Orioles' familiar issues resurface in 5-2 series-opening loss to Cubs

Michael Howes, The Baltimore Sun on Jul 7, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BALTIMORE — It was one of those nights for the Orioles.

The visiting Chicago fans seemed to take over Camden Yards, with a sea of blue jerseys and shirts lining the third base side and behind the visitors’ dugout. At every opportunity, they produced the loudest reactions of the night.

The Orioles, to be fair, didn’t give the home crowd much to cheer about.

Baltimore fell, 5-2, to the Cubs in Tuesday’s series opener, dropping its second straight game to open a six-game homestand before the All-Star break. The loss followed a familiar script for the 2026 Orioles: trouble against left-handed pitching, missed chances with runners on base and just enough pitching trouble to let the game slip away.

For a while, Shane Baz gave them a chance.

The right-hander carried a no-hit bid two outs into the third inning before the Cubs (51-40) broke through. Baz walked Miguel Amaya, allowed Pete Crow-Armstrong to reach on a ground ball up the middle and then watched Alex Bregman rope a curveball into center field to score Amaya. Michael Busch walked to load the bases, but Baz induced a popout from Seiya Suzuki to escape with only one run allowed.

Baltimore (42-50) stranded Adley Rutschman in the bottom half, continuing a pattern that had already formed. The Orioles had one runner reach in each of the first three innings against Matthew Boyd. All three were left on base.

They created another chance in the fourth, putting runners on first and second, but Blaze Alexander and Dylan Beavers struck out to end the inning.

Baz gave them a clean fourth, striking out two, but the fifth brought more trouble. Dansby Swanson opened the inning with a single, and Amaya followed with a double. Crow-Armstrong then singled to right off a curveball to score Swanson, and Bregman’s ground ball — initially ruled an out at first before a successful challenge — brought home Amaya.

Baz walked Busch to put another runner on, but he forced Suzuki into a double play to prevent the inning from fully unraveling. Still, Baltimore trailed 3-0. With the way its lineup was going, that felt much larger.

Baz’s start ended after six innings, with the right-hander allowing three earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out three. It was uneven, but not empty. When he stayed ahead and avoided traffic, he looked in control, including a clean fourth inning in which he struck out two. But the third and fifth showed how quickly trouble built when he lost the strike zone or fell behind.

His 100 pitches marked just the fifth time this year he has reached that threshold. For an Orioles rotation searching for length before the All-Star break, that mattered.

The problem was Baltimore’s lineup gave him almost no margin.

By the time Boyd’s outing was done, the Orioles had put runners on base but had nothing to show for it. Rutschman grounded into a double play to end the fifth, and no runners reached in the sixth. Boyd struck out seven across six scoreless innings, throwing 63 of his 93 pitches for strikes and walking two.

His breaking pitches kept Baltimore off balance. Boyd’s slider and curveball generated whiff rates of 60% and 67%, respectively, despite being thrown only 30 times combined.

It fit a season-long issue for the Orioles. They entered Tuesday batting .227 with a .360 slugging percentage against left-handers, compared with .242 and .409 against right-handers. The loss dropped them to 10-17 in games started by opposing left-handed pitchers.

Anthony Nunez allowed two hits and another run in relief of Baz in the seventh, with Busch adding a sacrifice fly to left field.

The Orioles finally showed some life in the bottom frame, loading the bases with two outs against reliever Ryan Rolison. Rutschman sent a ground ball into right field to score Samuel Basallo, and Alexander also scored on a throwing error by Suzuki.

Coincidentally, that brief burst came against a left-hander in Rolison, after Boyd had spent six innings extending Baltimore’s season-long issues against southpaws.

But any momentum disappeared quickly. Gunnar Henderson struck out in the next at-bat, ending the threat and sending much of the energy back toward the Chicago fans who had controlled the night from the start.

The former Rookie of the Year exits Tuesday batting 3 for 19 in July. The Orioles finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Swanson sent one more run home for Chicago in the eighth off Nunez, before the Orioles were held without a runner in the ninth with Trent Thornton on the mound. As the final out was recorded, a “Let’s go Cubbies” chant echoed through the lower bowl.