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BALTIMORE — If the second half of 2024 was a reality check for the Baltimore Orioles — their first real stretch of mediocrity since they became contenders again — the start of this season is a near-crisis.

This young Baltimore team experienced very little failure while winning 101 games in 2023, but now the Orioles are well aware of what baseball’s more humbling side feels like.

“I think we’re getting a little more familiar [with adversity] than we wanted to be,” general manager Mike Elias said before Friday night’s 3-0 win over Kansas City.

Elias met with reporters to address his team’s 12-18 record in April. The Orioles aren’t just in last place in the AL East, they also had the worst run differential in the American League before Friday’s game.

The young core of hitters that was so fearsome early last year has struggled mightily in 2025. Elias has reason to view that as a temporary blip, but the other main culprit this year — the collapse of the starting rotation — might be harder to fix.

Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez and Albert Suarez are on the injured list, and Dean Kremer took a 7.04 ERA into Friday’s start. Tomoyuki Sugano has been fine, but Charlie Morton is 0-6 with a 9.45 ERA and will work out of the bullpen for now. Kyle Gibson allowed homers to four of the first five batters Tuesday in his first big league start of the season.

“It is difficult to contend with that level of injuries, but even that aside, they’ve had a poor start, and that’s my responsibility. I’m in charge of baseball operations,” Elias said. “When we have a bad record to start the year, that’s my responsibility.”

Elias opened himself up to second-guessing in the offseason when the Orioles lost Corbin Burnes to free agency and the GM gave one-year contracts to Sugano, Morton and Gibson. One-year deals are usually considered pretty safe — even if they work out badly, they expire quickly. But Baltimore committed over $33 million to that trio, so if they keep performing this poorly as a group, it will constitute a real misuse of resources.

In fairness, a rotation of Rodriguez, Eflin, Sugano, Kremer and Cade Povich could have been serviceable — with Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells expected back at some point from elbow surgery — but the injuries to Eflin and Rodriguez have forced Morton and Gibson to produce, and thus far, they haven’t.

Baltimore’s 5.47 ERA entering Friday ranked 29th among the 30 teams, lower than only Miami’s 5.89.

The Orioles took two of three from the first-place New York Yankees earlier this week, but even that required a pair of one-run wins sandwiched around a 15-3 loss. There have been too many games in which Baltimore is way behind because of poor pitching.

“Nobody’s happy with how we’ve performed so far. We have higher expectations for ourselves,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I talk with Mike multiple times a day. We’re not satisfied in the least bit. We know our team can play better than we have.”

Elias said he remains confident in Hyde.

“When things are going great — and they have at times here, we’ve had that — and then when we’re experiencing failure, it’s really important in that job, and in my job too, to be consistent with your approach,” Elias said. “He’s doing that.”

Eflin (lat strain) and reliever Andrew Kittredge (knee) are expected to make minor league rehab appearances Sunday, and Elias said Rodriguez (elbow inflammation) might throw by the end of this month.

“We are all working very hard, and we have a lot of faith in this very talented group,” Elias said. “Piece by piece, step by step, we’re going to get guys healthier; we’re going to get guys performing more to their norms. If there’s something we can fix with a player, we’re working on that.”

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Springer’s 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

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Springer's 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.

The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.

Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.

Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.

Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.

New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

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Astros’ Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

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Astros' Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

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Ohtani’s 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

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Ohtani's 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.

Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).

As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).

During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.

Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.

Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.

Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (3-6) got two quick outs in the first before walking Will Smith and Max Muncy back-to-back. Teoscar Hernández followed with an RBI single, Andy Pages hit a run-scoring double and Michael Conforto had a two-run single.

Chicago’s lone run came on Lenyn Sosa‘s RBI single in the third.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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