Mullins leads Orioles in 5-4 win vs. Blue Jays

Matt Weyrich, The Baltimore Sun on Apr 12, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BALTIMORE — The Orioles’ offense was backed into a corner.

Entering the fifth inning Thursday, their lineup had yet to produce a base runner against starter Bowden Francis with the Toronto Blue Jays leading 3-0. They had gone 15 consecutive innings without scoring a run and just watched one of their best players from a year ago hit his first home run with his new club against them.

Then they blasted their way out. Heston Kjerstad broke up Francis’ no-hit bid with his first homer of the season, Adley Rutschman crushed a no-doubter to tie the game and Cedric Mullins completed the comeback with a two-run double in the sixth to lead the Orioles (6-8) a 5-4 win over Anthony Santander and the Blue Jays.

Wearing orange-on-orange alternate uniforms for the first time since 2010, the Orioles broke out of a team-wide slump by stringing together four hits and two walks between the sixth and seventh innings. Francis had retired 13 straight Orioles to begin the game, but Mullins got their offense started with a one-out walk and, two batters later, Kjerstad smacked a 409-foot long ball to center field that injected some life into the announced crowd of 22,130.

The following frame, Rutschman one-upped Kjerstad with a two-out, 426-foot homer to right field that he knew was leaving the yard right off the bat. Francis then issued a walk to Ryan O’Hearn, threw a wild pitch and gave up an infield single to Jordan Westburg to bring Mullins back up with runners on the corners.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider opted to keep Francis to face the left-handed Mullins and he provided them with a dose of instant regret when he lined a 3-2 fastball into the gap in left-center for a double that brought both O’Hearn and Westburg home.

Baltimore’s rally prevented starter Tomoyuki Sugano from picking up the loss in his Camden Yards debut. The Japanese right-hander allowed a lot of hard contact early and only lasted 4 2/3 innings, but he limited the Blue Jays to three runs by producing six ground ball outs including two double plays.

A base running gaffe by the Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. produced another two-for-one special in the fifth when Tyler O’Neill caught a fly ball in right and threw it in to Jackson Holliday, who was signaled to throw the ball to Ryan Mountcastle at first after Guerrero failed to tag up.

Santander, playing his first game at Camden Yards since signing with Toronto over the offseason, greeted his former team with his first home run in a Blue Jays uniform off Sugano in his second at-bat. Fans gave Santander a standing ovation before his first plate appearance and he took a curtain call between the first and second innings when the Orioles played a tribute video on the center field scoreboard.

The Orioles trotted out five different relievers to close out the game capped off by Félix Bautista securing the Orioles’ first save of the season and his first since tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in August 2023.

Instant analysis

Mullins is off to a spectacular start to the 2025 campaign, slashing .296/.415/.591 in 13 games to open the final year of his contract with the Orioles. He got the Orioles’ rally started with his fifth-inning walk and capped it off with his bases-clearing double in the sixth.

After finishing last season on a tear that reestablished him as a key member of the Orioles’ lineup, Mullins has carried over that success into the early goings of 2025. His 16 RBIs were tied at the time the game ended for fourth in MLB and second in the American League behind only the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge.

Should he continue his torrid hitting, Mullins has a chance to set himself for a lucrative trip to free agency this offseason if the Orioles don’t work out a long-term extension before then. But for now, he’s been a bright spot for an up-and-down Baltimore offense and perhaps their most valuable player so far.

On deck

On Sunday, the Orioles will look to avoid going five straight series to open the season without winning at least one. They’ll need another win to avoid a split in this weekend’s rain-shortened series with Cade Povich starting opposite the Blue Jays’ José Berríos. Povich is coming off a six-inning start in Kansas City where he scattered 12 hits and allowed four runs, though only one was earned.

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