Orioles Look to Take Series Finale Against Reeling Rockies as Brandon Young Takes the Mound
The Colorado Rockies' miserable season reaches its latest low point Wednesday afternoon, and the Baltimore Orioles are positioned to make it worse. First pitch is set for 3:10 PM ET as these two clubs close out a three-game regular-season series — Game 3 of 3.
This is Week 1 of the current stretch of the schedule, not the start of the season — both teams are deep into their 2026 campaigns and the numbers tell two different stories. Colorado sits at 52-85 through 137 games, a run differential of minus-142 that ranks among the worst in baseball, averaging 4.7 runs scored while surrendering 5.7 a night. Baltimore, meanwhile, is 68-69, hovering near .500 with a far more respectable minus-18 run differential. The gap in these two organizations' trajectories has been stark all year, and nothing about this series has suggested otherwise.
The pitching matchup favors the visitors on paper. Baltimore hands the ball to Brandon Young, who carries a 3.384 ERA into the start, giving the Orioles a clear edge over Colorado's Tomoyuki Sugano, whose ERA sits at an inflated 5.228. Colorado's pitching situation is dire beyond just Sugano's numbers — the Rockies are working through an alarming rotation crunch with Kyle Freeland (15-day IL), Jose Quintana (60-day IL), Sean Sullivan (15-day IL), McCade Brown (60-day IL) and Chase Dollander (60-day IL) all unavailable, while reliever Welinton Herrera and RJ Petit are also on extended absences. Ryan Feltner is listed as active, but the sheer volume of arms Colorado has lost this season has left the staff threadbare.
Baltimore isn't operating at full strength either. The Orioles are without closer Félix Bautista, starter Colin Selby, starter Zach Eflin, third baseman Jordan Westburg, first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, reliever Ryan Helsley and reliever Keegan Akin, all on the 60-day injured list, with outfielder Tyler O'Neill also sidelined. It's a long absentee list, but Baltimore's lineup and bullpen have enough depth remaining to have carried the club to a plus-.500-adjacent record despite it.
Recent form breaks in Baltimore's favor. The Orioles have won four of their last five, capped by an 8-7 win over St. Louis, sandwiched around three straight victories against the Athletics. Colorado has lost four of its last five as well, but the outlier was significant — a 13-1 demolition of Washington that snapped what had otherwise been an ugly stretch that included back-to-back-to-back losses to Atlanta and a 1-7 defeat to the Nationals. That kind of offensive eruption shows Colorado's lineup can still do damage, even if it's been rare.
This season's head-to-head series has been lopsided in Baltimore's favor. The Orioles took two of three meetings earlier this year, including an 18-0 blowout, with Colorado's lone win coming in a 5-6 nail-biter. That history, paired with the current form and starting pitching edge, points toward another difficult afternoon for the Rockies.
On the lineup card, Colorado will be shorthanded at several key positions. Catcher Hunter Goodman, left fielder Mickey Moniak, shortstop Ezequiel Tovar and right fielder Tyler Freeman are all out, forcing the lineup to be built around Willi Castro, Jake McCarthy, Jordan Beck and Connor Norby. McCarthy has been the most productive of that group of late, posting a 26-point game in his last three outings on JockBroker scoring, while Beck and Norby have been streakier. Baltimore is missing Colton Cowser, Blaze Alexander and Samuel Basallo, but its top-of-the-order pieces remain intact. Gunnar Henderson exploded for an 87-point game in his last three outings, and while he's cooled since, that ceiling remains real. Coby Mayo has been the most consistent Oriole bat of late with three straight double-digit-point performances, while Pete Alonso and Carlos Narváez have been quieter after productive stretches earlier in the year. Jackson Holliday has struggled to find rhythm recently.
There are no fantasy point projections available for this matchup, so there's no start or fade call to make here — this is about watching how a depleted Rockies staff holds up against a lineup that has shown flashes of real power, and whether Colorado's bats can produce another outburst like the one that closed out their series with Washington.
Given the pitching matchup, Baltimore's better recent form, and Colorado's rotation being stretched to its breaking point, the Orioles look like the team in control heading into Wednesday. Expect Brandon Young to work efficiently into the middle innings while Sugano struggles to keep the Orioles' lineup off balance. Baltimore looks poised to close out the series with a win.
