The Baltimore bats came to life in the California sun, as the O’s used rallies in the 5th and 6th innings to outshine the Angels in a 7-3 win.

The Orioles fell behind 2-1 early, but used some small ball to retake the lead in the 5th. Emmanuel Rivera led off the inning by smashing the ball to third base, with the ball ricocheting off Yoán Moncada’s glove, allowing Rivera to reach on an E5. Cedric Mullins then broke out of a 0-20 slump with a double to right center, pushing Rivera to third and giving the O’s two runners in scoring position.

Hitting with RISP has this offense’s biggest Achilles’ heel in 2025, but the Orioles were able to find the clutch hits they needed Sunday. Maverick Handley tied the game at two on a sac fly to left that allowed Rivera to race home. After Mullins stole third, Gunnar Henderson struck out looking and Tyler O’Neill was intentionally walked, putting the fate of the rally in Ryan Mountcastle’s hands. RMC came through, lining a Tyler Anderson fastball into right field to plate Mullins and serve a 3-2 Orioles’ lead.

With Anderson at 94 pitches after five innings, the Angels took out their two-time All-Star and the O’s went to town on the AL’s worst bullpen. Ramón Laureano scored the first run of the inning in an unconventional fashion, as he reached on a lead-off walk, stole second base, advanced to third on a pick-off attempt that skipped into center and scored on a Connor Brogdon wild pitch.

The O’s then turned to some more small ball to expand their lead. Rivera worked a one-out walk before Mullins grounded a ball back up the middle to again move the O’s’ 3B to third. Handley once again took on the role of sacrificial lamb, laying down a perfect squeeze bunt as Rivera broke toward the plate for the Orioles’ fifth run. Even though Handley went 0-2 on the day, the two sacrifices gave him the first two RBIs of his career.

Henderson clearly doesn’t like small ball all that much, as he capped off the 6th with a towering, two-run homer to right center. The Orioles’ star SS muscled a high fly ball out toward the right-center gap, and what looked like a potential fly out just kept flying until it flew over the outfield fence.

All of these runs came in support of Zach Eflin, who put forth a typically Eflin outing in his return from the IL. The 31-year-old veteran’s return got off to a rough start thanks to some suspect defense in the bottom of the 1st. After getting two quick outs, Angels’ No.3 Jorge Soler singled into right field on a curveball left up.

LA’s cleanup hitter, Taylor Ward, then lined a ball toward the right field corner on a sinker in the middle of the plate. Had RF Tyler O’Neill taken a better route to the ball, he could’ve limited Ward to a single, but instead it rattled into the corner and allowed Soler to score from first. A bad relay throw from Handley allowed Ward to advance to third, and the Angels’ LF then scored on a single from Logan O’Hoppe. After giving Eflin an early 1-0 lead, he left his first inning down 2-1.

From there, it was all zeros for the Orioles ace, with his luck bouncing back in the bottom of the 3rd. After going down in order in the 2nd, the Angels looked to pad their lead in the 3rd thanks to a one-out double from Yoan Moncada. Eflin walked Soler to put runners at first and second and bring Ward back up. The outfielder lined a single to right, and O’Neill fired a ball in to keep Moncada from going home. Soler didn’t see the stop sign, though, and got caught in a rundown between second and third for the second out. Instead of bases loaded, one out, Eflin had runners at first and third with two outs before getting O’Hoppe to ground out to end the frame.

Eflin worked a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th and worked around a leadoff walk to blank the Halos in the 5th. At 83 pitches after five innings, Brandon Hyde decided not to push his ace, turning to Seranthony Domínguez in the 6th. The 10-year vet finished with a line of 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB and 5 Ks. Eflin extended his streak of allowing three runs or less to 14 starts, including 13/13 starts with Baltimore.

The bullpen provided scoreless innings from Domínguez in the 6th, Bryan Baker in the 7th and Yenier Cano in the 8th before turning it over to Félix Bautista in the 9th. Working in a non-save situation, Bautista got the first two outs quickly before surrendering a pinch-hit, solo HR to Angels rookie Matthew Lugo. The Mountain would then end the game on a strikeout of Kyren Paris to seal a series win for Baltimore.

Sunday was another up-and-down game in the luck department for All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman. The Baltimore backstop was generously credited with an RBI triple in the top of the 1st after Ward lost a towering fly ball in the Anaheim sunshine. While luck was on his side in the 1st, he’d lineout in the 5th on a ball hit 104mph and come up just short of a home run with a 101 EV fly ball to center in the 7th.

Rutschman finally got his second hit on his only non-hard-hit ball, dribbling a ground ball single into left field in the top of the 9th. The fact that Rutschman came into the game hitting .195 was a cause of great concern around baseball. The solid contact he made Sunday might be enough to kickstart a hot streak for the struggling 27-year-old.

The win gives the Orioles their third series win of the season, while Sunday was only the sixth time all season the O’s scored 7+ runs in a game. After an off day on Monday, they’ll return to Camden Yards for a rematch with the Twins as Baltimore will look to snap Minnesota’s eight-game winning streak.