You could pinpoint it.
An Orioles crowd donning orange had waited all day for the feeling to return: The feeling of the 2023 ballclub. The feeling that no lead was insurmountable, no deficit was too great. The energy and excitement of one of the best, young teams in baseball.
Heston Kjerstad’s two-run home run to cut Toronto’s lead to one brought a hushed optimism to the fifth inning. A hope too delicate to hold onto for fear of its fickleness.
Yes, we’re 14 games into the season. And no, a loss to the Blue Jays on a Saturday in early April would not have dashed the dreams of the 2025 campaign. But it felt as if Baltimore was on the wrong end of a slippery slope, and each scoreless inning a stumble.
One swing flipped that feeling on its head.
The ball was launched 108.8 miles per hour off the bat of Adley Rutschman, 426 feet to right-center field. Rutschman, the face of the Orioles’ turnaround that coincided with his debut in 2022, seemed to feel the moment.
A rare bat flip and stare into the dugout energized his teammates and sent a frigid O’s crowd into a frenzy. A triumphant trot around the bases culminated with an energetic high-five flock in the home dugout, as if to send the message: “This is who we are.”
While Rutschman fumbled with the hydration station, Ryan O’Hearn and Jordan Westburg reached base, and Cedric Mullins brought the game to a new level.
With fans wearing the giveaway T-shirt bearing his likeness, Mullins went the opposite way to deep left-center field. As the longest tenured Oriole stood up from his head-first slide into third base, his emotion poured out, echoing the elation of every Baltimore fan in Camden Yards.
Despite offensive struggles spanning back to Tuesday in Arizona, the O’s had come from behind to take the lead against a division foe. Good teams find a way.
The positive momentum just needed to culminate in a win.
With the Orioles up one run in the ninth, Félix Bautista’s iconic entrance was paired with the first save opportunity of the season. The closer who has been working his way back to form had the opportunity to seal the most important game of the O’s young season. This was the moment he had been working for.
There was trouble on second and third, and Bo Bichette, in the middle of a three-hit day, stepped into the batter’s box. Slider, swinging strike. Sinker, foul ball. Splitter, ball in the dirt. Slider, swinging strike. Ballgame. The Mountain had found a way.
Rutschman pumped his fist as Bichette’s bat swung through a low-and-away slider for strike three. Baltimore’s star catcher euphorically ripped off his helmet and went to meet his closer steps in front of the pitcher’s mound. The two shared a hug, and O’s fans shared a sigh of relief.
It was Bautista’s first save of the season, and his first since 2023. It was the O’s first comeback victory of 2025, and their first truly “close” win. It was the kind of game that they always seemed to find a way to come out on top of when they were at their best.
This was the energy that had defined the last three seasons of Orioles baseball.
Of course, only time will tell if this momentum carries into the rest of Baltimore’s homestand. The O’s could have a clunker in the second game of their series against the Jays and be on a hunt for good vibes once again.
Nevertheless, yesterday’s 5-4 win felt like a turning point. Baltimore, only 14 games into the year, felt to be teetering on the edge of things going in the wrong direction.
But in a three-run sixth inning on a gloomy Saturday in early April, the O’s may have started to find it: an identity.