An Opening Day W
The 2026 season for the Baltimore Orioles opened with all the usual pomp and circumstance. The fans flocked to Pickle’s Pub as early as 6 am, the sellout crowd was dressed in orange and the orange carpet was rolled out for player introductions.
So much was new on this 77 degree day: the Camden Yards upgrades, the manager, the coaching staff and about one-third of the 26 man roster.
When the day was done, the Orioles defeated the Minnesota Twins (0-1) 2-1 in front of a crowd announced at 42,134.
Trevor Rogers (1-0) held the Twins scoreless for 7.0 innings by limiting them to just 3 hits with 4 walks, 5 strikeouts and a hit batter on 88 pitches. He extracted himself from a bases loaded two out jam in the second inning by striking out Minnesota’s Brooks Lee. Double plays in the third, fourth and seventh innings helped his effort as well. Two of those double plays were started by O’s third baseman Coby Mayo (0 for 2, BB, SB).
Minnesota starter Joe Ryan held the Baltimore bats in check for 5.1 innings, allowing just an Adley Rutschman single in the fourth inning while walking 2 and striking out 7.
Once the game was turned over to the bullpens the scoring commenced. Samuel Basallo singled and took second base to open the seventh inning. Tyler O’Neill singled to put runners on the corners. Colton Cowser hit a sac fly to score Basallo and Blaze Alexander singled with two outs to score O’Neill, tagging Twins reliever Kody Funderburk (0-1) with the loss.
Tyler Wells allowed Minnesota’s lone run in the eighth inning and newly acquired Ryan Helsey allowed a hit and struck out 3 in the ninth to secure his first save of ’26. Helsey hit triple digits on 6 fo the 19 pitches he threw in the inning.
The Orioles can enjoy the win on Friday before getting back to action on Saturday.
2016 Record: 1-0
Next game: Sat. 3/28 @ 4:05 pm vs. Minnesota Twins