Orioles Struggle at the Plate as Angels Hand Baltimore Another Tough Defeat
For the 2026 Orioles, whatever else you may say about them, you have to hand it to them: They are very devoted to the bit. The difficulty for all those who’d prefer they win games is that the bit the Orioles are dedicated to is the staunch refusal to ever go on any kind of extended winning run. The Orioles’ latest attempt — their sixth attempt! — to transform a three-game winning streak into something more went awry with a 5-1 loss to the Angels Tuesday night.
This one was maybe the most absurd of the failures thus far. The Angels, desperate enough to “throw any warm body into the rotation,” put 23-year-old righty Ryan Johnson to the mound for the game. Johnson, who entered the game with a 12.83 ERA in five appearances this season, was the loser. Yes, double digit ERA.
Or it was in the double digits, anyhow, because by the time the Orioles offense got its say, or rather lack of say, Johnson had carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He had a career-high eight strikeouts. Johnson was in the game for six innings and the Orioles only managed a single walk in addition to their lone hit. He dipped his ERA to a stunning 8.84. They should have gone much better and they didn’t. No obvious reason. That’s a common theme for the 2026 Orioles.
To have a chance to win against that futility, the O’s own starter, Shane Baz, would have needed to be immaculate. He wasn’t flawless. Three batters into the bottom of the first, and the Angels had all the offense they would need to win the game. Zach Neto, the shortstop, opened with a single, and after one out, first baseman Nolan Schanuel blasted a home run that was just a home run. Even the ones that are only a home run in 3 of 30 ballparks count, as long as you’re in one of the three.
It was only one smudge on Baz’s night and you might call it a bad luck loss. That was not its only flaw. Baz settled down and kept the Angels off the board for a few of innings, but ran into problems again in the fifth. But the difficulty was he suddenly couldn’t get anyone out. The Angels got four hits in a row on him… hold on, four in a row? Doesn’t that seem so familiar? But the Angels still got three more runs home on four straight hits, capped by a sacrifice fly at the conclusion.
That’s a real knock on the season total for Baz. Five runs, on eight hits and a walk. His ERA jumped to 4.31. Baz has had some solid games along the way but I was expecting much, much better after the Orioles gave up a bounty of assets for him and then gave him a five year contract extension before he ever threw a pitch for the team. He had been better for some time. He wasn’t good enough last night.
That’s the tale of the Orioles’ season. They are just not good enough. They are nearly halfway through the 2026 season and they are on track to win one more game than the 2025 Orioles did. All the moves they made, all the hoopla they made about how they’d be better and that’s the pace they’re at. They are not better. If they are around 76 wins, adjustments are needed not just to the roster but to the front office that puts the roster together.
Some of the reasons the Orioles are failing are old and some are fresh A lot of things are going right but a lot more are going wrong. Getting three hits in a game started by Ryan Johnson is just another example of the wrong stuff being dominant in sports. This is a f***ing mess. In his post-game presser with reporters, manager Craig Albernaz actually used a variation of one of my all-time least favorite loser lines, saying, “Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposing pitcher, and he was on tonight.” He brought this Ryan Johnson line. I am suffering from secondhand shame.
The west coast road trip wraps up with one more game Wednesday afternoon. The Orioles and Angels are expected to finish their series at 4:07 Eastern. If the Orioles can get a win, perhaps we can persuade ourselves into feeling comfortable about a 5-4 trip on the road. If they don’t, they’ve blown the potential to build on a brief run of success once again. Trey Gibson and José Soriano are slated to start. Soriano has been good this year actually. The Orioles batters will have a hard time.
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