Baltimore

Orioles

The dynamic 29-year-old outfielder started and hit in the middle of the Orioles’ lineup in each of his first three games since coming over from the Mets. He’ll get a breather here though before likely returning for Sunday’s series finale. Colton Cowser will start in his place in center field and bat ninth against Red Sox’ right-hander Sonny Gray.

Baz gave up four hits, walked two and struck out six. He fell to 5-15 with the loss. The only run Baz allowed came on a solo home run by the blazing hot Mickey Gasper. He’s lost six of his last seven starts while only allowing more than three runs in a start once in that span. Baz’ 3.91 ERA indicates he’s pitched better than his 15 losses. He’s lined up to face the Guardians at home next week.

Basallo was playing against lefties more often than not before his IL stint last month, but he’s started against just one of six since returning. It also might factor in these last two days that the Orioles want to take advantage of Carlos Narváez’s familiarity with his former Red Sox teammates. Plus, Basallo did suffer a minor hand injury last weekend.

Helsley has been on the IL since the end of June with a second round of elbow soreness. He might return for the final 7-10 days of the regular season.

This would have been a terrific outing from Young if not for his former batterymate Adley Rutschman taking him deep twice. Young struck out seven and allowed just two hits aside from the homers. He’ll be a decent play against the Guardians next week.

The homer came off Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, but the Orioles, unfortunately, were down by three at the time and lost by one. Still, it was another impressive showing from Encarnacion-Strand, who could be playing his way into the Orioles’ 2027 plans. He’s hit .269/.314/.508 with eight homers and 30 RBI in 141 plate appearances. That’s as many RBI as Taylor Ward had in 506 plate appearances before being traded, two more than Jackson Holliday has in 316 plate appearances and seven more than Tyler O’Neill has in 260 plate appearances.

The 22-year-old infielder will get a breather in this one with left-hander Jake Bennett toeing the slab for the Red Sox. Blaze Alexander will start in his place at second base and will bat leadoff for the O’s on Thursday evening in Baltimore.

He cleared waivers and will remain in the organization as infield depth.

The 26-year-old has one scoreless inning at the bigs this year and an unsightly 7.89 ERA in 31 appearances (seven starts) for Triple-A Norfolk. He’ll try to turn it around in a new organization.

Rogers struck out a career-high 11 without walking anyone, rewarding fantasy managers who rolled the dice on him in Coors. He fanned six in a row at one point and has pitched to around a 3.00 ERA since the beginning of June after a challenging first couple of months. He was always going to regress from the 1.81 ERA he registered a season ago, and while he’s at 4.30 for the year, the in-season turnaround has been nice to see. An impending free agent, he’s now up to a career-best 144 1/3 innings. He draws the Guardians at home next time out.