BALTIMORE -- With a large, visible red mark on his right cheek, Craig Albernaz re-emerged inside the Orioles’ dugout and gave Jeremiah Jackson a big hug after a sixth-inning grand slam that changed everything on Monday night at Camden Yards.
And boy, was it an eventful night.
Albernaz was hit by a foul liner in the first-base dugout in the fifth, Jackson’s slam gave Baltimore fight and who else but Pete Alonso delivered a go-ahead two-run blast in the seventh that helped lift the O’s to a remarkable, come-from-behind 9-7 win over the D-backs. The Orioles (9-7) overcame a six-run deficit to record their sixth win in seven games.
Remember the 2023 and ‘24 seasons when it felt like those postseason-bound O’s teams were never out of a game, sparked one improbable win after another and had nights that made you not believe what you had just watched?
This felt like one of those nights. This felt like the first big moment for the 2026 Orioles.
“Every game kind of takes on a life of its own,” bench coach Donnie Ecker said afterward.
Monday’s game felt like it had multiple lives. So let’s re-live all of the key moments.
The scary moment
It all was “a blur,” as Jackson later put it. A 70.6 mph liner left his bat and went straight into the dugout, where it struck Albernaz in the face. The first-year manager was quickly guided down the dugout steps by outfielder Taylor Ward and several team personnel.
“I hit it, and I kind of saw Alby holding his face. Heart kind of dropped,” Jackson said. “It was kind of a weird 15 minutes until I was able to see him afterward and see that he was doing OK.”
Ward had been standing near Albernaz by the dugout railing and quickly supported the skipper.
“I turned my head and I didn’t see him get hit, but just the visual of the ball coming in that direction was pretty frightening,” Ward said. “Just a very scary moment.”
But it was also the moment that allowed the O’s to rally around their manager and fight to get back in the game -- for themselves, but also for him.
The biggest moment
Arizona had a 7-1 lead entering the sixth, when Baltimore started to chip away via a one-out RBI single from Leody Taveras. There was fight, but there needed to be a big swing to pull things a bit closer.
Appropriately, it was Jackson who provided it.
Jackson connected on a 1-0 slider from right-hander Taylor Rashi and jolted it over the left-field wall for his first career grand slam. The D-backs’ lead was cut to 7-6, and the momentum shift could be felt amid the jubilation.
The only time Albernaz re-appeared in the dugout was to hug Jackson after the slam.
“He was fired up. He knew I felt bad. He knew I was kind of in my head,” Jackson said. “But to see him pop out there and enjoy the moment with us just goes to show the sort of person that he is and the competitor that he is. And I think that kind of trickles down into the team.”
Alonso knew it was gone off Jackson’s bat, immediately turning to right-hander Shane Baz in the dugout and holding him close with a hug while watching the ball clear the fence.
“To be able to recenter and refocus after the ball hit Craig, that takes a lot of stones to do that,” Alonso said of Jackson. “The game is nine innings for a reason. We didn’t give any opportunities away. And that’s what it takes.”
The electric moment
Fans have been waiting to see Alonso deliver in big moments. They dreamed about it for months after the slugger signed a five-year, $155 million deal on Dec. 11.
But the early weeks of the season haven’t been easy for The Polar Bear, who went 2-for-31 over an eight-game stretch from April 3-11 and had only one home run over his first 15 games for Baltimore. On Friday night, the 31-year-old stood inside the O’s clubhouse postgame and acknowledged he needed to be better -- and vowed he would be.
Now, Alonso is heating up. After collecting two hits and two RBIs in Sunday’s 6-2 win over the Giants, he had a second straight two-hit, two-RBI game on Monday, cranking a go-ahead two-run homer directly to the Bird Bath Splash Zone, where chief hydration officer Mr. Splash was donning a polar bear head.
Alonso jogged to first, then let out some emotion as he roared toward the O’s dugout and the fans roared toward him.
“Just a genuine, excited reaction,” Alonso said. “To be able to come back from down that many runs, there’s no quit in this group. And for us to rally around each other, rally around skip and really come through right there, that’s big time. That’s big time. It shows a lot of character in this group.”
It’s what the Orioles need to do to be successful. It’s what Alonso expected to happen when he arrived here. And now, it’s what these red-hot O’s are starting to do.
“I think that just goes to show the type of team we have,” said Jackson, who went deep again in the eighth for his first career multihomer game. “I don’t think we dwell too much in the past, whether it’s good or bad. We have this Day One mentality every day, and that’s just something that Alby has pushed since the beginning of Spring Training.”