Baseball is a game of patience observed by impatient people. A marathon that elicits sprinter-like reactions.
The Orioles have played 12 games, meaning there are only 150 to go in the 2026 season. Fans’ opinions of this year’s team have heated up ahead of the weather.
Full disclosure, I was already wondering about manager Craig Albernaz after they were swept by the Pirates to fall 3-6. A sweep of the White Sox brought their record back to .500 and my concerns to a more even level, as well.
Let’s start with Wednesday’s win and starting pitcher Kyle Bradish’s “childish behavior.” After Bradish walked his third batter in the fifth, he demonstrated his frustration by slapping at catcher Adley Rutschman’s throw back to him. The ball glanced off his glove and landed toward the back of the mound. Bradish took his time to retrieve it and then saw Chicago’s Chase Meidroth streaking toward home. Bradish hurried a throw that was wide left before escaping further damage.
He didn’t try to escape Albernaz when the talented right-hander got back to the dugout.
“I went up to him right after in the tunnel and we talked about it,” Bradish said. “I voiced my frustration with myself, and nobody’s going to be harder on that than myself and he knows that. Team knows that. Like I said, that will not happen again.”
To illustrate that he’s his own worst critic, Bradish said: “Frustration came out. Unacceptable. That’s just childish behavior, and that will not happen again.”
It was an occurrence I hadn’t seen before in 60-plus years of watching the sport. Another had occurred on Tuesday, when the Orioles didn’t put a ball in play after 11 batters, and didn’t score off starter Shane Smith, even though he threw 99 pitches in 3 2/3 innings.
That’s the beauty of a sport that is so unpredictable. What is predictable, and what keeps fans engaged, are the reactions from those who are invested in their team. For Oriole fans, 2026 is supposed to be a bounce-back season after a 75-87 record and last-place finish in the American League East in 2025. The Orioles started slowly and never recovered.
Which has added to the desire for a fast start in 2026, especially after some offseason signings that indicated a commitment to getting back to the playoffs. Albernaz was among those signings, becoming a first-time manager at 43 with a strong New England accent and a straight-forward approach.
“That play shouldn’t have happened with KB,” Albernaz said firmly after the game. “KB is frustrated. We talked. You know he’s frustrated. He owned up to it, and we had a good conversation.”
The local media recently has had the folksy wisdom of Buck Showalter, the even keel of Brandon Hyde and the reflective thoughts of Tony Mansolino. Albernaz has been a little sharper with some of his answers, responding to one recent question with a terse: “No.”
But the media is only part of his job, and not at all the most important. It’s his interaction with the players, and he appears to be getting high marks.
In addition to the immediate conversation with Bradish, he brought together the lineup’s top four hitters before shuffling the order to let them know what he was doing and why. That’s called communication.
I also like where he positions himself in the dugout, at the end, near the batters before they move on-deck. You can see the conversations he’s having during the game, sensing a respect he’s earning from the players.
I also like his observations. When the team’s leader, Gunnar Henderson, homered off a lefty in the eighth on Tuesday to put the Orioles ahead, Henderson showed his joy as he circled the bases. Albernaz hadn’t witnessed that reaction from the 24-year-old shortstop.
“No. No. I mean, he’s shown flashes of it, but I think that one, obviously, go-ahead homer off a lefty, late in the game, yeah, he deserves to be excited. I love seeing that,” Albernaz said.
He also shared an insightful observation about his best player.
“Gunnar, he was pretty frustrated with some at-bats, but we talk about Gunnar all the time, like, I love when he gets frustrated but also he’s never out of it,” Albernaz said. “He’s never out of the game. He’s always in the at-bat, and for him to come through, it was awesome.”
On Friday night, the Orioles will start a six-game homestand with a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants. The weather is supposed to be warmer, and the Orioles will be wearing their new BMORE city connect jerseys.
It’s early, but they also appear to have formed a connection to their new manager. We’ll try to remember that it’s still a marathon.