For any given baseball game, there are dozens or hundreds of little things that could have gone just a little differently to change a win to a loss or a loss to a win. Nearly every time, one of those things looms larger than the rest. On Thursday night as the Orioles opened up their series against the Blue Jays, the one that looms largest was this: Rookie reliever Anthony Nunez couldn’t stop walking guys in the eighth inning and he walked in what turned into the game-losing run as the O’s went on to lose, 2-1.
After impressing with some early-season outings, Nunez played himself into a late-inning high-leverage role. Things have not gone well for him in that capacity through May, with this blown game just the latest problem. If you turn to a guy with a 5 ERA in a tie game in late innings, is it really a surprise if it goes badly? On the other hand, it’s not like the Orioles are flush with better bullpen options, especially with Yennier Cano having hurt his hamstring yesterday.
Nunez’s outing began with a leadoff double given up to George Springer. After the Jays risked a sacrifice bunt to move Springer to third base, the Orioles intentionally walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to set up a possible ground ball double play. Nunez instead walked the next guy, Daulton Varsho, loading the bases. Nunez picked up a strikeout for the second out and he just needed one more out to escape this situation.
He could not do it. Facing a fellow rookie, Yohendrick Piñango, Nunez tried to get the Jays pinch hitter to bite on pitches outside of the strike zone. Two of them were nowhere near. Two were much closer, close enough that when they were called balls, Adley Rutschman challenged to try to get them overturned. He was wrong both times, including on ball four outside to force in the second Jays run.
There were chances to come back even after this. In classic 2026 Orioles fashion, they managed to find failure in the most inexplicably stupid ways. Right after the deflating bases-loaded walk, Taylor Ward led off the bottom of the eighth for the Orioles by hitting a single. Two batters later, Gunnar Henderson had struck out and Rutschman replaced Ward at first base.
This brought up Pete Alonso, who smashed a ball along the ground that deflected off of Jays pitcher Tyler Rogers. The ball bounced high up into the air before being fielded at second base by Ernie Clement, who threw to first to try to get the Polar Bear. Alonso is not a fast man. He did, however, beat this throw. The first base umpire somehow missed this call even with a great view of the situation. These injustices are why replay is important, even if it is often stupid.
Speaking of stupid: Alonso got picked off first base to end the inning. What else can you even say about it? That’s the one thing that can’t happen and the team’s $31 million veteran leader went and did it. Maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference. Weston Wilson was the batter. He hasn’t hit much in May. Fine, sure. Let him be the one who fails, so the response is, “Well, that’s what happens when Weston Wilson comes up in clutch situations because you already used Samuel Basallo to pinch hit earlier on.” Instead, the response is, come on, man.
In the ninth inning, Leody Taveras hit a one-out single to get the tying run on base. Recently-heroic Colton Cowser could not continue his streak of dramatic positive outcomes. Jackson Holliday could do nothing, either. The game was over and so was the winning streak the Orioles built up in sweeping the Rays.
Much earlier in the game, there was a starting pitching matchup that was, according to the MASN broadcast, the one with the oldest combined age of any game so far in the 2026 MLB season. 37-year-old Chris Bassitt has been good or at least okay for the past several years and has been bad so far this year. 36-year-old Patrick Corbin has been terrible for the past several years and has been decent so far this year.
These veteran guys were fine on Thursday night. Bassitt gave up a run in six innings, allowing only a third inning solo homer to Andrés Giménez. Corbin gave up a run in five innings, allowing only a fourth inning game-tying homer to Coby Mayo. Neither factored in the game’s decision.
The Orioles did threaten Corbin in the first inning. Ward led off the game with a single. Henderson hit a grounder that might have been a double play ball except it was bungled by Okamoto at third base. Because you can’t assume the double play, this was merely a fielder’s choice – at least until Ward kept racing around second base with the ball loose and Okamoto compounded the mistake by being slow to retreat back to third base. He was not in position to catch the ball and tag Ward, and in fact he did not catch the ball.
Somehow, even though the ball was never at any point in time in Okamoto’s glove, the third base umpire called Ward out on the play. MLB’s replay center took an embarrassingly long time to arrive at the obvious correction. Replay is great when it’s not stupid. The Orioles had second and third with no one out in the first inning.
Nothing happened. Rutschman lined out, then Alonso and Mayo struck out. One of these guys scoring would have been awfully nice. The Orioles couldn’t do it. Good games from Bassitt have been rare in his tenure so far and they just couldn’t capitalize on that.
This was game one of a four-game series. The season is not heading back into the toilet just because they lost one game. The Orioles just have to play better and do this until they’re back where we want them to be. They could even do it for the remainder of this series. At least, assuming they’re able to overcome the handicap of a 2026 vintage Trevor Rogers start as the set continues on Friday at 7:05. The Blue Jays, as of this writing, do not have a starting pitcher listed. Perhaps they’re trying to unearth any lefty they can find. Not a bad strategy when facing this Orioles team.
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