Good morning, Camden Chatters.
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. The finish line is in sight. Just one more week and we’ll be done with this godforsaken season of Orioles baseball. Only six games remain on the schedule.
You’d be justified in thinking that some Orioles players are already thinking ahead to their offseason plans. The team looked pretty darn listless for large stretches of the weekend series against the Yankees, dropping three of four games to clinch a losing season. Sunday’s
finale featured a particularly woeful performance by the O’s offense — which went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, stranding 10 — and a bullpen that imploded in a six-run top of the tenth. John Beers recapped the latest Orioles debacle.
Six games left. Just six games left. We can get through this together, and then, hoo boy, is there going to be a lot to unpack from this catastrophe of a campaign.
While there may not be any meaningful baseball happening in Baltimore, this is going to be an exciting week elsewhere around MLB as postseason battles have reached a fever pitch. Only one American League team, the Blue Jays, has officially clinched a playoff spot. The Yankees will likely soon follow suit, and still have an outside chance at surpassing Toronto for the AL East crown, thanks to the Orioles’ futility this weekend.
Everything else in the AL is a mad scramble. The Red Sox have the inside line on a wild card spot, but they’ll need to hold off the Guardians and Astros, both of whom are also in tightly contested division races. Cleveland has nearly pulled off the greatest division comeback in major league history, whittling a once 15.5-game Detroit lead down to a single game in the AL Central, and the Guardians would have tied the collapsing Tigers for first place yesterday if not for a late bullpen stumble that ended their 10-game winning streak. Those two teams will face each other in Cleveland this week for a pivotal three-game series that could well decide the division race.
In the AL West, the Mariners all but clinched the division with a massive three-game sweep of the Astros, forcing Houston to cling for its life as the final wild card team, just behind the Red Sox and just ahead of the Guardians. All sorts of scenarios are in play for this final week. The Astros could miss the postseason for the first time since 2016. Or whichever of the Tigers and Guardians doesn’t win the AL Central could be left out of the playoffs entirely. There’s even a possibility that all three of those clubs make it and the Red Sox get left out in the cold, if their season-ending series against Detroit goes poorly.
In the NL, all eyes are on the final wild card spot, where the Mets — who in mid-June were 45-24, the best record in baseball — have continued their months-long freefall to drop into a tie with the Reds, with Arizona just one game behind. I’ve been rooting for the Mets to make the playoffs for Cedric Mullins’s sake, but they’ve been playing awful baseball for so long that it feels like they won’t deserve it even if they squeak in.
Needless to say, it’s a frantic final week of baseball, and there are plenty of teams that will be worth watching. It’s just too bad the Orioles aren’t one of them.
Links
Kyle Bradish is so back, y’all. Now let’s cover him in bubble wrap until 2026.
Orioles to create new social patio, 2 club level bars at Camden Yards – The Baltimore Banner
The Orioles will be adding some more standing-room options next year, which seems like a good idea to me. Right now it feels like there aren’t a lot of good places to stop and watch the game when you’re on the concourse.
From ‘up in the mountains’ in Puerto Rico hails Luis Vázquez — and his biggest fan – MLB.com
I’ve seen a couple of sweet stories about Luis Vázquez this season. For a guy who doesn’t play much, he sure has made a lot of fans.
Does Orioles’ ownership truly want to build a winner for 2026 and beyond? – BaltimoreBaseball.com
Do they want to? I think so. Do they know how to? That’s a very different question.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Sept. 22 is a popular day for Orioles birthdays, with seven former O’s players born on this date. They include infielder Luis García (50) and P.J. Forbes (58); catchers César Devarez (56) and John Stefero (66); and right-handers Luis Ortiz (30), Chris Ellis (33), and the late Bob Harrison (b. 1930, d. 2023).
On this date in 1961, in an 8-6 win in Chicago, Orioles first baseman Jim Gentile hit his fifth grand slam of the season, tying Ernie Banks’ MLB record (which has since been topped by Don Mattingly in 1987 and Travis Hafner in 2006, with six each). Weirdly, all five of Gentile’s grand slams that year came when Chuck Estrada was pitching for the Orioles. I guess Estrada was Gentile’s good luck charm (good Chuck charm?).
In 1966, the Orioles clinched their first AL pennant since the franchise moved to Baltimore, defeating the Kansas City Athletics, 6-1. Hall of Famer Jim Palmer led the way with a complete game gem, holding the A’s to one run and striking out eight, while fellow Hall of Famers Frank and Brooks Robinson combined for three doubles and four RBIs. In the days before multiple rounds of playoffs, that victory punched the Orioles’ ticket to the World Series, which went quite well indeed.
And on this day in 1973, the O’s again clinched a playoff spot, this time the AL East division title, with a 7-1 win in Milwaukee. Starter Doyle Alexander pulled a Palmer and pitched a one-run complete game, first baseman Tommy Davis went 4-for-5, and Al Bumbry tied a major league record by hitting three triples in one game. It’s actually happened 49 times, which is a lot more than I expected.
