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👑 Monday, April 7 • Orioles Series Game 1 👑

One-run game, a loud ninth, just enough poise.

Kansas City Royals at Baltimore Orioles | Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Weather: Rain, 57° | Wind in from RF (11 mph) | Attendance: 22,184 | First pitch: 6:35 PM ET

Pregame Memo (Manager's Desk)

The league’s early chatter has us sitting #12 in the power rankings, with Baltimore at #11—close enough to feel like a measuring stick before the season even warms up.

Camden's always loud, even when it's wet—a park that slightly favors hitters and punishes the one pitch you leave on the wrong side of the plate. It's a good stage for a first impression in a new series.
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Baltimore Series Snapshot

Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:

• RHP H. Brown (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs RHP G. Rodriguez (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
• RHP S. Turnbull (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs RHP E. De Los Santos (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
• LHP J. Montgomery (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs RHP K. Bradish (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

The top 5 players on their team are:

1. 2B Jackson Holliday (Age: 21, Overall: 80, Potential: 5.0)
2. C Adley Rutschman (27, 80, 5.0)
3. CL Felix Bautista (29, 75, 4.5)
4. SP Corbin Burnes (30, 65, 4.0)
5. SS Gunnar Henderson (23, 65, 4.0)


From the GM chair, you circle names like —Holliday, Rutschman, Bautista, Burnes, Henderson—and you remind yourself this isn't a “rebuild club.” This is a club built to punish mistakes - and to tell you the truth about your roster in a hurry.

Series Matchup Board — Baltimore Orioles Series Game 1

• RHP H. Brown (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs RHP G. Rodriguez (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Matchup board for the opener was a clean power-versus-power look: RHP Hunter Brown (0–0, 0.00) vs. RHP Grayson Rodriguez (0–0, 0.00). Two right-handers with electric arms and “starter’s stuff” that can turn a lineup quiet fast—Brown with the kind of fastball that plays louder than the radar reading when he’s driving it downhill, Rodriguez with that heavy mix that dares you to swing early and then punishes you when you do.

I liked the test: this is the kind of series where you learn if your roster can survive premium velocity without abandoning the strike zone. If our habits travel, they show up here.
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Game Day Log — Royals vs. Orioles (Game 1)

Manager’s Clipboard

The plan was blunt: don’t give Rodriguez free innings—make him work, stretch counts, stay stubborn in the zone, and get us into their middle relief where the rain and traffic can make everything sloppy. Win the first inning, play clean defense in the rain, and don't let their young core start hunting fastballs with runners on.

Inning-by-Inning Beats (Dugout View)

1st Inning
Perfect start to a road series: Maikel Garcia jumped them immediately with a leadoff double—a hard groundball smoked at 105.6 mph—and Vinnie Pasquantino followed with a grinder of an at-bat that ended the right way: full-count double at 106.9 mph to plate Garcia for 1–0 before Rodriguez could settle.

Bottom half, Brown had to grind through early traffic—Rutschman worked a walk after taking a 3–0 called strike, then Suzuki hit one at 101.9 mph that still turned into only a fielder's choice. We limited the damage to zero. That inning was a tone-setter: we were going to be the team that bends without breaking.

2nd Inning
Quiet on the scoreboard, but Brown’s tempo was starting to show. He got some key strikeouts and kept the inning lengths short—exactly what you want in weather like this.

3rd Inning
Baltimore tied it on one swing—Jackson Holliday got a pitch and hit a solo homer to make it 1–1. The details sting: 108.1 mph off the bat, 422 feet, line-drive loud. From the rail, I didn’t love the outcome, but I liked the response: Brown didn't unravel. He got right back to work.

4th Inning
This was the winning inning—the kind we’re trying to build an identity around: patient, physical, and willing to take a run any way it shows up. Bobby Witt Jr. drew a walk, Salvador Perez ripped a double (98.8 mph), and Michael Massey shot a single through (94.4 mph) to bring Witt home. Then Davis Schneider lifted the sac fly—runner tags, scores, throw comes in late—and we pushed it to 3–1. Two runs, no panic swings—just sequencing and execution.

5th Inning
Baltimore answered with pressure baseball of their own. Sean Bouchard doubled to start the inning, advanced, and then the run scored on a bang-bang play at the plate—Suzuki’s chopper turned into a fielder's-choice attempt home, runner safe. The rain always makes those exchanges a half-beat messier. They trimmed it to 3–2.

Manager note to self: those are the innings where a clean first out matters. We got out of it with the lead, but it kept the game tight.

6th Inning
Brown finished his work here—6.0 innings, 2 runs, and he held them to 4 hits while navigating traffic (3 walks, a HBP). Not spotless, but strong—especially on a night where one mistake can snowball in the rain.

7th Inning
We handed the bridge to Huascar Brazoban, and he gave us exactly what the dugout needed: calm outs, firm strikes, and no freebies. He punched out key bats and kept the inning from turning. (Bouchard had a marathon of fouls before Brazoban finally finished him.)

8th Inning
This was the stress test. A base hit, then a grounder to short that should’ve been routine—E6 on a 96.9 mph chopper—and suddenly their tying run is in scoring position with one out. That’s the kind of inning that flips a game if you let it. We didn’t. Brazoban steadied it with ground-ball answers and kept the lead intact.

9th Inning
Jalen Beeks took the ball with a one-run lead and shut it down—big strikeout, quick contact, and a clean finish. (Baltimore showed the teeth at the end, too—Felix Bautista took their ninth, even down a run. That's what good clubs do.)
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Final

Orioles 2, Royals 3
Orioles (5 H, 0 E) | Royals (7 H, 1 E)

Series opener, on the road, in the rain. The headline is Brown setting the tone and the bullpen closing it, but the heartbeat was that 4th inning: Witt’s walk, Perez’s double, Massey’s RBI, Schneider’s sac fly—four different ways to win a plate appearance when the game is tight.

Kansas City Pitching Scoreline

Pitcher                   IP     H    R   ER   BB    K   HR    PI  ERA
Hunter Brown              6.0    4    2    2    3    5    1    91  3.00
Huascar Brazoban          2.0    1    0    0    2    0    0    27  0.00
Jalen Beeks               1.0    0    0    0    0    1    0    10  0.00

Front Office Note / Takeaways

From the GM chair, this is the kind of win that travels: starting pitching gave us six, the bullpen protected leverage, and we didn’t need a perfect offensive night to beat a high-end opponent in their park.

But I’m also filing away the warning label: Baltimore’s core is exactly what the scouting report said—one mistake can leave the yard (and do it at 108+ mph for 422 feet), and one defensive crack can turn into a scramble fast.

We took Game 1 the right way: early punch, clean response after the tie, and bullpen composure. Now the job is to keep stacking days—because in April, “identity” is just a fancy word for repeatable habits.
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👑 FOR THE CROWN — ALWAYS 👑

Kansas City Royals | Regular Season 2025 - Game 2



(OOTP25 Royals Journey — GM/Manager's Dual Log)