Baltimore was on the national stage on Saturday night as a part of Fox’s Saturday baseball broadcast. The Orioles represented themselves well by defeating the San Francisco Giants (6-9) 6-2 in front of 29,444 fans in Camden Yards as well as the aforementioned national audience.
The night did not start well as it was learned before the game that Adley Rutschman was placed on the 10-day IL due to left ankle inflammation. Making matters worse, Ryan Mountcastle left the game after stumbling while rounding first base and belly-flopping into second on his second inning double. Despite these setbacks, the team was able to prevail.
A passed ball by Samuel Basallo contributed to the Giants’ first run in the second inning. The Birds matched that run with one of their own in the second inning when Colton Cowser (2 for 4, RBI) softly grounded out to the mound, allowing Dylan Beavers (running for Mountcastle) to score.
Gunnar Henderson‘s third inning homerun to the right-field flag court gave Baltimore the lead. The Giants then parlayed three singles in the fourth inning into a game tying run.
The Orioles regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth, in part due to a RBI-double by Jeremiah Jackson. Jackson then added a seventh-inning homerun and finished his night by going 3 for 4 with a double, a run scored and 2 RBI.
Coby Mayo contributed a 1 for 4, 1 run scored and 2 RBI effort.
The pitching on this night was a mixed bag. Starter Chris Bassitt struggled through 4.2 innings and allowed 2 runs, 1 earned, on 7 hits with a walk and 2 strikeouts. He threw 89 pitches (57 K’s) and his only clean inning came in the third.
Once again the bullpen was superb, covering 4.1 scoreless innings, led by Grant Wolfram (1-0) who struck out 1 in 1.0 inning and was the winning pitcher. Rico Garcia struck out 1 in a clean seventh inning and Anthony Nunez gave up a hit but struck out 2 in the eighth. Ryan Helsley opened the ninth by allowing a pair of singles then he induced the Giants to ground into a double play. A groundout to short by Harrison Bader ended the game.
Henderson’s homerun, his sixth of the season, put him in a three-way tie for the Major League lead.
2026 Record: 7-7
Next Game: Sun. 4/12 @ 1:35 pm vs. San Francisco Giants
