Orioles Host The Brewers Clinging To Playoff Hopes, With Their Rotation In Tatters

Back when former Orioles owner John Angelos hired Mike Elias to lead what has become an endless rebuild, spanning two ownership groups and three managers, the Milwaukee Brewers were a team often thrown out as a potential model for this next era of Baltimore baseball.

The Brewers consistently exceeded expectations – almost on a yearly basis – and found amazing value in minor transactions and are a player-development machine with a starting-pitcher incubator and they did it as a smaller-market team. Turns out, the Orioles rebuild would be far closer to the Pirates than anything remotely close to the Brew Crew.

Milwaukee comes to Camden Yards with the Orioles still clinging to mathematical hopes of a final Wild Card spot – with then just sweeping the Mets and with the American League so pathetic in 2026. Keeping that momentum going this weekend will be a very different chose, the Orioles have not been good against winning teams: 35-44, which explains why they are in the predicament they find themselves in.

Here’s what to look for in this series:

How Good Are The Brewers?

This is the best team in baseball because it is one of the most balanced teams in baseball and they have a winning culture and they have one of the better managers in baseball and they don’t beat themselves. They play smart baseball and they understand how to do all the little things and they pride themselves on smart at bats and putting the ball in play and don’t think they can just win games with launch angle.

If they sound like the antithesis of the Orioles, it’s because they are.

How about being first in MLB in runs scored per game, and fifth in runs allowed per game? Feckless fraud Mike Elias could never build a roster half this season. They field the ball and throw to the right base. Dare I say it, they play The Oriole Way. They know when to buy low on guys like Quinn Priester and Kyle Harrison and when to sell high on Freddy Peralta. They are smart and they are sound and they are well-constructed and well managed.

Who’s Going To Pitch?

Great question. The Orioles rotation is kind of in tatters, and they have yet to announce starters. Of course we saw this coming back in June and of course Elias did literally nothing proactive about it whatsoever.

Kyle Bradish is done for the year with a sports hernia but needed to be shutdown anyway with his command gone and him on fumes after Tommy John surgery. Shane Baz wasn’t going to start this series but after taking a 109-mph liner off his right elbow in New York, we might not see him again, either.

Cade Povich is back up in MLB, according to reports, and he has a 6.50 ERA in AAA and has been quite erratic. The Orioles haven’t announced anything yet but it would stand to reason he will start Friday, because I don’t see them bumping anyone up in this rotation this deep in the season with Trevor Rogers and Brandon Young in unchartered territory.

 We suspect Rogers goes Saturday and Young Sunday night, but, again, nothing official.

For all the hype about Rogers at times, 2025 was an anomaly. He sports a 4.22 ERA this season and it was 4.52 in 2024 and he didn’t really pitch in 2023 and it was 5.47 in 2022. He’s allowed 54 hits in his last 54 innings over nine starts, including nine homers, with a 4.33 ERA. They should have traded him at the deadline when he was hot. They give him a qualifying offer, they best be prepared for him to take it.

Young has never pitched they deep into a season before, and he has fallen off in the second half as anyone would have suspected. In his last nine starts he’s allowed 53 hits in 48 innings, also walking 21, striking out 38 and giving up 12 homers with a 4.69 ERA.

The bullpen has been shockingly great and it’s going to have to provide length and quality the rest of the season. The rotation has a 4.34 ERA since July 31st, 20th in basball and more in line with where the industry expected it this season.

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