Alonso's four hits in five innings fuel O's offensive outburst in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS – Busch Stadium has been one of the toughest places to hit in the big leagues in 2026. Statcast’s calculated park factor for the home of the Cardinals this season is just 97, tied for the third-lowest in all of baseball.

The Orioles, who before Tuesday had not played here since May 22, 2024, evidently did not get the memo. They exploded for eight runs in the fifth inning – their biggest inning of the season – en route to a 13-1 victory, kicked off and sustained by a monster evening from Pete Alonso. Alonso went 4-for-4 with a homer and a double, driving in four runs and scoring twice before exiting in the fifth inning with the game well in hand.

“It was a super sick W,” Alonso said, as succinctly as anyone could.

Alonso’s Statcast-projected 435-foot three-run homer against Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore opened the scoring in the third inning, and it only lasted three batters as Baltimore’s longest shot of the night. Christian Encarnacion-Strand tacked on a monster 450-foot shot deep into the bleachers in left-center field to get the O’s off to a four-run lead that they would not come close to relinquishing.​

“It was a lot of good on the offensive side of the ball,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “Especially running the bases aggressively early, a lot of first-to-thirds, a lot of guys in motion with hits.”

In the fifth, Encarnacion-Strand greeted Peter Strzelecki, the first Cardinals reliever of the night, with a two-run single. He was the fifth consecutive O’s hitter to reach base to open the inning, and following a Samuel Basallo strikeout, five more would reach before the Cardinals recorded a second out. By then, they were on their third pitcher of the inning, the Orioles were on the path to a romp.

“I think it’s good for us as a team to just build and build,” Encarnacion-Strand said. “And if it’s 0-0, if it’s 5-0, it doesn’t matter where we’re at. Just taking those at-bats and getting on base, I think it’s good for our team.”

“Every inning, it’s just one of those things when you just don’t know when it’s going to happen,” Alonso added. “For us, it was just consistency from everyone in the lineup today. It wasn’t just a couple big blows. It was everybody, it was just quality at-bat after quality at-bat. It’s just really impressive by the whole group today.”

Chris Bassitt turned in a quality start in support of his team’s outsized offense, striking out five and allowing a solo homer but no walks in 6 2/3 innings of work. It was Bassitt’s first quality start since May 28, having missed more than two months after undergoing surgery to remove a bone spur from his back.

“I’m just happy that I feel good,” said Bassitt. “I’ve always had a lot of confidence that if I feel good, I’ll be good. It’s unfortunate that I started this year off searching how to feel good for a long time. I’m just really happy that I feel normal.”

Alonso’s quest for the cycle was cut short after that outsized fifth inning, as Basallo slid from catcher to first base and Carlos Narváez took over behind the plate. Albernaz was adamant that his desire was simply to get Alonso off his feet in a lopsided game, adding that there’s “no point to push him there.”

“I think the biggest thing when games are out of hand like that, they can get a little dangerous,” Alonso concurred. “It’s just unclean baseball from both sides.

“I trust what Craig does,” he added. “I’ve been in every game, so whatever he wants to do, especially in these lopsided games like this, I completely understand.”

Alonso currently holds the second-longest consecutive games played streak in MLB (548), trailing only Atlanta’s Matt Olson's 914.

That streak is likely to continue into Wednesday’s second game, and the Orioles will work to make sure their offense does the same. The 13 runs scored matched their highest output of the season, set in Toronto on June 5, and the 12-run margin of victory was their largest in 2026.

It was nothing short of a statement win at a time when the O’s are fighting to keep their heads above water in a tight AL Wild Card race, and the dugout environment as the runs added up was a testament to the energy necessary for that race.

“It’s incredible,” Encarncion-Strand said. “It’s what you work for a whole year. You’re trying to make the playoffs and be in the thick of it. It’s really fun.”

Any night a team scores 13 runs, it sure looks fun.