The Baltimore Orioles finally caught a break, and it came in dramatic fashion. Trailing 1-1 against the Oakland Athletics, the Orioles seemed destined for another frustrating afternoon at Camden Yards. Weston Wilson's fifth-inning liner down the right-field line had home run distance but curved just foul. Adley Rutschman crushed a bases-loaded fly ball to deep left, only for Tyler Soderstrom to make a leaping grab. In the sixth, Dylan Beavers dropped a blooper to left with runners on the corners—an inch into foul territory.
But Beavers kept battling. Working a lengthy at-bat against Athletics starter Luis Severino, he finally delivered the clutch hit the Orioles needed: an RBI single that put Baltimore ahead 2-1 and sealed the win. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak and marked just the second time this season the Orioles (18-23) beat a team with a winning record.
The real story, however, was Chris Bassitt. The veteran right-hander pitched six gutsy innings, allowing just one run while dealing with an apparent cut on his hand that left blood smeared across his pants. Bassitt struck out six, allowed four hits and one walk, and generated a season-high 14 swings and misses on 94 pitches. It was a gritty performance from the offseason signing ($18.5 million, one-year deal) who has now completed six innings in two of his last three starts—a welcome turnaround after failing to reach that mark in any of his first five outings.
Bassitt's effort, combined with strong relief from Keegan Akin (who served as an opener for the first time this season) and late-inning arms Anthony Nunez and Rico Garcia, ended a 25-game streak where Baltimore allowed three or more runs. That tied the Orioles' longest such streak since 2019.
The Athletics struck first on a sacrifice fly in the second, but the Orioles answered in the third when Gunnar Henderson beat first baseman Nick Kurtz to the bag for an infield RBI single. The win was hard-earned, but for a team that has struggled to find timely hits, this one felt like a turning point.