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.
Alonso’s Statcast-projected 435-foot 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 Statcast-projected 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.
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 in a row 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.
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.