BALTIMORE -- Defense has been a sore spot for the Orioles so far this season, but manager Craig Albernaz has continually expressed his belief that his club will soon play cleaner baseball. The work is being put in every day. The effort has been there all year.
On Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards, it was an impressive defensive play -- easily one of Baltimore’s best so far in 2026 -- that saved the game and put an end to a recent skid.
O’s center fielder Leody Taveras threw out what would have been the game-tying run at home plate to end the top of the seventh inning, helping to preserve a 2-1 win that denied the A’s of a three-game sweep. The Orioles (18-23) snapped a three-game losing streak and were victorious after dropping eight of their previous 10.
Taveras’ impactful bat has been a surprise this season. But Baltimore knew what it would be getting from the 27-year-old in the field when it signed him to a $2 million deal for 2026.
The A’s had a runner on second base with two outs in the seventh, with O’s right-hander Chris Bassitt nearing the end of his day. On Bassitt’s 94th and final pitch, he gave up a single to Zack Gelof, who appeared to have potentially knotted the game at 2.
However, Taveras scooped up the ball and uncorked a 93.7 mph throw to the plate, which got to catcher Samuel Basallo in plenty of time. Carlos Cortes came barreling toward home and made heavy contact with Basallo, but the 21-year-old backstop held onto the ball and completed the lead-saving play, as home-plate umpire Carlos Torres signaled Cortes was out.
“That was great, it was a great feeling,” Taveras said. “In that situation, you have that on your mind, you anticipate those things, then finding out we got the out right there.”
It was Taveras’ first outfield assist of the season and the 18th of his seven-year MLB career.
“Honestly, I think it’s one of the best throws -- and plays -- we’ve had this year,” Basallo said via team interpreter Brandon Quinones.
Bassitt praised three people on the play -- Taveras and Basallo, clearly, but also Cortes.
“That was one of those plays that can get kind of dirty, and I thought [Cortes] tried the best to kind of protect everybody,” Bassitt said. “I think if he slides there, someone’s probably going to get hurt, and he definitely didn’t try to truck him, or he probably would have lost that battle.
“Very happy that it ended the way it did, not just for the out, but no one got hurt.”
The highlight-reel play made a winner out of Bassitt, who allowed only one run on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts over six innings. The 37-year-old didn’t enter the game until the second, though, as Baltimore used an opener for the first time this year. Left-hander Keegan Akin worked a 1-2-3 first against a difficult top third of the A’s lineup.
The Orioles hadn’t allowed fewer than three runs in a game since a 6-2 win over the Giants on April 12. Baltimore had given up at least three in each of its previous 25 contests.
The pitching performance made the O’s pair of runs stand up. Gunnar Henderson knocked an RBI single in the third, then Dylan Beavers broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth with an RBI single that came on the ninth pitch of his at-bat vs. A’s starter Luis Severino.
It was one of the better all-around showings of the year for the Orioles, who believe cleaning up their little mistakes can lead to better play moving forward. Their minus-two defensive runs saved is tied for 20th in MLB, while their minus-eight outs above average is ranked 24th. The O’s 27 errors are third-most in the big leagues.
“We’ve shown it. We’ve shown that we could play clean defense. But also, we’ve shown that we haven’t,” Albernaz said. “That’s the inconsistency of everything, and that’s why our guys are diligent with their work. It’s not from a lack of prep, lack of work or lack of care. These guys, I haven’t seen a group care more than these guys about the little things. These guys are working. ...
“But we have to keep on working, and just, hopefully, we can build off this game. Because we show what we can do when we play this type of game.”