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HOUSTON – The August schedule isn't an easy one for Baltimore.
With inexperience everywhere, the O's have had to face the two crown jewels of the American League West, the Mariners and Astros, in two consecutive series.
Baltimore took two of three against Seattle. And after taking game one in Houston, the Birds fought tooth and nail in Game 2.
In the end, though, it was Houston that came away with a 5-4 victory in 12 innings.
And, of course, it was Ramón Urías. Last night, the former Oriole broke up Brandon Young's perfect game bid. Tonight, he walked it off. Another slow dribbler to third, and another heartbreaker.
Baseball.
"It’s just baseball," Tony Mansolino said. "It’s a crazy game the way things tend to work out. I don’t think Ramón wanted to hit either of those two balls the way he hit ‘em, and for some reason, it just worked out for him, unfortunately."
All eyes will be on the Orioles’ young players for the remainder of the season, regardless of the outcomes in the win and loss columns. Their ability to overcome the challenge of tough opponents will pay dividends in the future.
How will the core perform down the stretch? What will the more unproven youngsters do with their big league time?
Last night, the rookie Young answered that call, tossing 7 ⅔ perfect innings. Tonight, Cade Povich filled up the strikeout column, matching his career-high with 10 punchouts.
Jackson Holliday delivered a clutch two-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game at four.
Dylan Beavers, batting sixth, playing right field, and making his Major League Baseball debut, struck out on three pitches in his first big-league at-bat. The bigs tend to humble you like that. He more than redeemed himself in the ninth, leading off the inning with a double to put the Orioles in business.
Baltimore couldn't convert, but Yaramil Hiraldo shut the door in the ninth.
Coby Mayo's miraculous glove flip to home in the bottom of the eleventh kept Houston off the board.
Dietrich Enns doesn't fall into the "young player" category, but he delivered two incredible innings in extras.
That's a lot of good.
The O's offense just couldn't find a way to come through in the end.
"We just didn’t get it done those last few innings," Mansolino said. "You can think about that last play and how that worked out, but the reality is we had three innings with a runner on second base to score a run and we didn’t get it done."
But, again, there were a lot of positives.
Povich didn’t start this game for Baltimore, but he entered in the second after Rico Garcia faced the first five Astros hitters. All five Houston bats were right-handed, so Garcia, a righty, kicked things off for the lefty Povich.
Offense came a bit easier for the Astros this time around.
After failing to reach base through 7 ⅔ innings against Young last night, Houston responded with a few hits in the first inning and a run in the second. Cam Smith led off the home half of the second with a walk, and after reaching second on a pitch in the dirt, Mauricio Dubón brought him home with an RBI single.
One night after being blanked, the ‘Stros were out to a 1-0 lead. Povich danced out of more trouble, though, striking out Jose Altuve with runners on first and second to end the inning.
Trouble found him once again in the fourth, though. The Astros started the frame with a single and two walks to load the bases. Jacob Melton kept them loaded by bringing one home with an RBI single, and Carlos Correa stepped into the box with a chance to break the game open.
The shortstop just kept the line moving right along with an RBI single of his own, and another big threat stepped into the box in the form of Jose Altuve. A big threat in presence, not stature.
Povich struck him out to record the first out of the inning, and then induced a double play off the bat of Yainer Diaz.
That play was, of course, significant for keeping what could have been a massive inning to just two runs. At 3-0, the Orioles were firmly in the ballgame entering the top of the fifth. But it also exemplified a key part of the remainder of 2025: the maturation of Baltimore’s young players.
The bases were loaded, nobody was out, and Altuve was in the box, the two-hitter in an incredibly dangerous Astros lineup. Povich limited damage and didn’t let the game get away from him. That could be a significant moment for a young arm.
"We were going back and forth on whether to go get Strowd in the game and try to get him out of it there," Mansolino noted. "But again, he (Povich) has swing and miss stuff at times. We needed a punchout with no outs, and once he got the punchout, then it becomes, this is a double-play-type guy candidate. He got the double play and it kind of allowed him to cruise."
Povich knows, though, that sometimes limiting damage isn't enough.
"The back-to-back walks, with how good I think my stuff was today, I think probably being the best my stuff together has been all year, maybe, really disappointed getting ahead 0-2 1-2 to those guys and then losing them to allow them to score one or two," the lefty said. "Game could’ve been easily different had that gone a different way.
I think to be able to strike out 10 against this team and have my stuff where it is definitely gives me confidence for the future. Definitely happy with what I saw from that today and being able to get out of situations that I put myself into."
As it turned out, it proved to be a significant moment in the short term, too.
In the top half of the fifth, Dylan Carlson launched a two-run home run into the second deck in right field to bring the Orioles back within one. It was Carlson’s second hit of the night and seventh total base after tripling earlier in the night. After going 0-for-35, the homer was the outfielder’s seventh hit in his last five games. Three of them have been for extra bases. Baseball.
Povich came right back out in the fifth and recorded three outs in just seven pitches. Talk about a bounceback inning.
The lefty came back in the sixth and struck out two more Astros, bringing his strikeout total to ten on the night, matching a career-best. Last season, Povich struck out 10 White Sox in 7 ⅓ innings against Chicago. In Houston tonight, he matched that strikeout total in just five innings of work.
The Nebraska product exited the game in the seventh in favor of Kade Strowd, but the right-hander quickly surrendered a solo home run to Altuve. Houston extended their advantage back out to 4-2.
That lead wouldn't last long.
In the top of the eighth, Holliday leaned on a full-count slider and drove it out to right. With Carlson on first, the two-run home run tied things at four runs apiece.
Yennier Cano delivered a clean eighth inning, thanks, in part, to Adley Rutschman gunning down Taylor Trammell on an attempted steal of second. The 85.0 mph throw from Rutschman is considered elite, in the 99th percentile.
To the ninth we went.
Beavers led off the inning with a first-pitch ambush of a fastball, delivering a double that one-hopped the wall in right. Not a bad time or place for your first big league hit.
"It’s definitely a relief to get it out of the way," the outfielder said of his first hit. "It was a great atmosphere. I would have loved to get the win, but good debut, yeah."
But after three consecutive strikeouts, he was stranded in scoring position.
Hiraldo got the ball in the ninth, and promptly set down the Astros 1-2-3. Those two and three were Correa and Altuve, too. Free baseball.
The Orioles couldn't come up with any runs in the top of the tenth, and after an intentional walk of Diaz, the 'Stros had runners on first and second with nobody away. Altuve, likely a future Hall of Famer, nabbed third base on a gutsy steal, and put runners on the corners with one out.
Of course, Urías was at the dish. Enns struck him out, though, and one more out allowed him to escape the tenth.
After Baltimore went down quickly in the eleventh, Enns was back out to try to do it again.
Yet again, he danced in and out of trouble. Who would've thought that the veteran lefty would be such an integral part of the late-inning bullpen? He certainly didn't.
"I mean, no, but God had better plans in store," Enns said with a smile. "Just happy with the role I’ve been put in and just want to keep going, taking it one day at a time, and just go out there and do the job the best I can."
The O's ability to navigate through roaring waters would run out in the twelfth, though. Urías was up again with a chance to put the game away, and this time, put a ball in play. It was a slow grounder to Jordan Westburg, who had to make a split-second decision on whether to go home with the throw for the second out or to try and end the inning with a double play.
Westburg elected to go to second, Urías beat Holliday's throw to first, and there was the ballgame.
Mansolino won't second-guess his trusty third baseman, though.
"I’m sure Westy would love to have that one back," the interim skipper said. "He’s a really smart player. He took a shot at the double play because Uri is a slow runner. If Jackson gets that thing turned, I don’t know if he’s safe or if he’s out. I haven’t seen the replay yet.
Westy’s one of the players in this game that I really, really trust. He does everything right. If that wasn’t the right play, then he has a right to make a mistake every once in a while. It’s okay for him to do that, because he doesn’t make very many."
After dropping two of three against the Athletics, the O's have been incredibly competitive against two of the AL's best. Tomorrow, they'll have a chance to win another series.
