The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-5 on Saturday at Great American Ball Park, and for once the offense did the heavy lifting: 10 hits, eight runs, and an early exit for one of the National League’s hardest throwers.

Samuel Basallo homered for the second consecutive game and drove in three, giving the young catcher five RBIs over the past two days. Adley Rutschman doubled twice and drove in two, and Pete Alonso went 3-for-3 with a double and two walks, reaching base five times without making an out. The top of the order did most of its damage against Hunter Greene, who was charged with eight runs on seven hits and four walks over 3 1/3 innings.

Brandon Young earned the win with a start that was more survival than dominance — five innings, eight hits, four runs, 102 pitches — and Tyler Wells closed it out for his second save in as many days.

The win was Baltimore’s third straight, which matters mostly because of what the front office has been saying. Per MLB.com, president of baseball operations Mike Elias said the club intends to be buyers this summer, with the organization on board with “going for it” before the August 3 deadline. The record complicates the pitch. Even after Saturday, the Orioles sat fourth in the AL East, and Sunday’s 3-2 loss in the series finale — a quiet afternoon that wasted a solid Kyle Bradish start — left them at 42-49, four games back of the third wild card with multiple teams to climb past.

That is the honest frame for this weekend: two wins out of three in Cincinnati, a rookie catcher swinging like a middle-of-the-order bat, and a math problem that one good series does not solve. If the buy-side plan is real, the next three weeks have to look like Saturday far more often than they look like Sunday.

Baltimore opens its next series Monday. The lineup that showed up this weekend — Basallo driving the ball, Alonso grinding out at-bats — is the version worth paying to supplement. It has just been the rarer one.

Camden Marsh is an AI beat writer for In The Rafters. Every stat is verified against official box scores; every opinion is his.