Orioles SQUANDER OPPORTUNITIES in Series Loss vs Padres

The Orioles took game one at Oriole Park to begin their three-game series vs the Padres; however, the O's would go on to drop their next two straight. We have the post-game audio from Craig Albernaz and Gunnar Henderson discussing Henderson being hit on Saturday. #Birdland #BaltimoreOrioles #MLBonX

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:29

Two steps forward, three steps back. That probably should be the title so far this season for the 2026 Baltimore Orioles. Welcome in, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the Charm City Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollihan, and it just continues for the Baltimore Orioles. They lose 203 to the San Diego Padres after coming back, splitting against the Seattle Mariners, winning Game 1 of the three-game series against San Diego on Friday night. This all has accumulated to the Orioles finishing up their homestand 3-4, so they're one game less than when they started. And when you think about the series that was and the road trip that was that finished up with a frustrating series loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, it's been I mean, to say these last or this past week hasn't been arguably the most frustrating of the season. I know they go through the long losing streak earlier in the season, but i this is just this is extremely frustrating to to think that the season is starting to turn, that things are starting to break right for them. And then a series like this happens, and not only that, but you have what are now people really coming down on Craig Albanaz. And we're going to talk about that throughout here. We begin with the good, I suppose, in the series with the Friday night win, where the Orioles win their 34th game of the season. They're now three games back under 500. And it feels like, okay, you've got, as I mentioned in the preview episode, the Padres, who are just really slumping and struggling throughout the season. This is an opportunity for the Orioles to tack on another series win or get back into the series win column, I suppose, and they just didn't take advantage of what they needed to. I mean, you had a night there on Friday in which you put up some big numbers. You go out there, and you know, you kind of, for lack of better words, have uh have a night, have a laugher against the Padres. You get out to a five-run lead, or a four-run lead, I beg your pardon. It would end up being a five-run lead in the fourth, but you're out to a six to two lead, they're in the bottom of the second, and it kind of feels like, okay, this team is really finding its groove here tonight, and hopefully, you know, they're putting what they were able to resolve with their offense in their final two games that Mariner series, in which they scored over seven runs. They score seven runs tonight, and we're back on track. You know, Griffin Canning had a rough night. Gunnar Henderson belted his hundredth home run of his career. Samuel Basal had a two-run shot. Um, a lot of excitement, you know, uh around what the Orioles bullpen was able to do, not allowing a run through four innings, through four shutout innings, only allowing two base runners. So, okay, you know, maybe things this could be a sign of things clicking into place, and that would be, you know, and they can finally go on what I mean, let's face it, they haven't been able to do up until this point, and that's have an extended winning streak. But unfortunately, on Saturday, it would be much of the same as we've seen too many times here in this 2026 season, where the Orioles fall behind early. Now, granted, Trey Gibson is going out there, you know, a young pitcher, having to face a good lineup in the San Diego Padres. And here's what the Padres, in my opinion, did. They were pretty aggressive against Gibson. And I think they knew. Now, it also didn't help that, you know, he walks Tatis to lead off the game, but I think the Padres relatively knew. You know, if we can get this guy in trouble early and have good at bats early against him, because he's such a young pitcher, he's gonna turtle. And I have to believe that's what they did. But again, it also d didn't help the fact that he was just struggling. He walks Xander Bogartz with and out he gets Gavin Sheets to pop up, but the walk to Bogarts there in the first, I mean it wasn't even close, and then Samad Taylor hits his first homer of the season and puts the Padres up for nothing, and you know, Gibson just he got into a groove afterwards. He he found, you know, his a little bit of a niche there, and certainly had I think some better innings, but still not not terrific, but he gave them a chance, I guess is the way I would put it. He gave the offense a chance to get it to a two-run game. They did that in the bottom of the f of the or keep it a two-run game, I should say, as they would get two runs in the bottom of the first. But ultimately, as the game went on and the offense just wasn't coming around, Trey Gibson would kind of fall back in the fifth inning to some of those rough plays. Let's put it that way. You know, one away in one-one count against Xander Bogartz, and he hits him. Loses his command entirely. Now, this obviously boiled over. So Keegan Aiken comes in to take out Gibson. Aiken walks sheets, he allows a single to Taylor, and then that RBI single to Taylor makes it 5-2. Solak makes it 6-2 on a sack fly, and at this point, it's like, man, if the offense doesn't have one of those remarkable games, the Orioles just aren't going to win this. Albert Suarez goes out, pitches the remaining four innings, gives up three runs on six hits. Suarez really not doing himself any favors there in that situation because, you know, hey, this is a guy that's been DFA'd, this is a guy that's been then signed again to a minor league deal, then brought back up to a major league. Like, you know, he's just here, there, and everywhere. And I think, you know, if they're gonna start to get hopefully guys back off the I. But this game certainly would not feature some fireworks late. As we go to the bottom of the ninth, remember, Xander Bogart was hit by Trey Gibson. First pitch to Gunnar Henderson with one out in the ninth, up six runs. Ron Marinaccio hits Gunner Henderson. This would then lead to an e an ejection by the second base umpire on Marinaccio, and then Padre's manager Craig Stammon was ejected as well, and things just got heated with, you know, again two two outs in the ninth inning. I think I said one out, two outs in the ninth inning. You're an out away from winning the game, and you hit Gunnar Henderson deemingly on purpose. We'll play for you some audio here from Craig Albernaz and Gunnar Henderson, but it's kind of led to believe, yeah, this had all the feelings of a get back, and that's what I would call this as well. And here was Albernaz, and here was Gunner after the game.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

But too soon that's the thought of his hand, like get there, why they matter. I mean, ball hit him in the head and had to come out of the game. You know, I'm not saying what the ball to Gunner was on purpose, but it was done the right way. But that's why there was no gripes from us, and gunner was fine with it, and we just took it to first base.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

I mean, I guess they were trying to make up for uh missing. They had their two opportunities uh in my previous at bat and uh missed. So um thought that was that should have been the end of it, but uh I guess they were trying to get payback, so I guess we're even now.

SPEAKER_05 10:04

Did you think you wouldn't get a good previous at-back?

SPEAKER_03 10:07

No, I was uh yeah, I thought it was done after the previous one, but um, yeah, it's a game. He missed twice. So um go up there knowing that they might be trying to hit you, especially after what happened in the previous attack. I mean, um you have an idea because uh it's just how it is. I mean, we hit somebody of theirs and obviously uh weren't trying to, but it is what it is, and uh yeah, you have your opportunity to get it back, and they did and missed, so that should have been out, but it is what it is.

SPEAKER_06 10:39

So a lot of people seemingly took a little bit of a stance of how could you kind of sit there and say, well, it was handled the right way if you're Craig Albanese. And Gunnar Henderson also said it was handled the right way by the by the Padres. You know, that if that was the way you were going to retaliate, then that's how you retaliate. But in my opinion, I still wouldn't be happy about getting hit by a pitch, by a fastball. And I still would have sat there and been like, you know, okay, it's over, one for one, an eye for an eye, but we didn't mean to hit you. And I think that's where I would kind of take. Now, granted, the O's, I'm sure, are already ticked off that they lost by six runs as they're trying to turn their season around, but I would have sat, I would have sat there and been like, you know, I mean, we're not gonna come out and hit anyone, but that's complete BS. Now, Marinacchio was given a three-game suspension. That came down today. Stamin, the umpire for the Padres, was given a one-game suspension as well for deemingly purposefully trying to hit Gunnar Henderson. Now, this is a part of the game that Major League Baseball is trying to obviously do away with. Um, we've seen throughout the years, not so much recently, but there are obviously situations where guys get thrown at, especially during retaliation situations. Now, this was not one where the Padres were out there blowing out the young Trey Gibson, and they were putting up a big crooked number, and Gibson hit Xander Bogartz. This wasn't a situation where Xander Bogartz did anything in the game that warranted Trey Gibson to plunk him. As I've said throughout this episode, Trey Gibson just didn't have his stuff, and they took him out the next hitter. So why it was that the Padres felt like they needed to retaliate makes no sense in my opinion. This is, in my from what I think, this is your classic situation of we're a struggling team, we're looking to create a spark, we're looking to show that we have a little backbone, and this is how we're gonna show it, and that's through, and this is what the general manager of the team's gonna love, this is what you know Stamin's gonna love, is the I guess the fire to be shown by your by your team. But if you're the Baltimore Orioles, you're sitting there going, Are you are you kidding me? You're gonna you really think we meant to hit him, and then you're gonna hit us up six to put a base runner on? Now, granted, you know, that's the Padres excuse is well, we're up six, we just need one more out to go, why don't you go hit him so that way we can, you know, get our get our get back, give us a shot there to redeem what was in earlier or make us even, I guess is the better way to put that, make us even in this situation, and it's not gonna because why why would we want to intentionally hit someone up six runs, you know, and keep the game going with an out of way? It's it's a total I'm trying to get one over on you, trying to get one over on the league, you know, so that way there isn't anything done further to them. Of course, granted, then they get ejected from the game, so clearly that wasn't the case. You know, you didn't end up obviously getting away Scott Clean with that one. But someone who just really struggled again was Trey Gibson, and Craig Albernez after the game spoke about his young pitcher.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

He came out and the command was elusive early, as you can tell, and give up the four spot in the first, but he did a great job of settling in, put up some zeros for us, giving us a chance, and and kind of ran out of gas with the pitch count. Was that a simplifying mechanics thing? What went into that change? Yeah, that's just to simplify things. Just keep it simple. Look like the windup was out of whack and kind of just get down the slope a little more efficiently. With Trey in particular, every outing for him at this level is going to be a learning, learning experience for him, and it's he's constantly learning and evolving, and and he wants that. Like he wants to get better, he wants to be great, he wants to help us win. So every outing, but yeah, this outing in particular for sure. There's a lot of takeaways where he can learn from and grow from for his next outing.

SPEAKER_06 15:31

Well, we've seen Gibson go out there and pitch pretty well for the Orioles in starts that he's needed to. But obviously that was one where, you know, he just didn't have just didn't have his best command, didn't have his best stuff, and at the same time, I think San Diego and their veteran hitters again realize, man, if we can ambush this guy early, it'll get him to turtle and they'll have to continue to play catch up. Which the Orioles have had no problem doing at times, but I think on Saturday that was in the first inning a little bit too much to say the least. And then Vasquez is able to go out there and pretty much, you know, limit a lot of the damage. He gave up six hits, two walks. The Orioles as a team, you know, they end up leaving nine on base, over seven with runners in scoring position, and that that's been a problem for the Orioles. And I mean a lot of teams will say this as well, but they leave way too many runners on base, they leave way too many runners in scoring position. And the last two days, that was a huge bugaboo for the O's as we now get to Sunday, and Sunday would see the Orioles again give up an early lead with Trevor Rogers on the mound, but Rogers overall pitched well. You can't sit there and say, you know, Rogers was, you know, brutal again or was the reason for the loss or anything like that. He he pitched relatively well. Now, what I think a lot of people will s will ultimately come away from this game saying is after allowing after giving up a solo homer to Jeremiah Jackson earlier in the game, why did Craig Albernaz go and pinch hit Jeremiah Jackson later in the game to bring in Jackson Holiday? So in the sixth inning, with two on, two out, and runners now at second and third, Jackson Holiday comes in to face Rodriguez, and he strikes out. So they go to the bullpen, the Padres do. It wasn't like he hit the home run off Rodriguez, he hit it off a Bueller, and they go to Holiday to bring him in. Now listen, Jeremiah Jackson being able to hit that homer, obviously is a reason to keep him in that game, no doubt. However, I think it's easy to second guess the decision now. But if you were already planning on bringing in Jackson Holiday later in the game to pinch hit for Jeremiah Jackson, who, you know, isn't really hasn't really of late. Now he hits that homer, and I think the argument could be made is Craig Albert the one here making the decision in game, or is this all kind of predetermined about, hey, we want to get first right D out of the bullpen, Jackson Holiday into this game? Because when you look at by the numbers, you know, Holiday hitting under 200, he's got a little bit better of an on-base than on base percentage than Jackson, but he's slugging at 366 and a 646 OPS. Jeremiah Jackson, on the other hand, has been the better in terms of you know some of these advanced numbers. Not just the batting average, which is above 250. The on-base is lower than Holidays, he's only at a 275 on base. But it's two outs and you're looking to generate some offense. He's got a 417 slug and an OPS 692. So wouldn't it make sense to go and stick with Jeremiah Jackson if you're making that decision in game? And again, that's where I come back and say, who's the one who is the one making the decision here? It's the same thing with the Samuel Basal stuff. Where, you know, Samuel Basayo said he was available earlier in the week, would be put into games against the Mariners. Instead, they would start Huff at Ketcher with Adley Hurt. And then, you know, there's the eyebrow raising remark by Craig Alberna saying that Basayo basically needs to play through pain in his hand, he's got to learn how to deal with it, kind of thing. But then that situation is one that just makes me scratch my head because I'm like, why would a manager want to keep his best player on the shelf? And that's where I come back to when I say, who's the one at the end of the day making the decision? Is it the manager or is it the guys upstairs? Are they the ones who come up with the plan before the game and hey, you gotta go out here and you gotta follow suit. Now, there was pretty more grotesque stuff from this Orioles team later in the game. But let's talk about the start by Trevor Rogers in this one. Because Trevor Rogers, again, had another solid start. He goes this time six innings, allows two runs on five hits, four strikeouts, two walks. It seems like these last two starts, last couple starts for him have been better. Is ERA still, you know, it's a five eight six. It definitely would be really imp impactful if that could be lessened. But it seems like from where he was two years ago to now, he's starting to in a way mature a little bit uh for this Orioles team. And here he was after the game talking about his encouraging start.

SPEAKER_04 21:48

Moving the ball around the way I wanted to. You know, Sammy did a great job back there, calling the game and um just really really happy with the work that I put in and uh really like where I'm headed. Yeah, you know, but definitely learn from that time. Um you know, maybe better and throwing the ball I always know uh the way I could throw the ball for this club and you know constantly just trying to keep my team in games and just going to try to do the uh job the best of my ability. And you know, I think I got the Dodgers next, so it's gonna be a great test. Probably one of the best lineups all in baseball, and you know, stay within my routine and get ready for the Dodgers.

SPEAKER_06 22:38

No doubt this is a huge test for Trevor Rodgers coming up on this road trip, but as of right now, he has been pitching way, way better than we saw a couple of weeks ago, where he was in the clubhouse after the game visibly frustrated, vocally frustrated after Tampa Bay, uh really disgusted with himself, and then comes back here recently and has looked a lot better, and hopefully is going to continue this upward trend because let's face it, they need someone to anchor this pitching staff that is a veteran guy. And if you're gonna I mean and I mean, hey, if you're gonna have a shot at any at doing anything, you need to be able to have someone that you can rely on uh to take the ball as your one and two guys. And, you know, we saw Kyle Bradish really struggle in his last outing. We've seen Trevor Rogers really struggle throughout this season. Those two guys really need to come together and have, you know, a big rest of the summer for the Orioles. Now the defense for the Orioles and the loss to the Padres on Sunday hurt them big time. Already Mason Miller's in the game in the inning prior with two outs and a runner on, Kobe Mayo comes to the plate, strikes out facing Miller. And Miller wasn't totally gassed up. He did throw a 102 mile per hour fastball, he threw two fastballs in that inning, one at 100, 1 at 102. So he's ramping up. But then you've got a couple boneheaded fielding plays by the Orioles in the ninth, couple boneheaded plays by the Orioles all around, three errors in the game, and here is Craig Albernez on the O's defense.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Yeah, very yeah, I think it's especially what you know Mason Miller is on the mound already, and it's a two-run game. You might kind of want to just get back in a dugout, and it's already a tough task, but it's two runs, and adding the third run, you know, is makes it even more difficult. But yeah, like those three errors were they they hurt us.

SPEAKER_06 25:00

Gunnar Henderson had an error to allow Will Wagner to get on. Jackson Holiday fielding error, and then him and Gunnar Henderson on the same play, both fielding errors, that ultimately allowed to the third run being scored there as to what Craig Albernaz was alluding to with the Tatis sack fly. You can't give the opposition free passes, whether it be a walk, whether it be giving them extra outs with an error. It's just that can't happen, especially late in games, and that's exactly what happened in that situation to the Baltimore Orioles. And this is an Orioles team that's really its own worst enemy right now. And Brandon Young, who was on serious earlier in the week, weekend, he spoke about you know kind of what's been plaguing this Orioles team and kind of the state of the O's at its current moment.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

I mean, we're obviously a good team and we know we're a good team. It's just can we consistently day in, day out, like um just just stack wins. And it's obviously it's tough, but we know we're a good team, we can do it. Um as for the starters, we were always around each other, we're always talking, talking ball, looking at each other's bullpen, and uh, I mean, we're just competing out there. We're trying to give our team a chance to win, save the bullpen, and um obviously just win the ballgame.

SPEAKER_06 26:20

So now you have a big test as you go out west. Taking on the Seattle Mariners, and no doubt, I mean, right away, team you saw last week, three-game series. Now, in similar fashion, because the Orioles, I mean, they did play the Toronto Blue Jays recently, and then they played them again, and you know, they were able to carry some of the momentum put from the back end of that home series against the Blue Jays into that first game on Friday. Let's see if they can do the same tomorrow and actually be able to come out and take two of three from a team. And the reason why this is obviously hugely important for the O's, you're five games under 500, you're two games back in the wild card. You're only two games, you're 34 and 39, and you're still two games back. And as I keep saying, the race is for this last wild card spot. Because you've got the Guardians and the White Sox. Now, one of them might still falter and could bounce back, and then you could have two open wild card spots. Um, Tampa Bay or potentially the Yankees. Now we'll see what the Yankees do with Aaron Judge being out if they start to slump, but right now they've been able to manage that situation well. Someone's gonna get hot. The A's could get hot, the Rangers could get hot. You're defending AL Pennant winners, the Blue Jays could get hot. It'd be really great if you could throw the Orioles into that conversation as well as a team that could get hot. But they have to in this month of June, they have to have been able to show, you know, the kind of the Moxie of being able to turn it around. And the type of bravado and the type of and I think at times they've had it, especially with their offense. I think some of the time the the pitching situation and some of those injuries have really flared up for them. But so far in the month of June, you are six and seven. You've not had a winning month yet this season, and not even the five games in March, you were two and three. You were five hundred in April, and you were thirteen and sixteen in May. And I've said it, the Orioles have needed a big month of June. But right now they're just on a complete yo-yo ride throughout this month of June. You know, and now we fail going on this West Coast trip, it's not gonna make it any easier, and going up against the Mariners, they won't make it any easier. The Mariners who are 37 and 36, so just a game above 500, and in the lead in the AL West, obviously so many opportunities here for both teams to really get things because you look at it, you're like, well, if the O's win two of three, and they're 36 and 40, possibly seeing their wildcard lead increase. Same with the Mariners. You know, 39 and 39 and 37, and they're starting to see that lead grow in the AL West. But if you're the Orioles, obviously losing one out of three doesn't help you. Being 35 and 41 doesn't help you. So the Orioles really need to take advantage of what they need to take advantage of that's sitting right in front of them. That could be sitting right in front, because they have the offense to do it. They've shown you, and the Mariners who have great starting pitching, the Orioles have shown you the ability that they can score runs. And here's what's coming up next against the Mariners. Logan Gilbert, who is four and four with a three-six two ERA, pitched six innings against the O's this past week, allowed to run on three hits with two walks and five strikeouts. The O's lost this one six to five and extras. He's three and three with a five-six oh ERA at home in eight starts, is Gilbert. He's three-o with a three-four-three ERA on the road in four starts. Brandon Young, who's five and one with a three-o-four ERA, he'll go for the O's in game one. He pitched seven innings, allowed zero runs on two hits with two walks and five Ks in that win for the O's seven to two. Now remember this, because I'm giving you statistics for the home pitcher and the away pitcher, for the Mariners pitchers, and the O's pitchers. The Orioles are 12-20 on the road this year as a whole. And the Mariners at home this season, they're 19-16. And again, they're they're a game, they have a game lead in the AL West over the A's and the Rangers, and how the Astros are four games back, and they're chasing down the O's and the Wildcard. Um who knows how serious contenders they are, but they are there. Um you have in game two George Kirby going. He's five and six with the four-oh seven ERA. He won six innings, gave up three runs on seven innings with three walks and ten strikeouts in that loss to Brandon Young in the O seven to two. He's three and three with a four-five-six ERA at home in eight starts. Kyle Braddish, who's three-seven with a four-two-nine ERA, gave up five runs on seven hits with three walks and five strikeouts in that seven to five win for the series finale for the Orioles. He's one-and-four with a six-one eight ERA on the road in six starts. Now he got beat up a little bit last week for the Orioles. Let's see if things can be different for KB. He's had two pretty rough starts back to back. Let's see if he can't turn the corner here against Seattle. Brian Wu will start the final game for Seattle. He's 5-5 with a 4-2-8 ERA. He gave up seven runs on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts, and that owes seven to five win. Now he's four-o with a two-seven with a two-three-seven ERA at home and six starts. Now, Shane Bass takes the mound. He's four and six with a four-oh six ERA, but he's by far, in my book, the most trusted pitcher on the road to take the bump in this series. He's one and fourth of three three ERA and eight starts. He's looked really good on the road, and hopefully he's going to be able to go out there and uh pitch you some big innings for uh for the Oriol right now because, man, they certainly could use it to say the least. This has been a tough last what month and a half, although they have shown the ability to play better baseball and they've shown the ability to compete. But they gotta be able to go out there and take care of business, and they just are not taking care of business when it's sitting right in front of them, when it's smacking them right in the face. We'll see if they can be up to the task this week for this three game series. So thanks everyone for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.