The Royals are exactly what the Orioles marketing department needed with a long All-Star break ahead.
Getting to beat up on the one team in the American League who is even more disappointing than Baltimore, and then peddle faux hope and fables of momentum all of next week, is about as good as it’s going to get for the 2026 Birds. So, hats off to Craig Albernaz’s boys for taking advantage of a woeful opponent, with Saturday’s 6-1 win at Camden Yards fairly comprehensive in its superiority.
Starting pitcher Kyle Bradish took a no hitter into the seventh, and a lineup that usually can’t touch lefties finally teed off on a bad one, in Noah Cameron, launching three home runs off him – pretty much the only way the O’s score these days. They fielded the ball well enough and won for the third straight time.
Samuel Basallo, just 21, continued the greatest under-22 power-hitting campaign for any catcher in MLB history by driving in the first run of this game with a base hit, after winning Friday’s game with a two-run laser HR. And both those hits came off a lefty, another strong sign of development from him.
Fellow youngster Coby Mayo (12 homers) continues to destroy left-handed pitching- it’s pretty much all they let him see these days – and he smashed another ball deep into the left field stands. He has been top 10 in MLB against lefties all season, and was composed in a two-strike count here.
“Just trying to repat good swings,” Mayo told the MASN broadcast after the game.
And Pete Alonso, the only hitter on this roster with an OPS above .800, crushed a two-run homer in the fourth, his 21st of the season. They had just six hits and struck out nine times, but hit the four homers and that’ll play against the broken Royals.
Bradish In Command
Bradish didn’t have to pitch in anything close to a jam until the seventh inning. He struck out Bobby Witt Jr and Carter Jensen to open the game and would have retired the first nine batters he faced if not for an error, with Jackson Holliday still yet to show he is ever going to be smooth or natural at second bade.
No one reached against him in the fourth, fifth or sixth inning, but he lost the no-hit bid on Jac Caglione’s single to open the seventh Sal Perez plated him on a sac fly, and grant Wolfram came on to get the final out of that inning with the Orioles still leading, 5-1.
Gunnar Henderson, who has a first-half he’d love to forget in every aspect of play, opened the 8th with a homer, his first since June 19 to cap the scoring.
It will be interesting to see if the Orioles back off Bradish at all in the second half, particularly if they remain last in the AL East. He did not pitch even 40 innings in 2024 or 2025 dealing with elbow soreness and eventually Tommy John surgery, and has already thrown 107 1/3 this season, most ever for him before the All-Star break.
“He did a great job of obviously pounding the zone,” Albernaz said, liking the mix of the curveball and the slider. “His fastball had great life. The breaking balls were really good. He did an outstanding job for us.”
Bird Seed
The Orioles have yet to win four in a row all season, and send Shane Baz to the mound Sunday to try to accomplish the feat … The Orioles took an outfielder in the first round of the draft for the fourth straight year, but this time a high-school prospect, Eric Booth Jr … Seth Lugo starts for the Royals Sunday; he is having a poor season but has a career ERA of 2.01 in five career appearances against the Orioles.
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