WASHINGTON — Entering Thursday, the Nationals’ MacKenzie Gore had been perhaps the most dominant left-handed starting pitcher in baseball this season.

Through five starts, Gore had struck out a whopping 37.8% of opposing batters — the highest rate of any lefty starter in the major leagues. Meanwhile, the Orioles’ Cade Povich entered Thursday’s game at Nationals Park as the fifth-worst southpaw by FanGraphs’ wins above replacement.

With his team in need of a boost and himself a bounce back, Povich delivered a gem, outdueling Gore and willing the Orioles to a nail-biting 2-1 win over the Nationals.

It’s only April, but Thursday’s victory provided a massive sigh of relief for a ballclub that was beginning to let a mediocre start snowball into something potentially worse. Baltimore improved to 10-14 and ended its three-game losing streak with the victory, which prevented what would have been only the fourth Nationals sweep in the history of the Beltway Series.

Povich was in command all night, twirling 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball and striking out five. He walked only one after he issued five free passes and surrendered seven runs in a back-breaking start Friday. The 25-year-old proved Thursday, despite the lows he can at times show, that he’s growing into a big league starting pitcher — one who learns from his mistakes and who can be a stopper when his team is down in the dumps.

After Josh Bell’s RBI single in the second inning gave the Nationals the lead, the Orioles’ offense finally broke through against a lefty starter in the fifth. Baltimore entered Thursday with a .168 batting average and .483 OPS against southpaws — a major reason for the club’s concerning April. The right-handed batters the Orioles acquired to hit lefties (Tyler O’Neill, Ramón Laureano and Gary Sánchez) have yet to do so, and neither have their star players.

Thursday, it was Ryan O’Hearn and Cedric Mullins — a pair of lefty hitters who traditionally struggle versus southpaws — who came through with RBI singles to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead.

Povich kept cruising until he was relieved by Yennier Cano with two outs in the seventh. Gregory Soto, Wednesday’s losing pitcher, pitched a scoreless eighth, and closer Félix Bautista slammed the door in the ninth for his third save of the season — and his second in a one-run situation.

Instant analysis

Why the Orioles have struggled against left-handed pitchers is a multifactorial problem. Creating lineups during a 162-game series is a daily multivariate equation.

But perhaps this part doesn’t need to be that complex.

Amid a sluggish start to the season, the Orioles don’t have much margin for error — or room to mess around. This team is already behind the 8-ball, and aside from days off to keep players healthy and rested, there’s a strong argument to be made that the nine best players should constitute the lineup each day.

Jorge Mateo, whose value off the bench can be game-changing, was in Thursday’s lineup over Ramón Urías, the team’s best hitter versus lefties since 2024, and Jackson Holliday, the club’s left-handed hitting starting second baseman. Before Holliday pinch-hit for him in the eighth inning, Mateo went 0 for 2 — though he had a hard-hit ball robbed by Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams — to lower his season batting average (in a small sample of 19 at-bats) to .053. Over the past two calendar years, Mateo ranks in the bottom 10 of all hitters with at least 500 plate appearances in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, who said Mateo is being a “team guy” adjusting to his bench role, said he started Mateo to “keep him fresh.”

“Jorgie hasn’t played in a while, and I don’t want guys to feel stale on the bench,” Hyde said. “You never know. We have two guys go down, all of a sudden you’re playing every day.”

There’s nothing wrong with planning for the future. But the future won’t matter if this team doesn’t start winning more games now.

On deck

Charlie Morton will be getting another start for the Orioles.

Baltimore listed its rotation for this weekend in Detroit and will remain on turn despite questions about whether the club would move the struggling 41-year-old to the bullpen. He’ll start Saturday. “Well, the options are a little limited right now. Charlie’s got a lot of years in this league. We’re going to give him another start,” Hyde said.

Prospect Brandon Young will make his second MLB start Friday, and Dean Kremer will take the ball Sunday. Due up for the Tigers is a more formidable trio: Casey Mize, Jackson Jobe and Tarik Skubal, the reigning American League Cy Young winner.

Around the horn

— Outfielder Tyler O’Neill didn’t start Thursday because of the same neck soreness that caused him to miss a few games last week. Hyde didn’t detail the severity of the ailment.

— Hyde said the Orioles are “still evaluating” Kyle Gibson regarding where and when his next start will be. Gibson, who signed with the Orioles late in spring training, pitched five innings Sunday for High-A Aberdeen.

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