Another Samuel Basallo Blast Salvages 5-3 Win For The Orioles

The 2026 Orioles are short on feel-good stories and overachievers.

Friday night’s starting pitcher, Brandon Young, is in rare territory in that regard and he was on the verge, it appeared, of ending his first-half on a tremendously high note. After largely cruising for seven innings, staked to a 3-2 lead, rookie manager Craig Albernaz, as he is apt to do, let the inexperienced starter convince him he was good for the 8th inning too, as he was still under 80 pitches.

And like a preponderance of his pitching decisions this season, this immediately blew up in Albernaz’s face. Young quickly got ahead of light-hitting Isaac Collins then surrendered a 3-2 bomb to dead centerfield that ended his night. Luckily for all involved, the greatest development in this entire moribund franchise in 2026 stepped to the plate in the 8th and with two strikes, in a tough lefty-lefty match-up, Samiel Basallo, 21, scorched a ball just inside the right-field foul pole and over the wall for a 5-3 win at Camden Yards.

"I'm just trying to have a lot of fun out there," Basallo said through an interpreter on the MASN broadcast after the game, smiling about a huge two-handed bat toss after the game-winning homer.

Basallo is doing things from a power standpoint that no catcher under the age of 22 has ever accomplished in the history of MLB – it’s not even close. He already has 15 home runs this season, he should have gone to the All-Star Game over catcher Adley Rutschman, and for some reason he is the one player whom Albernaz shamefully took aim at publicly despite his youth, inexperience and ridiculous production.

“Keep on saying it with Sammy - the sky is the limit for him,” Albernaz said after the game. “And these at bats he’s having, he’s hitting behind Pete (Alonso) all year, it’s been really impressive … He’s shown that he can manage an at bat against lefties, and also do damage.”

Young Was Strong Again

Young has also been a rare ray of sunshine in this abysmal season (44-51). He pitched into the 8th for just the second time in his career – the other being when he flirted with a perfect game in Houston last year. Young gave up four runs over the weekend against the Reds, only the second time he had allowed more than three in a game this season, but was sharp from the onset this time out.

The Orioles staked him to an early 2-0 lead and he did give up a home run (cheapy just over the right-field wall) in the 4th and struggled with all-glove/no-bat infielder Josh Rojas, for whatever reason, who drove in a run with a double, but that was it. (An alert tag by Gunnar Henderson on an over-slide negated a double as well).

“He got stronger as the game went on,” Albernaz said, noting a dip in velocity in the third and fourth innings before picking it back up.

Young carries a sparkling 3.42 ERA into the All-Star break, leading the O’s starters and better than anyone could have hoped for when he was recalled from AAA to help fill the void when injuries clustered.

He was anything but the problem Friday. That was same at it’s been for much of the season and especially the last six weeks. The Orioles can’t hit any starting pitching, not even the worst variety.

Royals starter Luinder Avila, thrust into the rotation due to a bevvy of injuries, carried a 5.05 ERA into this outing, but, you guessed it, had one of the best outings of his career facing this inept bunch. Baltimore entered this game in the bottom 10 in runs scored since June 1 and held to three runs or less in eight of the last 12 games, and this was another struggle.

Jackson Holliday, whose streak of consecutive times reaching base hit seven in this game before he was finally retired, drove in a run in the second with a two-out hit and Henderson (desperate to finally see a ball off his bat find a hole) followed that up with a run-scoring single.

The other run came on Blaze Alexnader’s 430-blast to the splash zone seats, continued an absolutely epic tear since April 28, but one during which Albernaz refuses to move him above the 8th spot. The Orioles never trailed again, regardless, with Andrew Kittredge picking up his second save in as many days.

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