BALTIMORE -- The Orioles needed to get hot before their 2026 season potentially fell apart before the end of May, just as it did in ‘25. The concern was quickly growing around Baltimore that, somehow, this year could be a repeat showing, despite the injection of talent to the club’s roster that occurred over the offseason.
Don’t look now, but the O’s are hot -- and a resounding sweep of the American League’s top team proved it.
Baltimore beat AL East-leading Tampa Bay (34-19) again on Wednesday night at Camden Yards, riding a five-run first inning to an 11-2 victory in the finale of the three-game series. The O’s won each contest vs. the Rays, who previously swept a three-game set between the two teams at Tropicana Field from May 18-20.
Blaze Alexander (first home run of the season and career-high six RBIs) and Gunnar Henderson (two homers) led the way for the Orioles (26-30), who have won five of six to open their season-long 10-game homestand. Another AL East rival (the Blue Jays) comes to town Thursday to begin a four-game weekend series.
“Obviously, it was a tough series when we went there [to Tropicana Field],” Henderson said. “But we know the team that we have and the caliber of players that we have on this team and knew it was only a matter of time to get going a little bit. Hope we can keep it going.”
Early offense has been hard to come by for Baltimore this year. That wasn’t the case on Wednesday, as each of the team’s first five hitters came around to score during the first.
Taylor Ward started the bottom of the opening frame with a single, then scored on Henderson’s two-run, left-on-left blast off Rays starter Steven Matz that landed on the right-field flag court.
The O’s then loaded the bases via a walk by Adley Rutschman, a single from Pete Alonso (the 1,000th hit of his MLB career) and a walk by Coby Mayo. Leody Taveras followed with an RBI single, and two batters later, Alexander knocked a two-run single to jumpstart his big night. (He later added a two-run double in the fifth and a two-run homer in the seventh.)
“When the top guys in the lineup have their approach and everyone talks about it and kind of holds each other accountable to what they’re going to do at the plate,” manager Craig Albernaz said, “to see those guys go up there and execute their plan ... it kind of has that cascading effect of, ‘OK, just stick to my approach and we’ll be all right.’ And that’s what we saw.”
The O’s 11 runs were a season high, and their 16 hits came from nine different players.
It’s always nice to get production from throughout the entire lineup, and Alexander’s performance came from down in the No. 8 hole. The 26-year-old is only the fifth player in Orioles history (since 1954) to record six-plus RBIs from that spot in the order and the first since Chris Hoiles, who did it twice in ‘98.
For Alexander, the best part of his breakout performance was the home run.
“I think I was the only guy in here without a homer,” Alexander said with a smile. “Definitely a monkey off my back. I was seeing stuff on Twitter, like the qualified hitters without a homer, and I was like, 'Dude, eventually I'm going to pop up on this list if I don't get one.' That was nice. I enjoyed that one.”
The offensive outburst supported right-hander Trey Gibson (the O’s No. 4 prospect per MLB Pipeline), who earned his first big league win in his third career appearance (second start). The 24-year-old was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk for a spot start and tossed 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball during a 100-pitch outing.
The key for Baltimore will be to keep this momentum going. The AL standings are so tight that the Orioles never fell too far -- even when they were eight games below .500 after last week’s sweep at Tampa Bay -- and now, they could start moving up.
“It's baseball. We're a fairly new locker room. A bunch of guys from different teams and stuff, and we're finally starting to come together,” Alexander said. “I know fans don't want to hear that, but patience, man, patience. I think we have a really good ballclub, man, and we know that.”