Brandon Hyde 'In Disbelief' After Orioles Give Away Another Late Lead

Everything that could have gone wrong for the Baltimore Orioles on Friday went wrong.

Apr 7, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Baltimore Orioles manager Brandon Hyde against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Baltimore Orioles got their "Rivalry Weekend" series started against the Washington Nationals on Friday, and with Cade Povich on the mound opposite of rising star MacKenzie Gore, winning Game 1 would have been a great way to kick things off.

Unfortunately, the Orioles left the field with more frustrations than they had coming in.

Everything that could have gone wrong for Baltimore went wrong, with poor situational hitting on display once again that was combined with a late innings collapse by Felix Bautista.

This was a game the Orioles should have won.

To open the contest, Baltimore had the bases loaded with just one out. But they couldn't take advantage with strike outs to end the first inning without plating a single run.

In the second frame, after a leadoff double by Jackson Holliday, the following three batters were all rung up.

And even in the third inning when the Orioles finally scored two runs to take a lead, they had an opportunity to do more damage with the bases loaded and one out. However, two straight strike outs sent Baltimore back on defense with more missed opportunties under their belts.

That came back to haunt them, just like everything has throughout this season.

The Nationals ended up rallying to win this contest 4-3 despite being outhit 14-5.

"Kind of in disbelief, honestly," manager Brandon Hyde said after the game, per Roch Kubatko of MASN, when realizing his team left a staggering 15 runners on base.

That feeling of disbelief is how a lot of this fan base has reacted virtually every game this year.

The team's inability to get hits in timely moments has been uncanny to watch, especially when considering this group was one of the best in baseball in those situations just a couple seasons ago.

Everything is slipping away from the Orioles no matter how positive they are trying to stay and how much they are trying to convince themselves that a turnaround is coming.

Losing in this fashion to Washington was just the latest alarming defeat that's happened this year.

And if they don't figure things out in a hurry, it won't be the last.