baldwin, the winning run, struck out. Two away. Michael Harris II came to the dish. Groundout, ballgame, sweep.
The win was the O’s 40th of the season, and it left the Braves stuck on 39 victories for the weekend. Both teams entered the season with high expectations, and both have underperformed. In Atlanta, though, the Orioles seemed to separate themselves.
"That’s a good team and they’ve kind of dug themselves out of the hole already once this year, and they’ll do it again," Mansolino said. "We really respect those guys. To come here and beat a team led by those three guys three times, you know we definitely don’t take that for granted."
The Orioles return home for a series against the New York Mets, who were scuffling a bit to end June but were winners of four straight entering their contest with the Yankees this afternoon.
Two more series for the O’s to make some noise before the All-Star break.
