Thursday’s “traditional” doubleheader between the Baltimore Orioles and the Houston Astros (12-20) was made necessary by Wednesday’s rain postponement. After the twinbill the teams will travel north to New York and Boston, respectively.
Game 1: Grand Slams And A Chicken Wing
Anyone who watches the O’s on MASN should recall a conversation last season between Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer and play-by-play man Kevin Brown during a game with the Cleveland Guardians about chicken tenders and chicken wings where it was revealed that Palmer had never eaten a chicken wing in his life. Following the conversation, Palmer promised to eat a chicken wing if the O’s would hit a grand slam during a game that he was broadcasting.
That promise came to fruition today as the Orioles beat the Astros 10-3. The bulk of Baltimore’s scoring came as a result of grand slams by Adley Rutschman (2 for 4, 2 R, 4 RBI) and Jeremiah Jackson (2 for 4, 2B, R, 5 RBI), hence the chicken wing cameo.
Rutschman’s fifth inning slam went 397 ft. to left center, just in front of the O’s bullpen. It was the bullpen that signaled homerun as Brice Matthews jumped and caught the ball above the outfield wall but dropped it when his glove hand hit the top of the wall on the way down; the bullpen had the best view of the play and erupted when the ball fell.
Jackson’s slam came in the seventh following a bases-loaded RBI walk by Dylan Beavers and it came after he was given a strike on a pitch timer violation. Previously, his fourth inning double allowed Pete Alonso to score from first base to put the O’s on the score board.
Blaze Alexander (double) and Gunnar Henderson (single) recorded Baltimore’s only other hits.
Starter Chris Bassitt (2-2) was the beneficiary of Rutschman’s slam but he may not have needed it with the way he pitched. The veteran hurler limited the Astros to just 1 run, allowing 7 hits and a walk, while striking out 7 over 6.2 innings of work.
Reliever Anthony Nunez was the victim of a two-out throwing error by Coby Mayo at third that resulted in a pair of unearned runs in the eighth inning.
Game 2: Houston Had No Problem With Young
The second game of the doubleheader was a reversal of game one as the Astros beat the Orioles 11-5. Houston took out whatever frustration they felt from game one on O’s starter Brandon Young (2-1).
Houston tagged Young for 10 runs, 7 earned, on 10 hits over 4.0 innings and pretty much had the game in the bag at that point. While Young did walk 2 and strikeout 2, he surrendered a first inning three-run homerun to Cam Smith and a second inning blast to Yordan Alvarez. Alvarez’s homer travelled 424 ft. to center and landed in the Purewager Pavillion underneath the scoreboard.
Reliever Cameron Foster allowed Houston to score their 11th run in the fifth on his second wild pitch of the inning. He allowed back-to-back singles with one out before tossing his first wild pitch and then, with runners on second and third and two outs, the second wild pitch saw Braden Shewmake score.
The Orioles scored a trio of runs in the third on a Pete Alonso RBI double and a Leody Taveras (1 for 3, R, BB) 2-RBI triple. Taveras also scored on a Gunnar Henderson double in the seventh.
Coby Mayo’s ninth inning sacrifice fly in the ninth plated Colton Cowser for the final Orioles run of the game.
2026 Record: 15-16
Next Game: Fri. 5/1 @ 7:05 pm @ New York Yankees
