Orioles flash tantalizing potential in series win against the Dodgers, but two major concerns still hang over them

The Baltimore Orioles had a great weekend in Los Angeles, mostly. The team arrived in LA coming off two disappointing series losses to the Padres and the Mariners, and when they dropped the first game of their series against the Dodgers in horrifying fashion, it looked as though their season was circling the drain. Over the next two days, the Orioles played some of their best baseball of the season. They got back-to-back excellent starts from their rotation, and the offense woke up and put on a show in the series finale, and they took both games from the back-to-back defending champs. As good as it was to see some of the most important parts of this Orioles team come together against some of the best competition they'll see all year, what the Orioles' bullpen and defense showed all weekend makes it hard to go all in on this Orioles team.

First the good though. After a brutal stretch of starts following his return from the IL, Trevor Rogers looks like the pitcher he was in 2025. In four starts in the month of June, Rogers has a 2.22 ERA, a 3.06 FIP, and he's averaging six innings per start. In his previous four starts in May, Rogers had a 10.31 ERA, a 6.76 FIP, and was averaging less than five innings per start. The Orioles lost literally every start he made.

The clearest difference between this month and last month has been the return of Rogers' command. Rogers is not the kind of pitcher that can just aim middle and "rip it", he relies on hitting spots and painting the edges of the strike zone to be successful. When he can't do that, the result is a major uptick in walks and pitches hung in the dead middle of the zone that get immediately punished.

The Orioles rotation showed up against the Dodgers this weekend

When a good player is suddenly a bad player, injury usually has something to do with it, and the way Rogers has heated up, the more distance he puts between himself and his IL stint makes it reasonable to connect that he might have returned before he was fully ready. He looked ready on Saturday, which bodes well for the rest of the season.

Brandon Young started the next game, and although he was not at his sharpest, he continued his excellent season, pitching five innings of one-run ball against a lineup full of future Hall of Famers that, on paper, “should" have caused a real problem for him. The difference between what "should" happen and what actually happens when Young starts is the story of his season, and even the best lineup in baseball couldn't get the floodgates to open against the Orioles young starter. Until it's proven otherwise, this is the kind of performance Orioles fans should expect from Young.

On the offensive side, it's hard to find an Oriole that didn't end up having great numbers this series, but Pete Alonso, Blaze Alexander, and Colton Cowser all stood out as being especially troublesome for Dodgers pitching. What's interesting about those being the bats that were the hottest is how well spaced out they are in the lineup. Alonso at the top, Cowser in the middle, and Alexander in the nine-hole. A lot of pitchers rely on being able to mow through the bottom half of a lineup in order to be efficiant and pitch deep into games when Alexander and Cowser are hot in the 7-9 part of the order and can flip the lineup over to a hot Alonso, pitchers really don't get a break and this weekend showed how the Orioles can wear down their opponents with a long lineup.

Now to the less good. The Orioles defense in this series was embarrassing. Obviously, they lost on Friday night on a goofy throwing error where both the player throwing the ball and the player catching the ball looked bad, but that wasn't the last time the Orioles defense showed up in a bad way. In the ninth inning of game two Jackson Holliday was saved from a throwing error by a diving Alonso, Coby Mayo turned what should have been a game ending double play into a single and Leody Taveras dropped what should have been a routine game ending catch that hit him in the stomach.

The blooper reel from this series was just way too long. The Orioles barely survived it on Saturday, and on Sunday, the offense took the defense out of the equation, but going forward, the Orioles' poor defense is going to continue to be a problem.

Fortunately, there is a pretty simple solution. Stop playing the bad defenders. All of the Orioles worst defensive players have also been miserable at the plate this season. If the Orioles had the stomach to simply not play these guys as much, they could actually field a solid defense. No more Mayo at third in high leverage spots, no more Jeremiah Jackson in the outfield, and no more Tyler O'Neill ever. Problem solved!

The other issue that arose in this series was the bullpen. This is something that has been a problem for several weeks now. Rico Garcia hid many of this bullpen's inadequacies by being one of the best relievers in baseball for two months, but he's riding the struggle bus now, and everyone else that the Orioles have tried to use in high-leverage spots has really struggled.

Helsley looks extremely gettable since his return from the IL, and Andrew Kittredge is inconsistent. Yennier Cano seems to be the only arm thriving at the moment, and the Orioles have been extremely reluctant to use him in big spots.

Unless the Orioles plan on having an 11-run lead every game, they are going to need to figure out this bullpen. To do that, they may have to be active in the trade market, as it seems like their internal options are limited.

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