Entering Sunday’s game, Oriole relievers had allowed 102 runs, eighth most in baseball. That number might be somewhat deceiving because 25 of those runs were allowed in the four most lopsided defeats of the season.
Keegan Akin, who’s been one of the more consistently reliable relievers in recent years with the Orioles, was responsible for two of the blowups.
On April 25th, Akin allowed six runs in the ninth inning to the Boston Red Sox in a 17-1 drubbing. Akin threw a perfect eighth, then manager Craig Albernaz tried to stretch into the ninth in a game the Orioles were trailing, 7-1. Albernaz then turned to utilityman Weston Wilson, who gave up four more runs.
Akin gave up six more in the Orioles’ 13-3 loss to the Nationals on Saturday night. He pitched only 2/3 innings.
He has a 14.63 ERA in eight games this year and has allowed 13 runs. All but one came in those two blowouts. Akin missed the first month of the season after he strained left groin muscle on the last day of Grapefruit League games in Sarasota,
The other two one-sided losses came on consecutive days at Yankee Stadium. Andrew Kittredge allowed seven runs while retiring only one batter in the eighth inning of an 11-3 loss on May 3rd.
Lou Trivino, whose signing was announced about two hours before gametime, allowed six runs in 2/3 innings in the eighth of a 12-1 loss.
Again, Albernaz called on Wilson, who recorded he final out of the inning.
Trivino got one more outing for the Orioles, pitching 2 1/3 scoreless innings on May 9th. He was quickly designated for assignment, passed through waivers and elected free agency. Trivino signed a minor league contract with Philadelphia over the weekend. He left the Phillies’ organization to sign with the Orioles.
“With the bullpen, a lot of those guys have really short memories,” Orioles pitching strategy coach Ryan Klimek said before Sunday’s 7-3 win over the Nationals.
“So it is like getting them the ball again as soon as you can to put that one in the past. Relievers have a lot of wide variants throughout the season. One bad outing, you’ve just got to move past it, get back out there, those guys are really good at that.”
In Klimek’s role, he works mostly with the starters and catchers as well as with the relievers. He’s noticed some differences with Trevor Rogers, who will start on Monday night at Tampa Bay.
After his wonderful 1.81 ERA in 18 starts in 2025, Rogers began the season with three good starts, had three poor ones, then went on the 15-day injured list with the flu before allowing six runs in four innings last Tuesday in a 6-2 loss to the Yankees.
Klimek doesn’t think the 2025 and 2026 Rogers are very different.
“From a stuff perspective, it’s really similar,” Klimek said. “I think we need to open up the location differences a little bit more. Just kind of getting back to not being so predictable with where we’re operating.”
Chris Bassitt has also had a choppy season. His 5.44 ERA is far above his 3.70 ERA. In Saturday’s loss, Bassitt gave up four runs in five innings. The blunt 37-year-old Bassitt wasn’t buying that there were any positives.
“Nothing, I’m too old to deal with the positives. It was a bad game, bad loss,” he said.
Klimek is always looking at ways for pitchers to improve, even Bassitt, who’s two years older.
“One thing I’ve always respected about Chris is the way that he’s able to change speeds and change lanes,” he said. “I think just continuing to get this command refined, trusting his stuff in the zone. Those are the things that are going to help him change speeds, keep hitters off balance.”
Klimek’s also gotten to work with Trey Gibson, who made his major league debut earlier this month.
“With Gibson it was really fun to just kind of see what all these guys wan to push themselves to face elite talent,” he said. “And coming up here, you can just see, like this has worked in Triple-A, but we’re going to lean on this in the big leagues, just seeing him against the elite type of hitters. That’s always really fun.”
Note: Right-handed pitcher Christian Roa was claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs.
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