PHOENIX – A great night at the ballpark for the Orioles was capped off with an ominous, worrisome note.
Zach Eflin, after tossing great six innings, was forced to exit the game with shoulder fatigue.
"Just fatigue," Eflin clarified after the game. "I think it was precautionary. Evaluate tomorrow and see how I feel after sleeping tonight."
The right-hander said he was "pretty optimistic," and didn't elaborate further on the potential for testing. He instead wanted to focus on the great game that his team just played, so we'll do the same.
The Orioles didn’t play Zac Gallen’s game.
“He really knows what he’s doing and he understands how to set up guys,” Brandon Hyde said before the game. “And if you show a little weakness in being able to expand, it’s going to continue.”
Gallen had found success early in 2025 by setting up hitters out of the zone and chasing strikeouts. And after Gunnar Henderson struck out in the first at-bat of the game, Baltimore fans could only hope that the offense wouldn’t find the same stagnancy as their last outing in Kansas City and Gallen wouldn’t find the same success he found in New York.
Neither came to fruition because the Orioles stayed disciplined in a 5-1 win over the Diamondbacks.
"I just thought our at-bats the first five innings were absolutely fantastic off Gallen," Hyde added tonight. "That's some of our best at-bats of the year. Just how patient we were, how we didn't chase. Everything we kind of talked about before the game, guys put into play tonight."
In his first at-bat of the game, Ryan O’Hearn went up 2-0, a hitter’s count. Gallen threw a knuckle curve that caught too much of the zone, and O’Hearn punished him for it. The lefty’s first home run of the season was smoked at 104 mph off the bat and gave Baltimore an early lead.
In the third, the top of the lineup continued to mash.
Henderson found himself in a 1-0 count and blasted a double on a changeup that caught too much of the plate. Adley Rutschman followed with a first-pitch fastball ambush. The bats weren’t playing catch-up in the count.
"Just control the zone because he’s got really nasty stuff, so can’t chase his pitches," Henderson said. "Just got to control the zone."
O’Hearn followed with a double in a 2-1 count on an eerily similar knuckle curve to the first-inning hanger. Baltimore had the bases loaded for Ryan Mountcastle, but the slugger left them stranded.
They key?
"Just staying even-keeled," O'Hearn said. "I know what I’m capable of. Nice to get a homer tonight and have some good at-bats and get the win.”
In the fifth, the bags were juiced again. After Cedric Mullins grounded into a fielder's choice to score one, Mountcastle was back with another huge opportunity. This time, he delivered.
Mountcastle didn’t try to do too much with a slider down in the zone. A nice piece of hitting drove in two, and all of a sudden, this game had a much different feel at 5-1.
Yes, it was the 11th game of the season. And yes, it felt much more consequential than that.
An Orioles lineup trying to find a rhythm had a huge test in store against Gallen, a three-time top-10 Cy Young Award finisher who had just struck out 13 Yankees in 6 ⅔ scoreless innings in New York.
And with their catalyst Henderson – who went 2-for-4 with both hits over 100 mph – back in the lineup, they may have done just that.
"Gunnar being Gunnar is a really good thing for the O’s,” O'Hearn said with a smile.
The runs weren’t home run dependent, either.
This was the type of offensive performance that the Birds needed. In their previous four wins, the offense put up at least eight runs. That’s great, but you can’t bank on an explosion to win baseball games. In their six losses, Baltimore had scored more than two runs just once. How about a happy medium?
It wasn’t the best day at the dish, but it was a darn good one. And that was more than enough for Eflin.
Chalk up yet another quality start for the reliable right-hander, who tossed six innings and allowed just one run on four hits. He only had one strikeout, but didn’t walk a batter. Outs are outs. And they were efficient outs, too, as the 30-year-old only needed 73 pitches to get through six.
Unfortunately Eflin couldn't work further into the game, but the bullpen had his back.
Yennier Cano went three up, three down in the seventh.
Gregory Soto surrendered a single in the eighth on a ball that Jackson Holliday would surely tell you he should get to, but the young second baseman made up for it with a putout of the next batter.
And finally, Félix Bautista shut the door in the desert, a welcome sight for O's fans. A couple of groundouts and a pop out, and there was the ballgame.
Baltimore is back at it tomorrow with Charlie Morton looking for a rebound start.