The Orioles (50-53) return to Camden Yards tonight to open a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves (59-42), one of the best teams in the National League and the current leaders of the NL East. First pitch is 7:05 PM ET.
Baltimore is coming off a doubleheader split in Boston on Wednesday — losing Game 1 6-3 before Kyle Bradish shut down the Red Sox in Game 2 for a 5-1 win that ended Boston's franchise-record-tying 15-game winning streak. The Orioles go into tonight three games under .500, still alive in the wild-card race but without much margin for error. We project they need to win about 60% of their games through the end of the regular season to have a good chance to making the postseason.
Trevor Rogers takes the mound tonight for Baltimore. The left-hander has turned a difficult first half around since June 1 — he's posted a 2.05 ERA over his last five starts, a sharp reversal from the 11.03 ERA he put up between April 14 and May 24.
That rough stretch had a significant underlying cause: Rogers dealt with a serious flu illness during that window that lingered into May and visibly affected his movement and his ability to go deep into games. Once he was fully healthy, the results came back quickly. His season line of 6-7, 4.28 ERA doesn't capture how well he's been pitching lately, and it doesn't capture how much of the damage was done while he was sick.
This is a contract year for Rogers, which makes every start meaningful, and the Orioles need him close to the version he was for most of 2025, when he led the American League with a 1.81 ERA over 18 starts and won the Most Valuable Oriole Award.
Atlanta sends out Grant Holmes (3.70 ERA, 18 starts), a right-hander who finally made his MLB debut in 2024 after ten seasons in the minors following his first-round selection by the Dodgers in 2014. In his second MLB season, Holmes struck out a career-high 15 batters in a single outing against Colorado, becoming just the fourth pitcher in Braves franchise history to reach that mark. He's been a reliable mid-rotation arm for Atlanta this season, though his 4.33 ERA in ESPN's tracker suggests some variance around the 3.70 headline number.
The Braves at 59-42 are a significant step up in competition from the Red Sox series. Atlanta leads the NL East and is built for October — this is a mid-July interleague game with no playoff implications for either team's respective races, but it matters for Baltimore's sense of where they stand and for Rogers specifically. Pitching well against a lineup of this caliber would go a long way toward rebuilding confidence after the season he's had.
Also worth noting: Kyle Bradish's extension press conference is scheduled for today at Camden Yards. The five-year, $90 million deal signed last Saturday gets its formal celebration — a bright spot in what has otherwise been a grind of a July. Rogers deserves a similar deal. Maybe tonight's game will go toward making that happen.
Probable Starters
Atlanta Braves: Grant Holmes (3.70 ERA, 18 GS)
Baltimore Orioles: Trevor Rogers (6-7, 4.28 ERA)
Where to Watch/Listen
First pitch: 7:05 PM ET at Oriole Park at Camden Yards
TV: MASN
Radio: 98 Rock (97.9 FM) and WBAL NewsRadio (AM 1090 / FM 101.5)