Late rally can't keep Orioles from 6-3 loss to Guardians (updated)

A roller up the third base line griped the chalk for a single. The wind carried a fly ball off the out-of-town scoreboard in right field for a triple. Ryan Mountcastle leaped for a high chopper that nicked the top of his mitt for a single.

Steven Kwan’s fly ball down the right field line in the fifth inning sneaked inside the foul pole for a two-run homer, another break for the Guardians and another swig of frustration for an Orioles team that’s guzzling it lately.

Charlie Morton couldn’t maintain early momentum and left-hander Logan Allen held the Orioles to two hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings in Cleveland’s 6-3 victory before an announced crowd of 14,293 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles (6-10) are four games below .500 for the first time since July 7, 2022. They didn’t have a hit until Cedric Mullins led off the fifth with a single. They didn’t have a run until Mullins homered off reliever Joey Cantillo in the seventh.

Gunnar Henderson and Mountcastle doubled off Cade Smith with two outs in the eighth, the latter at 109.4 mph, and Gary Sánchez singled to reduce the lead to 6-3. The Orioles were 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position Sunday and 0-for-5 tonight before a rally that came too late.

To snap out of this funk, manager Brandon Hyde said, “You have honest conversations, but you also stay positive."

"We have a lot of talent in that room and just not playing our best baseball and we’re not putting things together," he said. "We’re having a tough time keeping us in the game early. But we’re not helping us out offensively, either. We haven’t played our best defense. I thought we played well tonight. But there’s a long way to go in the season. We’ve got to keep our heads up. You’ve got to stay positive. Be honest, also, about some things, but stay positive. Try to correct some things. Believe in some guys’ track records."

Mullins and Jordan Westburg walked in the third, but Adley Rutschman popped up. Mountcastle reached with two outs in the fourth on Brayan Rocchio’s throwing error, but Sánchez flied out. Mullins, who leads the club with four homers and 17 RBIs, was stranded in the fifth after two fly balls and a strikeout. Henderson singled with two outs in the sixth, but reliever Paul Sewald struck out Mountcastle.

Jorge Mateo collected his first hit since July 19, 2024 with a two-out double in the seventh, but Westburg grounded out. The last gasp was Ryan O'Hearn's pinch-hit single in the ninth. He was stranded.

"We’re definitely not clicking on all cylinders offensively," Hyde said. "First half of the game we didn’t swing the bat well. Those weren’t our best at-bats. I was really proud of, I thought we stayed in it, and took really good at-bats the last few innings. But just can’t have that many bad at-bats through six innings.”

Morton left with a runner on base and no outs in the sixth and the Orioles behind 4-0. Cionel Pérez let Gabriel Arias score and also surrendered his own run on Kwan’s grounder that Mateo couldn’t corral. Morton’s ERA grew to 8.84. Pérez lowered his from 16.20 to 14.21 after retiring the leadoff hitter in the seventh and stepping aside for Scott Blewett, making his Orioles debut.

“Look, we’re 6-9. That’s disappointing. I wish we were 9-6,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said this afternoon, before the Orioles lost for the eighth time in 11 games.

“It is early. There are positive things going on. Everybody has a ton of injuries nowadays, but we’ve had more than our fair share of injuries and we’ve had guys that are coming back from injuries from last year. Didn’t have Gunnar for the early part of the season, he’s just getting going. So there’s a lot there. But yeah, overall, would like to have a better record at this point, and there’s a couple of close games that we feel like we could have won. But still see an enormous level of talent in this team. Still see a playoff team.

“We’re going to keep pushing away and working to get things back into place, to the degree that they aren’t in place, and doing everything we can across the organization to improve things and improve our record, and I think it’s going to happen.”

Said Morton: "I’ve been on some really good teams that were struggling, but the vibes in the clubhouse didn’t change. The quality of the people in the clubhouse has been so high that it just doesn’t feel different. You just know -- I guess, objectively speaking -- on paper, you’re not winning, it’s like night in, night out, you’re just kind of grinding. I just don’t feel like that. I feel like this clubhouse is full of good people, good teammates. And usually, that lends itself to just finding some momentum and getting going."

Elias recited the list of injured Orioles earlier today and offered rehab updates. It took about six minutes.

“I think it’s part of baseball, I think it’s part of sports right now, and it’s certainly not limited to the Orioles,” he said. “Is it a factor in our slow record to start the year? Yes. Is it an excuse or a totality of the reason? No. There are other teams going through it, too, so it’s just something that we continue to deal with and we try to amass the most depth that we can.”

The Orioles have maintained a sense of calm within the storm of injuries and defeats.

“I certainly haven’t see any signs of panic and we’re continuing to retain the same approach on a night-to-night basis,” Elias said. “I try not to get too high when things are going great and try not to get down when we’re losing. That’s how you have to approach baseball. That said, we’ve gotta stay on top of what we do and look at how we do things and why we do things and where we do things, and try to be in a mode of looking to improve at all times. So we’re doing that, too.

“But look, we’re in a very competitive division and despite our record right now, there’s not a ton of separation in the division right now, and we’ve still got a great chance and a ton of games ahead of us. So we’re going to push ahead, we’re going to get as healthy as possible. The guys who aren’t performing the way they’re used to, we’re going to get them on track and we’ll see where we’re at here a little later this season.”

Morton retired the side in order on 10 pitches in the first and the only hits allowed in the first three innings came on Arias’ weak ground ball up the third base line in the second and Rocchio’s single into center field in the third at 74.1 mph off the bat.

Two walks loaded the bases with no outs but only one run scored, on José Ramírez’s sacrifice fly. Carlos Santana flied to shallow right and Tyler O’Neill, with his cannon arm, doubled off Rocchio at second base.

Statcast clocked O’Neill’s throw at 89.9 mph. His cap flew off before he made the catch and his momentum caused him to do a front flip after the throw.

O’Neill landed on his stomach again in the fifth after chasing down Angel Martinez’s fly ball off the out-of-town scoreboard. Martinez made it to third base for a leadoff triple and scored on Bo Naylor’s sac fly. Rocchio walked and Kwan homered for a 4-0 lead.

Arias’ leadoff single in the sixth came on Morton’s 88^th and final pitch of the night. The veteran right-hander was charged with five runs and seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts. Morton has allowed 18 runs and 24 hits and walked 11 in 18 1/3 innings since signing a $15 million contract.

“I thought Charlie threw the ball better than he had," Hyde said. "He lost command there in the third, only gave up one. A little bit of some bad luck before the Kwan homer. The fly ball that hit the ball, the jet stream was blowing out. But I thought he had better stuff and he threw more strikes. Still had three walks, but got into the sixth inning for us.”

"I go out there and I’m giving up four or five runs every start," Morton said. "That’s four starts right there where, I don’t know how many games we’ve played, but it’s like, ‘Man, I’m making it tough on our team.’ It’s like I don’t know where we’re at if not for me. I don’t know.

"All I know is that the room is full of good people, and really talented people. So that, in my experience, has resulted in really good outcomes."

The curveball has been Morton's bread and butter pitch, and he hungers for its return. He can't trust it.

"I think really, I’m getting by with my four-seamer, two-seamer, cutter, changeup," he said. "My curveball is what separates me from other guys that have decent fastballs, changeups and cutters. My curveball is the pitch that I lean on for, get me back in the zone. Get me back in bad counts, even just getting me in my delivery. My curveball has always just been the pitch that’s been the equalizer for me, the pitch that separates me from other guys that have similar stuff, and right now, I looked it up, they’re hitting .450 against my curveball with slug, hard hit. In zones, not great. Swing-and-miss, not great.

"The thing that’s most frustrating is that I’m still able to spin it. I’m still able to spin the heck out of it. I see it every now and then with the shape and the movement. I see it dart. I see it move the way I want it to. It’s just the consistency. It’s the strike throwing. I can sit here and go, ‘Man I’m just not very good,’ but I just think the way my other pitches are playing, if I could get that curveball going, then I’m not standing here talking like this. I don’t think we’re even having this conversation. That’s how good my curveball has been. That’s why it’s so frustrating for me right now is that the pitch that I’ve relied on for so long now is just, it’s not performing for me."

The optimistic side of the club views it's early collective struggles as much more desirable than late in the summer.

"It can be a good thing," Morton said. "It's just a really tough division. It's a grind, and there's some really good teams in this division. But certainly I've been on teams that didn't get going till late or just kind of grind it out and you stay in the mix and then you hit that gear and you get into a groove. I honestly don't think that you can do great things without adversity. I think there has to be that conflict. It's just sometimes it's internal and sometimes it's some things that people can see. But I think we all, every human, I think to do great things, you have to go through those periods of time where things were difficult, because that's what creates character, that's what creates a bond, that's what creates chemistry. So, of course, yeah, it can be a good thing but it's not ideal, right?

"It's like, ideally, you go out and you win 75 percent of the games at least, and you get going early, you get momentum going early. But I've been on teams that struggled. I've been on teams that struggled early and still did some pretty special things.”

* Douglas Hodo II hit his first home run tonight for Double-A Chesapeake. Ryan Long tossed five scoreless innings with three hits, no walks and three strikeouts. Levi Wells got the save with one run in four innings.

Single-A Delmarva scored 10 runs but didn’t homer. Maikol Hernández had three RBIs, and Miguel Rodríguez and Yasmil Bucce both finished with two in an 11-10 loss to Carolina.