Good morning, Camden Chatters.
Look, it sucks that the Orioles aren’t in the playoffs. Their 2026 season was an abject failure. They were bad and they should feel bad. There’s no way to overcome that disappointment.
But in the absence of the Orioles, watching the Yankees fail miserably in the postseason provides at least some small measure of happiness for O’s fans. And the Yanks’ failure last night was nearly one for the record books. They almost became the victims of the fourth no-hitter in postseason history,
as the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen came within four outs of a no-no in a simply dominant performance against a punchless Yanks lineup.
Even more deliciously embarrassing, when the Yankees finally did get their first hit — on an Austin Wells liner just inside the right-field foul line — he foolishly tried to get to stretch it into a triple and was thrown out by about the length of a football field, short-circuiting a potential rally. Never make the third out at third base! That’s Little League stuff. The Rays ended up with a 1-0 victory to secure the first game of the ALDS.
It was a pretty competitive night all around in the opener of every Division Series, as all four games were decided by three or fewer runs. The White Sox stormed into Cleveland and blanked the Guardians by a 3-0 score, while the Dodgers were annoyingly efficient in dispatching the Braves, 5-3. The Brewers and Padres ended the night with a 3-2 thriller that was decided when a would-be go-ahead ninth-inning homer by Ty France deflected off the roof of American Family Field and into the glove of left fielder Jackson Chourio, one of the unluckiest events you’ll ever see in a professional baseball game.
Today, only the National League is in action as the AL teams get a weird non-travel day off after just one game. The Padres and Brewers have the early game at 4:00, preceding the Braves and Dodgers at 8 ET. That means there won’t be any further embarrassment for the Yankees today. But there’s always tomorrow.
Links
Orioles legend Jim Palmer says manager Craig Albernaz ignored his advice – The Baltimore Sun
Just when you thought Albernaz’s managerial tenure couldn’t get any more infuriating, apparently he gave the cold shoulder to the best pitcher in franchise history. This guy is seriously the worst.
Details On The Yankees/Orioles Deadline Talks About Adley Rutschman – MLB Trade Rumors
If you thought trading Adley to the Red Sox was painful, consider how close the O’s came to trading him to the Yankees instead. Just think: Austin Wells could have been making terrible baserunning blunders for the Orioles instead of the Yanks.
Can a team have too many third baseman? – Steve Melewski
Notwithstanding the typo in the headline, it’s a valid point — the O’s seem overstocked at the hot corner with Jordan Westburg set to return and Coby Mayo, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, and Blaze Alexander all worthy of regular at-bats. I guess you’d call that one of those good problems to have.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Five former Orioles were born on this day: right-hander Alec Asher (35), outfielder Drew Stubbs (42), utility man Mark McLemore (62), right-hander Dave C. Johnson (78), and the late outfielder Don Lenhardt (b. 1922, d. 2014), a St. Louis Brown who came over with the franchise to Baltimore in 1954.
The Orioles have played seven postseason games on this date in history. They won the first four and lost the last three. The losses were Game 3 of the Division Series in both 1996 and 1997, and the Wild Card Game in Toronto in 2016. We need not say any more about those. As for the wins:
In 1969, in the first-ever AL Championship Series game after the league split into two divisions, the O’s beat the Twins, 4-3, in a 12-inning thriller at Memorial Stadium. Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth, the Birds tied the score on Boog Powell’s leadoff homer against Twins starter Jim Perry. It was the Orioles’ third solo homer off Perry after Frank Robinson and the light-hitting Mark Belanger did so earlier in the game. In the 12th, the Orioles walked it off on Paul Blair’s bunt single that scored Belanger from third.
A year later, the O’s again beat the Twins in the ALCS, this time in Minnesota, with an 11-3 rout in Game 2. The Orioles held a meager one-run lead until the top of the ninth, when they erupted for seven runs, their second straight game with a seven-run inning. For the second straight game, every Orioles starter except Paul Blair had at least one hit. Frank Robinson and Davey Johnson each crushed a two-run homer, backing a complete game by Dave McNally.
On this date in 1971, the Orioles won Game 2 of the ALCS against the Athletics, 5-1. Mike Cuellar pitched a complete-game, one-run masterpiece to outduel Hall of Fame A’s righty Catfish Hunter. All five Orioles runs against Hunter came on homers: a pair of blasts from Boog Powell and solo shots by Brooks Robinson and Elrod Hendricks.
And on this day in 1979, the O’s outlasted the Angels in Game 2 of the ALCS, 9-8. The O’s seemed on their way to an easy victory by storming out to a 9-1 lead after three, but the Angels kept chipping away at the lead in the late innings, eventually putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position in the ninth before Don Stanhouse induced a bases-loaded groundout to end the game. Had ‘em all the way. Eddie Murray homered for the Orioles and leadoff man Al Bumbry reached base four times.
