The Orioles finally did it. They finally won a fourth straight game in the 2026 season. It was long past ridiculous that they hadn’t, as the team had seven three-game winning streaks that they did not manage to turn into a four-or-more-game winning streak. The eighth time was the charm. They took out 96 games worth of frustration on the woeful Royals and came away with a convincing 8-2 win to sweep their final series heading into the All-Star break.
Although the final margin of victory was six runs, this game had a lot in common with games that the Orioles have lost earlier in the season. Starting pitcher Shane Baz was not able to complete the fifth inning due to an elevated pitch count. The Royals got their first run and a prolonged rally following a throwing error by Blaze Alexander at third base. This gave the Royals an early lead in the game. The Orioles offense wasted a couple of promising scoring chances in the early innings. There was a second O’s error later in the game.
They overcame all of that. One reason that they were able to do this is Baz. You’d always rather see the starting pitcher complete at least five innings, but this was a decent enough game from him. Baz’s 4.2 innings saw him strike out nine Royals batters and he did not issue any walks. That helped him mostly scatter the seven hits allowed without too much damage. Even the one earned run charged to Baz was a cheap chopper that cleared an inexplicably drawn-in infield.
Kansas City struck first, with a triple following Alexander’s error to score the game’s first run in the top of the second. Baz handled that one in a way that Orioles pitchers often haven’t this season, getting a strikeout for the third out to strand the runner on third base. The O’s did not stay in the hole for long. Alexander atoned a bit for the error by leading off the next inning with a single. With one out, Alexander was still on base for Leody Taveras’s fourth homer of the season, a convincing bomb to deep center field that gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead.
The lead did not last. As Royals starter Seth Lugo failed at the shutdown inning when his offense gave him the 1-0 lead, Baz couldn’t deliver one in the top of the third after the offense put him on top. KC’s star, Bobby Witt Jr., led off the next inning with a double, advanced on a groundout, then scored on a single. Baz held the line again, even after giving up another single to put men on first and third with only one out. He limited the damage and stopped a disaster before it could move any farther along.
The score stayed tied at 2-2 until the Orioles broke it open in the sixth inning. Both starting pitchers were out early. Lugo pitched just four innings and took 89 pitches to do it. Baz’s 4.2 inning outing saw him throw 104. After he gave up a two-out double in the fifth inning, that was all for him. Anthony Nunez was brought in to finish the fifth inning. He’s had some rough outings recently. This one went fine. Nunez struck out Vinnie Pasquantino to end that inning.
With both starters out by the end of the fifth inning, it was a battle of the bullpens from there. Kansas City came up short when the day went badly for their pitcher Matt Strahm. Many days this season have gone poorly for Strahm, who entered the game with a 5.81 ERA. Many days have gone poorly for many Royals relievers.
Strahm struck out Samuel Basallo, the first batter he faced, and then things went off the rails. He walked Alexander, allowed a single to pinch hitter Tyler O’Neill, then another single to Taveras, easily scoring Alexander from second base to put the Orioles ahead for good at 3-2. They kept pouring on the hits for good measure: Another pinch hitter, Jeremiah Jackson, delivered an RBI double. Strahm balked in another run, then couldn’t stop Jackson from scoring from third as Gunnar Henderson hit an infield chopper off the back tip of home plate.
That was the end of the line for Strahm. His replacement only ended the inning after Pete Alonso hit an RBI single and made an ill-advised decision to try to stretch it into a double. That happened a lot in this series.
Because this is still the 2026 Orioles, there must be a cruel barb even in this moment of modest triumph where the team has achieved something positive. In the seventh inning, immediately following Basallo hitting a homer (his 16th of the year!) to make the game 8-2, Alexander was hit by a pitch by Royals reliever Lucas Erceg. The 1-2 pitch was inside and appeared to bounce off of Alexander’s arm before hitting one of his hands.
Alexander started shouting at Erceg, who shouted back, and the benches emptied, bullpens trotted in, and warnings were issued. No one punched or shoved anyone and the incident subsided without escalation.
The damage, however, was done. Alexander was lifted for a pinch runner, and after the game, manager Craig Albernaz revealed that the Orioles infielder has a non-displaced fracture in his left hand. It’s not immediately clear how much time he will miss as a result of this injury. The team has the next few days off to figure out what to do about that bad news. Orioles fans have one more grievance to lay at the feet of the Royals franchise.
Nunez, Grant Wolfram, Yennier Cano, Rico Garcia, and Andrew Kittredge combined for 4.1 scoreless innings across the bunch of them. This parade from the bullpen allowed only two hits and did not walk anyone. It sucks that even this feel-good win has had bad news come out of it.
It’ll be Friday at 8:10 Eastern before this show resumes. The Orioles will be in Houston after the break, the first part of a two city road trip. If they can keep the good feelings going through that road trip, this season might end up staying in a good direction at last. If not, well, that’s a familiar 2026 feeling.
It is a longtime tradition on Camden Chat to nominate a Most Birdland Player of the game after each victory. What is “Most Birdland”? Each person must decide for themselves. Sometimes, this is the game’s most valuable player. Other times, it is not. Let us know your pick in the comments below.
