Jeremiah Jackson Pinch Hit And Trevor Rogers's Quality Start Key Orioles Win

Jeremiah Jackson showed a knack for the big hit very early in this season, before it went totally askew, and an ability to make something happen as a pinch hitter

Thursday afternoon, with the Orioles offense again sleepy and lethargic, he came into the game with one out in the 8th after consecutive Orioles were hit by pitches and drove a double to the right-field gap (4-for-11 career as a pinch hitter) to give Baltimore a rare lead. They held on for a 3-2 victory, that prevented them from falling a season-low 10-games below .500, scoring three runs or less for the eighth time in the last 12 games..

It’s fitting the O’s got to the underbelly of a bullpen, because that’s about the only time they do damage this season, but they are good in close-and-late spots. Rookie skipper Craig Albernaz got it right when he sent Dylan Beavers to pinch hit, promoting the Cubs to bring in a lefty, then inserted Jackson, who is much better against them from the right side and embraces these situations.

“For me it’s really about staying ready for opportunities like that,” Jackson told the MASN broadcast after the game, clearly embracing the pinch-hit role.

Albernaz said in his post-game press conference: “Once they made the move JJ was ready to hit and we liked the match-up … And Pete (Alonso) did an outstanding job running the bases there (to score the winning run by a fingertip).”

Things got sweaty in the 9th when Gunnar Henderson booted a routine ball at short to put Nico Hoerner on base, but Hoerner slid over the bag after stealing second and Henderson kept the tag on for the out. Andrew Kittredge, a former Cub, got out of it after that to avoid the sweep and just their seventh one-run win of the season.

Arms Over Bats

The Orioles battery gave them a chance to tame the Cubs’ torrid bats and that proved to be the case. Rookie catcher Samuel Basallo, just 21, continues to be the key to unlock Opening Day starter Trevor Rogers, and he once again shoved Thursday afternoon and is now on a seven-outing tear (1.77 ERA inn that span) after crumbling earlier in the season.

"Sammy did a great job back there, as usual," Rogers told the media after the game.

His command was a little shaky early, but he only made one significant mistake, a change-up that Seiya Suzuki took over the fence in the sixth to tie the game at 1. As we detailed in our scouting report, this was a great day to ride the four-seam fastball in a day game vs this Chicago lineup that struggles against it; Rogers through it 52% of the time (44% usage on average) and stayed out of trouble.

"His fastball has great life to it," Albernaz said, "and he's attacking the strikezone."

It wasn’t wipeout stuff but he sprayed five hits and had better command as the start went on, sympatico with a the young catcher once again. Rogers now has a 2.39 career ERA throwing to Basallo, with an opponent OPS below .500 (16 starts; significant sample size); when pitching to Adley Rutschman it’s a 6.58 ERA and .820 OPS. So for as long as Rogers is here – and that shouldn’t be more than a start or two before going ahead of the trade deadline – expect him to be Basallo-exclusive.

But Basallo catching meant Rutschman serving as the DH, and he has a sub .200 batting average and sub 300 on-base and sib .600 OPS serving in that role since June 21, 2024, with just one homer and 17 RBI … So the rookie skipper batting him leadoff was quite a decision (Rutschman did walk twice).

And once again this offense scuffled, held to three runs or less for the eighth time in 12 games (since the overmatched manager quipped about three runs being enough in a 3-1 win over the Nats; heady time that was!). When the Orioles do manager to score these days its just the longball – that’s The Elias Way – and Tyler O’Neill homered in his third straight at bat going back to Wednesday night early in the game

The Orioles faced one of the worst lefties in baseball in David Peterson so of course they did nothing against him. Peterson literally had nothing going for him all season as a failure with the Mets and then with the Cubs, but of course this was his best out of the season like fellow-lefty Matthew Boyd had his best outing of the season Tuesday and so many others before that against this pathetic Orioles crew.

"Lot of good swings, lot of good at bats," were words that actually came out of Albernaz's mouth. "We made Peterson work."

But, hey, three runs was enough just Albernaz apparently likes it. And that’s about all he’s been getting for two weeks now.

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