Orioles split doubleheader with Houston after 10-3 rout, 11-5 loss

Camden Yards showed both versions of the Orioles in one long afternoon: explosive, then exposed. Baltimore blasted Houston 10-3 in the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader, only to watch the Astros answer with an 11-5 win that turned a feel-good split into a reminder of how unstable this team can look from one game to the next.

Game 1 belonged to Adley Rutschman and Jeremiah Jackson, who each launched a grand slam to power the Orioles. Rutschman’s blow came after he fell behind 0-2 to Steven Okert and worked back into the at-bat before driving the ball to left-center. He briefly thought Houston center fielder Brice Matthews had robbed it at the wall, a play that fit the strange rhythm of the night before the ball cleared. Rutschman had just returned from the injured list on April 21 after missing 10 games with left ankle inflammation, and he has looked locked in since then, with three of his four home runs coming in his first six games back.

Jackson kept stretching his breakout stretch, too. He entered the day with six home runs in 29 games, already topping the five he hit in 48 games last season. Baltimore needed that kind of punch, and Chris Bassitt gave it a steady lead to work with. Bassitt worked 6 2/3 innings, his longest outing of the 2026 season, and allowed one run on seven hits with seven strikeouts as the Orioles took control early.

The second game flipped almost immediately. Brandon Young took his first loss of the season after allowing 10 runs, seven earned, on 10 hits and two walks over four innings. Houston scored five times in the first inning and tied a season high with 11 runs, with Yordan Alvarez going 3-for-4 with a homer and three runs scored and Cam Smith adding a three-run shot. Leody Taveras offered a brief Baltimore response with a two-run triple in the fourth, his first triple of the season and the 13th of his career, but the Orioles never made the game competitive again.

Houston outhit Baltimore 27-12 across the doubleheader, and the split left the Orioles at 15-16 as they headed to Yankee Stadium. For a club that can hit two grand slams in a day and still get overrun by nightfall, the bigger question is which version holds up over a full series, not just a single afternoon.