Orioles beat Angels’ Grayson Rodriguez, 3-1, with help from newest players

BALTIMORE—Adley Rutschman is already in Boston, getting accustomed to his new team, and his old teammates are getting accustomed to life without him.

Grayson Rodriguez, one of Rutschman’s former teammates, pitched against the Orioles. Most games, that would be a big deal, but all the talk around the ballpark on Tuesday night was about the aftermath of the Rutschman trade.

Last November, there was another stunning trade when Rodriguez, the team’s longtime top pitching hope who hadn’t thrown at all in 2025, was dealt to the Los Angeles Angels for outfielder Taylor Ward.

A few hours before Rutschman was traded, Ward went to the Seattle Mariners.

Rodriguez entered the game with a 7.98 ERA and held the Orioles to two runs on three hits in seven innings in a 3-1 Orioles win before 18,585.

The Orioles are 1 ½ games out of the final wild-card spot.

This would have been Dean Kremer’s turn to start, but he was traded to Minnesota on Friday night. In his place, the Orioles summoned left-hander Cade Povich from Triple-A Norfolk.

Povich (2-1) hadn’t pitched for the Orioles since May 7^th. He spent time on the injured list with left elbow inflammation, then was sent to Norfolk.

In six innings, Povich allowed seven hits, but didn’t let a runner reach third base. He picked off two runners, Denzer Guzman in the fourth and Wade Meckler to end the fifth, to make things easier on himself.

“It felt good. It kind of brought me back to my college and high school days, when that seemed to be a normal thing,” Povich said.  “It was just about trusting my move and trusting Pete [Alonso] over there. Kudos to him for getting the tags down.”

Povich struck out seven walked one.

The Orioles (55-58) took a 2-0 lead in the third when Christian Franklin, who was obtained from Washington on Monday, walked in his first major league at-bat. Colton Cowser singled, and Rodriguez hit catcher Carlos Narváez, who was included in the Rutschman trade, to load the bases.

With one out, Alonso’s two-run single scored Franklin and Cowser.

Rico Garcia pitched a scoreless seventh. In the eighth, Los Angeles (43-70) scored an unearned run against Andrew Kittredge.

Nolan Schanuel doubled with one out and scored when Vaughn Grissom’s grounder to third went under Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s glove for a double.

Coby Mayo tripled with one out in the seventh, but he was out at the plate when Franklin grounded to shortstop Zach Neto, who threw home to get Mayo.

Mayo had a good time facing Rodriguez, with whom he was familiar from his time in the Orioles’ system.

“He had good stuff tonight,” Mayo said. “He was locating the heater at the top of the zone early in the game, and then he went to that slider and changeup primarily after that. His plan was good, just to set up the fastball early, get guys thinking about it, and then go offspeed later in the game, second, third time through.

“He did a great job. It was fun facing him. I’m sure he was a little amped up to be here, which he should be. Just happy that we were on the right side of it tonight, and he still did well.”

Tyler O’Neill, hitting for Dylan Beavers in the eighth, homered to left against Mitch Farris. It was his ninth home run, his fourth career pinch-hit home run, his third this season.

In the ninth, Yennier Cano allowed a leadoff double to Josh Lowe, who moved to third on Tyler Heineman’s infield before striking out Meckler and Neto for his second save.

The Angels outhit the Orioles, 11-4.

In Boston, Rutschman said: “I played my entire career there and there’s been a lot of unbelievable memories. Just made a lot of great friends for life. It’s tough goodbyes. But we’re on to the next thing. And excited to be here and playing. It’s all part of the game.”

What was Narváez’s first game like? Povich enjoyed working with Narváez, who caught him.

“He called an unbelievable game today,” Povich said. “He was fully ready to go when we had our pregame meeting. For a guy I’ve only pitched against a couple of times, we already had a good mix back there. When I wanted something, he was already putting it down. I couldn’t have asked for a better first outing with him.”

Manager Craig Albernaz was impressed with Narváez.

“It’s not easy to come into a new team and learn new pitchers, but he’s really sharp, takes great pride in his craft, so it was awesome to see him navigate that,” he said.

What was Franklin’s first game like? Franklin wasn’t expecting a trade from the Nationals’ organization.

“It was definitely unexpected, just the way it happened, super close to the deadline,” Franklin said. “But I mean, it’s a blessing. So I’m just grateful that the organization gave me a shot, and just grateful to be on this team and be fighting for something at the end of the season. It’s awesome to be playing for something, rather than just playing for yourself or development in the minor leagues.”

Franklin also made a good catch on Neto with runners on first and second and two outs in the seventh.

“There’s a lot of room out there,” he said. “That was the first thing that I noticed. I came and played an exhibition game out here before the season started, so I kind of got to get the layout. But the outfield coaches helped me a lot to work on it beforehand during the game.”

What does it mean? The Orioles need a big series against the Angels, the team with the worst record in baseball.

What’s the stat of the day? 3. O’Neill is tied with five Orioles who’ve hit three pinch-hit homers in a season: Whitey Herzog (1962), Sam Bowens (1967), Pat Kelly (1979), Jim Dwyer (1986) and Sam Horn (1991).

What’s the word? “I think Grayson is one of the biggest chirpers we had here. So for him to respect that, it’s obviously cool to see. It’s all for the love of the game.”-Mayo on hearing Rodriguez yell at the Orioles’ dugout.

What’s going on in the minor leagues? Trace Bright allowed one run on six hits in five innings in Norfolk’s 10-6 win over Buffalo.

Reed Trimble, Heston Kjerstad, Creed Willems and Luis Vázquez each drove in two runs.

Caden Hunter, who was last week’s Eastern League Pitcher of the Week, allowed two runs on six hits in six innings, striking out 10 in Double-A Chesapeake’s 2-1 loss to Harrisburg.

Enddy Azocar had three hits and drove in three runs the day after he was traded to the Orioles in High-A Frederick’s 10-7 win over Jersey Shore.

Jordan Sánchez, Andrew Tess and Stiven Martinez homered in Single-A Delmarva’s 10-8 loss to Fredericksburg. Esteban Mejia (0-7) walked the first four batters of the game, and each scored. He has a 10.20 ERA.

What’s next? Trevor Rogers (6-7, 4.27) will start against Reid Detmers (3-7, 4.03) on Tuesday night at 6:35.

Call for questions: Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com