Rogers Regression, Another Fielding Mishap And 12 More O's Ks In 8-4 Defeat

O's drop three of four in Cleveland, again chasing power with men on base and unable to executive fundamental baseball

Apr 19, 2026; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Trevor Rogers (28) delivers to Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez (11) during the first inning at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Dermer-Imagn Images | David Dermer-Imagn Images

There was zero chance that Trevor Rogers was going to be able to duplicate anything close to his 2025 Cy Young-caliber form.

The question was how far he might regress.

The answer through the first month of the season is that he’s a league average starter who has the ability to flash dominance but needs to be incredibly fine to thrive. And for the first time since he returned to MLB last year after a lengthy stint trying to revitalize his career in AAA, he’s now been smacked around in consecutive starts.

Rogers, a 2024 trade-deadline acquisition for prospects Kyle Stowers (a 2025 All Star) and Connor Norby who was quickly banished to Norfolk after repeated meltdowns, breezed through the lineup the first time through Sunday. But he also gave up two home runs to Jose Ramirez that were the difference in an 8-4 loss to the Guardians that also featured the usual brutal situational hitting and requisite fielding blunders, too.

Cleveland took three of four in the series, the Orioles fell to 10-12, and Rogers, who had to rebuild his confidence and mentality as well as his stuff, will make his next start amid some probing questions for the first time in a long time. Rogers has now allowed six hits or more in four straight starts, and sports a 4.08 ERA early on, after being a sub-2.00 pitcher a year ago (recalled on May 24).

He allowed six hits or more in just two of his 18 outings in his stellar 2025. And the quality of the starting staff around him is debatable.

Certainly worthy of keeping an eye on, with his scouts skeptical that Rogers’s velocity and command would portend maintaining such high strikeout numbers this season, and that the batting average on balls in play against him might surge. His changeup has to be a consistent weapon for everything else to work; the league is batting .348 off that pitch this season after batting .202 off it a year ago.

“I’m not concerned," manager Craig Albernaz said. “The stuff looked good … He might say otherwise, but the stuff looked good.”

Rogers’s inability to cover first base properly on a groundball (with Guardians lumbering catcher Austin Hedges running) was an obvious blemish, and led to a big inning; the Orioles remain a flawed fundamental baseball team executing simple defensive plays on near daily basis for at least the third year in a row, now under three different skippers.

“Very disappointed,” said Albernaz, a long-time Cleveland staffer who certainly didn’t bring “Guards Ball” to Baltimore. “That’s something we still have to clean up and get tetter at … We practice it all the time.”

What About The Bats?

With Rogers invariably going to be more human this season, he’s going to require more run support. The O’s at least made a Guardians starter sweat a little in this one, with Joey Cantillo getting into trouble in the fifth inning before Taylor Ward jacked his first home run as an Oriole and the O’s took advantage of defensive miscues to scratch out another run to cut the deficit to 5-4.

Rogers could not keep them there. Ramirez smashed a changeup over the fence at 104mph off the bat (his previous homer was off a fastball). With no one on and the rest of the Guardians lineup besides No. 9 hitter Bryan Rocchio struggling, why would you throw him anything to clobber there? Great question.

The Orioles could muster nothing against the weakest-link in a bad Cleveland bullpen. Reliever Peyton Paulette, a Rule V pick who had been stashed on the bench for eight days, was perfect through two innings and the bottom of the O’s pen, recently recalled Cam Foster, got touched up for instance runs in the 8th inning.

The systemic flaws of general manager Mike Elias’s tenure – poor situational approaches (1-for-10 with runners in scoring position) and ridiculous swing and miss – remain a plague.

The O’s struck out 12 more times today – did I mention Cleveland’s bullpen has been awful?  - after 16 Saturday night and 11 on Friday and nine on Thursday and eight on Wednesday. Their two-strike approach is broken, but it’s been going on for years and it’s fair to wonder if anything will change with this front office in charge and clearly beholden to launch angle and damage-over-contact.