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👑 Wednesday, April 9 • Orioles Series Game 3 👑

A shutout that leaves a mark. Flush it fast, fix it faster.

Kansas City Royals at Baltimore Orioles | Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Weather: Cloudy, 64° | Wind in from RF (9 mph) | Attendance: 31,367 | First pitch: 1:05 PM ET

Pregame Memo (Manager's Desk)

Day game, getaway feel, but no one in that room was treating it like a matinee. We took the first two and came in with a chance to leave Baltimore with a clean statement—win the series, bank the road wins, keep the schedule from getting loud. As the GM, I loved the early shape of this trip, as the manager, I didn't care about the shape—only the next nine innings and whether our at-bats had teeth.
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Baltimore Series Game 3

Series Matchup Board — Baltimore Orioles Series Game 3

• LHP J. Montgomery (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs RHP K. Bradish (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

Two zeros on the board, but two very different paths to a win. Montgomery is about pace, angles, and keeping the ball off the barrel. Bradish is the kind of right-hander who dares you to blink—if you give him early-count outs, he’ll turn the game into a straight line.
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Game Day Log — Royals vs. Orioles (Game 3)

Manager’s Clipboard

The message to our hitters was simple: make him work—get to two strikes with purpose, don’t chase the “almost” pitch, and force their bullpen to show up before the seventh.

Inning-by-Inning Beats (Dugout View)

1st Inning
We actually opened with a little spark—Maikel Garcia singled to start our day. But Bradish didn’t flinch and we didn’t cash it. Bottom half, the game turned fast. Henderson singled, Rutschman walked, and then Seiya Suzuki hit a three-run homer—111.3 mph, 417 feet—and suddenly we’re staring at 3–0 before the dugout has even settled into the first page of the scouting notes.

2nd Inning
This inning told me what kind of day it was going to be offensively: strikeouts—not one here and there, but the kind that interrupts rhythm. Bradish was landing his stuff and we were too often late in the count, early in the swing.

3rd Inning
Montgomery steadied—gave us clean work and got us back to “playable.” That’s the part that frustrates you as a manager: when your starter is fighting, but the offense isn’t giving him a breath of support.

4th Inning
We finally got a baserunner with some life (Massey singled), but the inning died before it could become pressure. Another empty turn, another quiet jog back to the dugout.

5th Inning
Small win on the defensive side: Gunnar Henderson got caught stealing (2–6)—exactly the kind of little play that can flip momentum. But we didn’t turn it into anything at the plate.

6th Inning
We had our best chance to change the feel: Pasquantino doubled (his 3rd), but the inning didn’t break open. Then the hammer came back down—Rutschman singled, and Suzuki hit his second homer, a 465-foot two-run shot (111.9 mph). That pushed it to 5–0, and you could feel the game slipping from “we’re still in this” to “we’re chasing a storm.”

7th Inning
Davis Schneider doubled to start the inning—another extra-base hit that should’ve been the beginning of a response. But we didn’t string anything behind it, and the inning fizzled again.

8th Inning
The game broke completely here. Holliday doubled, Rutschman walked, and then Jordan Westburg hit a three-run homer—and after that, they kept adding damage (including Ryan O’Hearn’s pinch-hit double). Four runs in the inning, and the scoreboard turned ugly: 9–0.

9th Inning
No rally, no late spark—just a quiet finish. We took the loss straight and walked off the field knowing we’d been handled.
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Final

Orioles 9, Royals 0
Orioles (10 H, 0 E) | Royals (5 H, 0 E)

Suzuki went 2-for-4 with two HR and 5 RBI, and Bradish carved: 6.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K.

On our side: 5 hits, 1 walk, 12 strikeouts—not enough traffic, and not enough fight once we fell behind early.

As the game log put it: “What a dismal performance,” and yeah… that one landed right.

Kansas City Pitching Scoreline

Pitcher                   IP   H    R   ER   BB    K   HR    PI   ERA
J. Montgomery L (1-1)    5.1   6    5    5    1    5    2    95   3.65
J. Topa                  1.2   2    2    2    1    0    0    22  10.80
S. Emanuels              1.0   2    2    2    2    1    1    21   9.00

Front Office Note / Takeaways

From the GM chair, I’ll file this under “useful pain.” A shutout loss in the middle of a road series doesn’t erase the first two wins—but it does spotlight the gap we still have when an opponent runs out a starter who can land everything and finish hitters. Bradish didn’t give us free counts, and we didn’t take them anyway.

Under my manager's hat, I’m circling two things for tomorrow's prep:

1. First-inning damage control. We can’t spot teams three runs and expect to play our clean, patient game from behind.
2. At-bat competitiveness. Not “hits”—competitive decisions. Too many empty strikeouts, too many innings that ended before they started.

We leave Baltimore with the series. We leave it with a bruise, too. Both matter.

Around The League

Around the league, the reminders kept coming that depth and durability are currency: Aaron Civale is done for the year (bone chips in the elbow, 7–8 months), Kyle Manzardo went 5-for-5, and Shohei Ohtani hit three homers in a blowtorch game. Baseball doesn’t slow down for anybody—so we don’t get to either.
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👑 FOR THE CROWN — ALWAYS 👑

Kansas City Royals | Regular Season 2025 - Game 6



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