Ain’t The Milk Cold!
It is difficult to classify Thursday’s 4-1 win by the Baltimore Orioles over the Tampa Bay Rays (41-34). Depending on which side of the fence you land on, it was either the most important win of 2025 or it was just one win in a 162-game schedule. Certainly to a large portion of the fan base and to the broadcast team especially, it was the “most important win of the year” and “the biggest win of the year”. Tony Mansolino and the team, along with some in the fan base, saw it as just another game and placed no more importance on the game since the previous day had been “flushed”. What the win did was put some distance between Wednesday’s 12-8 debacle and the upcoming series in the Bronx against the New York Yankees.
Charlie Morton (4-7) found something inside himself that allowed him to provide the team with 6.0 inning start that saw the Rays score a single run on 6 hits. Morton struck out 7 and hit a batter as well; he earned the win, his fourth, and seems to be separating himself from ahis horrible start to the season.
The Rays scored that lone run in the third inning by playing small ball; a leadoff hit batter, a steal of second base, a sacrifice bunt and a RBI-single gave Tampa a 1-0 lead.
The Orioles answerd right back in the fourth when Ryan O’Hearn‘s single allowed Gunnar Henderson, who was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a Jordan Westburg groundout, to score.
The game-winning hit came in the sixth inning with Colton Cowser‘s sixth homerun of the season, a three-run blast, that saw Henderson and Ramon Laureano cross home plate ahead of him. Cowser has now homered in three straight games and finished those games by going 4 for 11 (.364) with a double, a homerun, 3 runs scored and 7 RBI.
Mansolino did use four relievers to cover the final three innings of the game, Seranthony Dominguez in the seventh, Gregory Soto and Bryan Baker in the eighth and Felix Bautista in the ninth. Bautista struck out 2 in recording his 15th save of the season.
However one classifies the win, the Orioles split the four-game series with the Rays.
REAL LIFE NOTE: Adley Rutschman lined a foul ball into the Ray’s dugout in the seventh inning, striking Hunter Bigge, who was on the IL, in the face. Bigge was hospitalized for observation and initial reports were positive.
2025 Record: 32-42
Next Game: Fri. 6/20 @ 7:05 pm vs. Yankees in New York