{"id":651693,"date":"2026-03-30T02:38:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T02:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651693\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T02:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T02:38:48","slug":"oneill-beavers-and-alonso-lead-a-pair-of-late-os-rallies-to-overcome-a-shaky-baz-and-bullpen-capture-an-8-6-series-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651693\/","title":{"rendered":"O\u2019Neill, Beavers and Alonso lead a pair of late O\u2019s rallies to overcome a shaky Baz and bullpen, capture an 8-6 series win"},"content":{"rendered":"

New beginnings. So much hope, so much promise. The 2026 season is brand-new, and so is Shane Baz\u2019s career as an Oriole. This week the team announced a five-year, $69-million extension for the right-hander\u2014all before he\u2019d thrown a single regular-season pitch. The front office called it a \u201cno brainer.\u201d It almost feels like too much anticipation.<\/p>\n

All I can say after today is, given the sharpness of Baz\u2019s stuff, they may be right, but four runs on seven hits in 5 1\/3 IP wasn\u2019t the first impression Baz, or any of us, had hoped for. He threw just one bad inning, but seven hits is a lot.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say that in today\u2019s Game 3 series finale against the Twins, Orioles pitching was a shambles. Between the two teams, there were fourteen runs allowed total, 24 hits, and ten ABS challenges (more on those in a sec). But in the end, it was OK, because O\u2019s hitters delivered a special performance.<\/p>\n

Down 4-0 early, the O\u2019s rallied, courtesy of a Tyler O\u2019Neill three-run homer in the fourth, and a two-run go-ahead double by Dylan Beavers in the sixth. New-ish reliever Yaramil Hiraldo allowed the Twins to tie it, 5-5, with a first-pitch homer, and Rico Garc\u00eda had to clean up a bases-loaded mess, as he did all last season. The O\u2019s raced ahead again with three runs in the seventh, including on an Adley Rutschman pinch-hit RBI double. Again their bullpen tried to give it away, Tyler Wells looking faulty. But Yennier Cano got another clutch, bases-loaded K, and Ryan Helsley was, if not lockdown, good enough. Batters were challenging strike and ball calls all day, and it was a little dizzying, but overall, ABS seems to be a good innovation.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start at the beginning. This was my first real impression of Shane Baz and here are some thoughts: OK, so the Baz fastball really does live at 96-97 mph. Wow! He hit 99. OK, he\u2019s got a wicked knucklecurve, too. Total \u201cswords\u201d material, as the Pitching Ninja would say. He can also mix in a 91-mph cutter just to confuse things.<\/p>\n

This is really pretty stuff. Maybe it\u2019ll produce an ace one day, but Baz\u2019s outing today wasn\u2019t pretty. He dispatched the Twins in a stylish nine-pitch first inning, capped off by a challenged strikeout of Byron Buxton that ABS vindicated! But the second inning was a mess.<\/p>\n

Four Twins reached with no outs: Matt Wallner served a 98-mph fastball into center, Josh Bell got hit, catcher Victor Caratini tapped an elevated offspeed pitch to left, and an infield single to second made it 1-0 Twins. Baz battled to strike out Royce Lewis, but the victory was pyrrhic. No. 9 hitter Tristan Gray doubled past a diving Tyler O\u2019Neill, and three runs scored. The relay from center to second to third saw Coby Mayo put the tag on the runner, then fire home too late to stop the fourth run from scoring.<\/p>\n

After that, Baz got better. In the fourth, Beavers, in his first-ever game in centerfield, lost a ball in the sun (d\u2019oh\u2014you felt for him), gifting Josh Bell a double. But Coby Mayo fielded a grounder, tagged Bell (or Bell left the basepaths; it wasn\u2019t clear), a run-saving play. In the fifth, Byron Buxton dropped in a blooper to the right-field corner, but Tyler O\u2019Neill fired a bullet to second. Buxton overran the bag, and he was out!<\/p>\n

The scoreboard stayed 4-0.<\/p>\n

At this point, the Orioles offense was even more disheartening than Baz\u2019s one bad inning, because they were getting handled by Very-Large-But-Otherwise-Not-Terribly-Scary Twins starter Bailey Ober, who has a slowish fastball and a decent changeup\/slider combo. I\u2019m not just being mean: from the booth, Ben McDonald said \u201cWhen I look at his stuff, it doesn\u2019t wow me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Orioles hitters made their adjustments off the soft-tossing giant, and Tyler O\u2019Neill delivered again, this time with the bat. Pete Alonso had led off with a 108-mph single, bringing a needed jolt of life to this lineup, and Basallo followed with a single. Tyler O\u2019Neill went to a 3-1 count and got a hanging sinker: bam. Out it went, crushed to left field. It was, as the booth said, a \u201cmuscular\u201d response by O\u2019Neill (that\u2019s a working out joke, by the way).<\/p>\n

The two starters were out early, and the ABS challenge system proved critical to both their replacements. Twins youngster Mick Abel coughed up Gunnar Henderson\u2019s first hit of the year but still posted a scoreless fifth, boosted by an ABS-assisted strikeout of Taylor Ward. Taking over for Baz in the top of the sixth, lefty Grant Wolfram struck out Matt Wallner when Basallo challenged the ball four call. Gutsy! It was a strike by a hair, and this conceivably saved a run because the next hitter doubled.<\/p>\n

The Orioles put up two more runs in the sixth, as O\u2019Neill walked, Coby Mayo hit a bloop double, and Dylan Beavers delivered his biggest hit of the young season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Orioles bullpen did not look nails today, and I have some questions, but that\u2019s for another day. Yaramil Hiraldo allowed a game-tying homer on his very first pitch, then hung several sliders and walked three batters. Rico Garc\u00eda, Mop-up Man Extraordinaire, froze Matt Wallner, who pointlessly used his ABS challenge, and it proved important the next inning.<\/p>\n

In the seventh, Twins newbie Mick Abel was kind of hung out to dry\u2014I\u2019d have pulled him before 81 pitches, but I\u2019m just a couch potato, after all. After a leadoff single, Gunnar Henderson was alleged to walk. Ball Four was definitely not a ball<\/a>, but home plate ump Chris Segal blew it, and the Twins were out of challenges! With Ward on second and Gunnar on first, Pete Alonso came through with a single on an outside pitch. (OK, for the record, this guy can really hit.) The O\u2019s weren\u2019t done: a pinch-hitting Adley Rutschman cranked a double to the center-field wall to make it 7-5 good guys. Basallo was intentionally walked (flattering). With no outs, Mr. Canada grounded into a forceout, but Coby Mayo came through with a single. 8-5 Birds.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Tyler Wells, like Yaramil Hiraldo, was also having a \u201ccan\u2019t find the strike zone day,\u201d and he, too, let a run in and loaded the bases. Today, Yennier Cano was up to the task, however, and froze Buxton, complete with a triumphal Cano Strikeout Pose.<\/p>\n

Ryan Helsley, pitching on a couple days rest, had himself an 8-6 lead to protect. He did not look particularly sharp, and again, ABS came to the rescue. After a leadoff single, new left fielder Taylor Ward earned his keep with a low ranging grab on a sinking liner. Then, Helsley nearly walked Josh Bell, but new backstop Adley successfully challenged a 3-0 ball call. Come back to the plate, Josh! Then, Helsley dropped in a 3-2 slider on the edge of the strike zone that the ump called ball four. Now Helsley challenged it, and lo and behold, it was a strike by a hair!<\/p>\n

Here is Adley\u2019s challenge (Pitch 4) and Helsley\u2019s (Pitch 6). Clearly, ABS is already making a huge difference.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That was a crazy one, folks! It was also a series win, and a great day for the bats.<\/p>\n

So, who is your vote for Most Birdland Player of Sunday\u2019s outing? Mr. Canada himself, Tyler O\u2019Neill and his three-run jack? Pete Alonso, who kickstarted the offense and had two singles and a walk? Dylan Beavers, coming through with a go-ahead, two-out double? Rico Garc\u00eda, who pulled another Houdini with the game tied and the bases loaded in the seventh?<\/p>\n

Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New beginnings. So much hope, so much promise. The 2026 season is brand-new, and so is Shane Baz\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,4871,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-651693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles-scores-standings","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116315814312209736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}