In this day and age, team-operated broadcasters often sugarcoat or couch criticism, if they even have the stones to make it. On Monday night, Orioles legendary pitcher and longtime broadcaster Jim Palmer didn’t hold back during Boston’s 6-5 win over the O’s Monday night.
Fans are thankful.
Baltimore was ahead 5-4 with two outs in the seventh when Taylor Ward fielded a Ceddanne Rafaela groundball in leftfield as the Red Sox quick shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng was already rounding third base.
Ward attempted a throw to home, over the cutoff man, that ended up way offline and hit the backstop, as pitcher Yennier Cano, backing up catcher Sam Huff, couldn’t get to it.
“Terrible baseball,” Palmer said as MASN showed a replay of the play, saying that Ward had no chance to get Cheng out and should have thrown the ball to second base instead to prevent Rafaela from advancing in what was a one-run game at the time.
The throw didn’t directly lead to a run – Cheng would have likely scored anyway if Ward was on target – but it was scored as one of four Orioles errors on the night, as a would-be single turned into a double. Fortunately, Wilyer Abreu flied out to center to end the inning.
Jim Palmer is getting so fed up with the Orioles defense and their lack of fundamentals that he doesn’t even hide it.
— Zach Bollinger (@zachbollinger18) July 21, 2026
Palmer, beloved by Baltimore fans and still super sharp at age 80, doesn’t hesitate to point out when the see other fundamental baseball plays that aren’t practiced. As a Hall of Fame pitcher who won three World Series, and three Cy Young Awards and four Gold Gloves in the 1970s alone, his words rightfully resonate and not in an out-of-touch "get off my lawn" kind of way. As one fan pointed out on X today, to which Palmer responded:
I’m blaming the late hall of fame mgr, Earl Weaver for not tolerating missing cut off men.. also learned it in class A ball playing for Cal Ripken, sr….The Red Sox have Rafaela in cf , Abreu in right with 35 defensive runs saved .. they hit cutoff men too..
— Jim Palmer (@Jim22Palmer) July 21, 2026
Baltimore displayed its share of poor defense in a high-stakes, back-and-forth game that pit one team on a 13-game winning streak (Boston) against another (Baltimore) riding a seven-game streak.
Jeremiah Jackson’s throwing error to first with two outs in the third inning essentially led to at least one Boston run and you could argue two. Rafaela reached first on Jackson’s misplay of a hard grounder up the middle, then scored on an Abreu double to center, which included a Henderson relay throw that tailed even farther offline to home than Ward’s later (frankly, one of the worst we’ve ever seen) and allowed Abreu to advance to third.
Henderson then misjudged and mistimed a liner that ended up ricochetting off his glove. That wasn’t scored an error, but Abreu scored as a second unearned run.
“Extra outs,” Palmer commented then.
In the sixth, there was another one. With the O’s leading 4-3, Shane Baz fielded a dribbler from Abreu near the mound and Baz’s throw toward first almost hit a few folks in the camera well down the first-base line at Fenway Park instead Pete Alonso’s glove.
A Contreras double then scored Abreu from second.
Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said Jackson’s error “hurt the most” because it led to a run and the manager acknowledged Baz’s gaffe and turned to some humor to downplay it. “Shane thought he as 12 years old again, back to his shortstop days and threw it sidearm,” Albernaz said.
But, interestingly, when asked about the errors after the game, Albernaz seemed to dispute or was confused as to when or why Ward should have even been charged an error on the outfield throw that so much disappointed Palmer in the booth.
“It was technically three errors,” Albernaz said. “Ward got an error on the Gunnar throw, too, as well, which is semantics.” But Ward didn’t even field the ball that led to Henderson’s relay error; centerfielder Leody Taveres did.
In any case, you can always argue the scoring at a visiting ballpark, but not the ugliness of the play when it’s obvious on the field.
This isn’t the first time MASN broadcasters’ analysis might have ruffled some feathers in team circles, given the inherent conflicts of interests between in-house broadcasters who don't always sugarcoat, front offices, coaching staff's, and the organization that pays them all.
Earlier in the year, Palmer came to catcher Samuel Basallo’s defense after Albernaz seemingly publicly criticized him for not playing through an injury. "I don’t think this is the time, when you’ve lost four in a row, to teach a lesson," Palmer said.
And fellow analyst Ben MacDonald, another fan favorite, lamented poor play and often-cited excuses from players and coaches about “hard hit balls” in a postgame interview. “All this nonsense is eyewash to me about this analytical stuff,” he said. “You either do or you don’t. And right now, the Orioles don’t.”
MacDonald later backtracked somewhat, telling Ryan Ripken in an interview that he “briefly lost my mind” for a moment. “I’m invested in this team… and I just want to see these guys do good.” But the truth is MacDonald didn’t lose his mind.
He just called it as he saw it, which is what anyone wants from a sports broadcaster, be it him or Jim Palmer. We’ll keep watching and listening.