The Baltimore Orioles start hot with two home runs from Adley Rutschman and Cedric Mullins, one home run from Jordan Westburg, and new addition Tyler O’Neill. This led the birds to a 12-2 opening day victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Orioles’ six home runs is an opening day franchise record. Both Adley Rutschman and Cedric Mullins add themselves to a four-man list of Orioles to hit two home runs on opening day. Each member of the starting lineup got on base, with the last of which being young prospect Jackson Holliday lining a single into center field. Everyone balled.
Baltimore had one big addition to the lineup in the offseason, Tyler O’Neill, and he certainly played well on opening day. O’Neill came into this year with a five-year streak of opening day home runs and added to it with a three-run 376′ home run to right field. Outside of the home run, the Orioles right fielder had two singles and two walks. He ended the day without getting out in his home country of Canada. Not a bad start for the brand-new Oriole.
Eflin since joining the Orioles in a deadline trade in 2024 has been great. His ERA as an Oriole is 2.65, which is downright elite. He was not brought in to be an ace, but with the loss of Corbin Burnes to Free Agency and injuries to Grayson Rodriguez and Kyle Bradish, he is now at the top of the rotation.
He has filled in great, logging a quality start in 2025 opening day with six innings pitched and only two runs allowed. He was perfect through 3 innings, attacking batters and being very efficient with his pitches only throwing 78 in this game with 49 strikes. The Orioles can not ask much more from their veteran arm.
Many fans, myself included, were concerned with the lack of action in the offseason, wanting general manager Mike Elias to do more. Elias was confident that his prospects would take another leap and decided that all of the big pieces that moved this offseason were simply out of his price range. Opening Day might have been a sign that he was right, as his Orioles put up a dominant performance despite the ace pitcher, Grayson Rodriguez, and MVP candidate shortstop, Gunnar Henderson, both being out with injury. It’ll be interesting to see how the young Orioles continue to progress and to see if they can finally win in the post season.
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