Baltimore Orioles' 3 Losses to Pittsburgh Pirates Show Early Growing Pains
The Orioles have hit a bump in the road to start the Craig Albernaz era.
The Baltimore Orioles have no shortage of talent on paper, but that hasn't translated to a winning record so far. They're 3-6 after nine games to start the 2026 campaign, and they just got swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Orioles scored eight runs across the three games, which matched their total in Wednesday's 8-3 win over the Texas Rangers.
They did score four runs on nine hits in Friday's 5-4 loss, but totaled just four runs on a combined 14 hits over the next two. Starting pitcher Chris Bassitt hasn't helped matters, as he coughed up six earned runs over two innings in Sunday's 8-2 defeat after giving up four runs across 4. 1 frames in his season debut on March 30.
The 37-year-old signed a one-year, $18 million deal with Baltimore in February after notching a 1. 04 ERA in seven playoff outings for a Toronto Blue Jays team that came within one win of winning the World Series last year. He also went 11-9 with a 3.
96 ERA over 32 appearances (31 starts) in the regular season. Fellow offseason acquisition Pete Alonso has also been far from dominant. The five-time All-Star is slashing .