No victory, however satisfying, can redeem the disappointment from over a week of losing, and no one wearing the home white at Camden Yards on Memorial Day was under that illusion.
Yet in beating the visiting New York Yankees, 3-2, in a typically tense game for these Orioles this year, it was a welcome return to what worked for them so well earlier in the year and abandoned them fully over the just-ended seven-game skid.
Their early lead was enough. Their starting pitcher, Dylan Bundy, gave them seven strong innings. And at the end of two lockdown innings of relief from their top pair of remaining relievers, their fans drowned out those of the visitors, standing and shouting through the game's final at-bat for a win that felt a lot more like what they'd expected this year.