Hello, friends.
How ‘bout dem O’s? Another win in a walkoff last night gives them a 7-1 record so far in September. What’s more, they’ve had four walkoffs in their last four wins. That is a feat that has never been accomplished in the history of the Orioles franchise. Hard to believe they had no walkoff wins at all for most of the season. The Orioles pulled off the win over the Pirates last night in the game that Paul Skenes started! It was frustrating for a while and ended up being fun. Check out Tyler
Young’s recap of the game for more of the lovely totals.
Last night’s victory gets the Orioles up to 68-77 on the season. They’ve played their way back to the point where the season narrative that they were only sunk by a poor April through mid-May is plausible again. That idea of the season was on thin ice after a late August swoon. It’s back. The Orioles are 53-49 since Tony Mansolino took over, and 52-43 since the low point in the middle of that doubleheader in Boston on May 24. If they had played at that first pace all season, they’d now be within two games of a wild card spot, with only two teams left to pass. That would be a tough sell, but possible.
The big story for next season remains whether the Orioles can bounce back from this. Will they be able to coax out improvement from incumbent players who haven’t met hopes or expectations this year? Will they be able to fortify the roster with signings or trades to make better things happen? There are 17 games left, plus a month of the postseason that will have nothing to do with current Orioles, before we start to find out.
One more incumbent player will nudge his way back into our awareness before the season ends. The Orioles indicated yesterday that outfielder Tyler O’Neill will be joining up with the team in Toronto. O’Neill, who’s been limited by injuries to just 43 games so far this season, is a guy we’re stuck with. Mike Elias’s bet that he’d play well enough to opt out after one year didn’t pay off, so O’Neill will be getting paid another $33 million over the next two years. That being the case, I hope he can be a good player for more than just Opening Day next year.
There’s still today’s game to get through against the Pirates. The Orioles have a chance to get a sweep. That would be a fun outcome given how often it feels like this team has disappointed against underwhelming Central division competition in either league. (0-6 against the Twins, who are now several games below the Orioles in the win column? Sheesh.) It’s a 1:05 start today. Don’t show up at 6:35 all ready for the game to start. Johan Oviedo and Cade Povich are the scheduled starting pitchers.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
Jackson Holliday is surging after a conversation with Kyle Schwarber (The Baltimore Banner)
One more story that indirectly asks the question, what in the heck are the Orioles hitting coaches doing? Because it sure seems like it’s not them involved in any player’s improvement.
After a disappointing 2025, these four MLB teams might be ready for success in 2026 (The Athletic)
Ken Rosenthal is willing to be an early believer in a 2026 Orioles bounce-back. We all have no choice but to hope this bears out. And that Mike Elias does what he can to help it happen.
Kyle Bradish is dominant again. Mike Elias must build on it. (The Baltimore Sun)
Driving home the previous point: Elias has gotta do things to improve this situation. Not all of that is spending money on free agents, though that’s sure gotta be one part of it.
Five aspirational veterans the Orioles could acquire this offseason if they have the courage (The Dishwasher)
Cases for the Orioles to go some degree of big on a number of coming free agents, including Kyle Schwarber, who seems to be a figure of particular interest to the folks I follow on social media. In reality, we’ll be lucky to end up with Harrison Bader, and maybe not even all that lucky to end up with him.
Trevor Rogers changed everything in one year (The Bandwagon)
A subscription to this Substack is required to see the full article but it’s about Rogers’s transformation from last year to this year.
The time John Eisenberg asked a really dumb question to Mike Mussina (Baltimore Baseball)
With Tomoyuki Sugano’s recent kick of a comebacker, the longtime Baltimore scribe recalls an embarrassing incident from much earlier in his career.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
The Orioles last won a game on this day two years ago. The 2023 team beat the Cardinals, 11-5, its 91st win of the season. A Cedric Mullins grand slam provided the biggest blow for the O’s offense. Of the ten batters and five pitchers who appeared in the game, four remain in the organization: Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Ryan Mountcastle, and Dean Kremer.
There are several former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 2021 infielder Domingo Leyba, 2018-20 pitcher Evan Phillips, 2019-21 pitcher Shawn Armstrong, 2018-19 pitcher Andrew Cashner, and 1957-58 infielder Eddie Miksis.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: writer D.H. Lawrence (1885), college football coaching legend Bear Bryant (1913), writer/director Tony Gilroy (1956), and rapper Ludacris (1977).
On this day in history…
In 9, three Roman legions were shattered by an alliance of Germanic tribes in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. This defeat marked the end of a period of Roman expansion, and more or less set the Rhine river as the northern border of the empire for some time.
In 1297, outnumbered Scots led by William Wallace held off invading English in the Battle of Stirling Bridge. The battle was depicted in the movie Braveheart, although they didn’t film on a bridge.
In 1786, five states sent delegates to Annapolis for a convention regarding defects in the then-operative Articles of Confederation. Maryland, despite having the convention take place in its capital, did not have any delegates present. This meeting led to calls for a broader convention that, the following year, eventually produced the Constitution.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland today. Have a safe Thursday. Go O’s!
