BALTIMORE -- If the Orioles have any chance of clawing their way back into the postseason picture -- and making an historic run into October -- they’ll need strong starting pitching. Their rotation woes, after all, were a big reason why they were in such a big hole entering June.
The group may be turning a corner, though, with veteran Charlie Morton leading the charge.
Morton allowed only one unearned run over 6 2/3 innings on Sunday afternoon to help guide Baltimore to a 3-2 win at Camden Yards. The O’s (22-36) recorded their first sweep of the season by taking all three games against the American League-worst White Sox (18-41).
The Orioles have won six of their past eight games, with their rotation posting a 2.09 ERA over that span. Two of those victories were started by Morton, who has seemingly gotten his season on track.
“I feel like it’s been trending this way for a while,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said of the starters’ recent success. “We’ve been in every game one way or another, within a few runs. So I feel like the starting pitching has been really good here going over a couple weeks now.”
After recording a 10.89 ERA over his first five starts of the year, Morton was temporarily moved to the bullpen. He was reinserted into the rotation the last time through, and he notched his first quality start, allowing two runs over six innings in a 5-2 victory over the Cardinals on Monday.
This time out, Morton was even better. At 41 years and 201 days old, the right-hander became the oldest pitcher in O’s history (since 1954) to have a start without allowing an earned run, a mark that previously belonged to Mike Cuellar, who tossed a nine-inning shutout at Texas on June 20, 1976, at the age of 39 years and 43 days.
“I’m just trying to go out there and do my job,” said Morton, an 18-year MLB veteran. “I knew, physically, I’m still OK. I think it’s just some tweaks and trying to get my stuff going in the zone a little bit better and, like I said, the shapes of the breaking ball. It’s nice to feel like I’m more myself than a month ago.”
Morton scattered six hits and one walk while racking up seven strikeouts in his longest outing of 2025 thus far. He induced 15 whiffs, including a season-high-tying 10 with his curveball, matching his previous outing against St. Louis.
When Morton walked off the mound after throwing his 100th and final pitch in the seventh -- capping his best showing since signing a one-year, $15 million deal in January -- he received a loud ovation from the crowd of an announced 33,037.
“That was my favorite part, and I told the infielders that when I went out there,” Mansolino said. “That was nice to see, because we know Charlie the guy, we know how incredible he is and how accountable he is, and it just makes us all bigger fans of him and makes us feel really good when we see Charlie be Charlie.”
Baltimore’s sweep featured two previous strong starts, as Zach Eflin went seven scoreless innings in Friday’s 2-1 win and Dean Kremer tossed six innings of one-run ball in Saturday’s 4-2 victory. The trio of gems lowered the O’s rotation ERA to 5.26.
“Pitching, by and large, drives the ship. By and large, pitching wins baseball games over a 162-game season,” Morton said. “If we -- as a rotation, a pitching staff -- can go out there and do a good job and give our team a chance to win every single day, it’s a huge deal.”
Meanwhile, the Orioles’ offense scratched across just enough support. They scored two runs in the third on an RBI single from Ramón Urías and a sac fly by Ryan O’Hearn, then added a key insurance run in the sixth on Dylan Carlson’s RBI double.
With All-Star closer Félix Bautista unavailable after pitching each of the previous two days, Mansolino turned to right-hander Bryan Baker, who earned the save with a 1-2-3 ninth. He struck out Josh Rojas to end it, letting out a yell as he left the mound.
As the O’s embark on a West Coast road trip through Seattle and Sacramento this week, the energy has picked back up for Baltimore.
“It’s been a breath of fresh air, for sure. I think there’s a little bit of a different attitude in here,” Baker said. “Got a lot of work to do still -- we should’ve won that game by about five runs today if we clean some stuff up -- but a win’s a win. It’s awesome to get a sweep against a big league team, and hopefully, we carry that momentum.”