Of All The Highs And Lows In Orioles DH Split, Bassitt's Words And Deeds Ring Loudest

Let’s celebrate the positives of 18-innings of baseball at Camden Yards, shall we? For with the 2026 Orioles looking far too similar to the 2025 and 2024 versions, you know these opportunities won’t come around more often than not.

Of all the highs and lows of a double-header split with the Astros, a 10-3 O’s win punctuated by two grand slams, and a 11-5 loss that was basically over in the first inning and that featured more horrific defensive miscues and inept at bats, one development dwarfs all others. One surprising outcome on this sun-splashed afternoon in Baltimore in which fans actually got their money’s worth (two for the price of one), should it become anything close to the norm, could buttress this pedestrian ballclub well beyond a series win over the slumping Astros.

Chris Bassitt looked like a Bonafide Major League starter in the opening game. One game after Shane Baz did the same thing. For a starting rotation already in tatters, begging more questions about this front office’s ability to remotely evaluate this commodity, this was vital. Especially with four games at Yankee Stadium up next.

“Huge outing for us,” rookie skipper Craig Albernaz said between games, looking relieved after getting 6 2/3 of splendid pitching from Bassitt when he desperately needed some length.. “He was efficient in his pitches. He was unpredictable. He did a great job of running a lot of his pitches into the strike zone.”

This wasn’t the version of Bassitt we’d seen to this point of someone impersonating someone trying to be an innings eater. He exuded confidence and aggression and used all his pitches and dictated to a potent Houston lineup and looked like he did for Toronto for much of last season . And then he backed it up with the kind of no-BS, vocal leadership that this franchise has been lacking for basically the entirety of Mike Elias’s tenure overseeing all matters baseball related since 2019.

Bassitt entered the outing looking far too similar to past Elias failures like Kyle Gibson, Charlie Morton, Tomo Sugano, Cole Irvin – awkward and nibbling and, when he throw strikes, catching too much of the plate and giving up bombs. The 20-pitch inning and chasing at bats from behind had become the norm, carrying a 6.75 ERA and 2.06 WHIP into Thursday.

But Bassitt toyed with the Astros for the most part from the opening sequence, sending an early signal things were going to be different when red-hot Yordan Alvarez (who had not struck out in 35 plate appearances) couldn’t get to a well-located 1-2 fastball up in the zone – a harbinger of things to come.

Bassitt, 37, scattered seven hits, struck out seven, allowed just one run, sprinkled all six pitches effectively and his four-seamer, which the league was batting .500 against, was a weapon. With Kyle Bradish struggling and Baz wildly inconsistent within outings and Dean Kremer on the IL and Zach Eflin lost for the season, things had to change and change soon.

“I’m not going to give you our secrets,” Bassitt said after the start, “but I think all of our starters have been pretty poor throughout the year, and I thought we kind of had a ‘Come to Jesus’ before Shane’s start. And we had some talks, some hard talks, about how we were pitching – our mindset pitching.

“And then Shane went out there and did his thing (Tuesday), thought he was on the attack. That’s how we want to be. I think overall we’ve been too cute throughout the year, and we didn’t do well.”

The tone was a stark contrast for a clubhouse that’s been a little too coddled and a little immature and little too meek. Of course, it didn’t carry over to fringe starter Brandon Young in the second game of the double-header, but an acknowledgment of this staff’s shortcomings was necessary.

“His voice means a lot,” resurgent catcher Adley Rutschman told the media between games. “Guys really take what he says and run with it.”

Double Salami Sammich, Please!

Bassitt could breathe a little easier after Rutschman (incredibly locked in from either side of the plate) drove a ball to left centerfield in the fifth that appeared to be caught by Brice Matthews careening into the Orioles’ bullpen, but the impact of the wall dislodged the ball for a grand slam. Jeremiah Jackson equaled the feat with a slam of his own in the seventh, putting him among MLB leaders with 24 RBIs and solidifying his place in this lineup no matter how soon Jackson Holliday returns from a hand injury.

“That at bats before JJ’s were outstanding too,” Albernaz pointed out,” to be able to set him up for that.”

Like the starting pitching, however, that approach did not carry over to the second game.

Game 2

Young was seeing the Astros for the third time in his brief career, and he’d mastered them in ways he couldn’t do most of the International League. Third time was not the charm. He got blasted for five runs on six hits in the first inning, and the O’s offered nothing at the plate against a junk-balling start who the rest of the league had been smashing.

Yeah, we know that drill.

Lance McCullers, who got less swing and miss than any starter in MLB a year ago and sported an ERA near 7 entering this game, relied on breaking stuff against a team that hunts fastballs and, like so many before him, had the best outing of his season by far. And he struck out nine.

And the Orioles played Elias ball all the way through this game. Tyler O’Neill, who can move and is not limber and proved a year ago he didn’t even belong in right field, couldn’t get to a ball early and booted a ball late. Jackson, who has barely played second base and done better than expected, let a ball get through that aided Houston’s early explosion and then dropped a ball later. Pete Alonso dropped a throw at first and Sam Basallo had some issues behind the plate.

Even by their pathetic defensive standards, this was embarrassing.

"The second gme was just ugly - that's unacceptable," Albernaz said, which would mean more if it didn't happen two-to-three times a week.

Yeah, it was ugly. A lot of the last two years have been ugly. Almost feels like by design from the people entrusted with stocking the roster.

And if Bassitt’s words don’t trigger a true recalibration in how this rotation performs, it’s probably going to be pretty ugly in the Bronx this weekend.

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