Good morning, Camden Chatters.
The Orioles just had something called — and I hope I’m spelling this correctly — an “off day.” Apparently it’s a thing where a team gets to not play baseball for a whole day? I had forgotten that such a concept even existed, considering that the Orioles just traveled from St. Louis to Sacramento to Denver to Baltimore and played 16 consecutive games without a single day to catch their breath during that stretch.
Now that they’ve gotten that respite, they’re feeling refreshed
and ready to come out and most likely disappoint us again. The Orioles’ latest travels take them north of the border to Toronto for a three-game series that carries enormous wild card implications. The Blue Jays begin the series just one game back of the Guardians for the third wild card. The O’s are three games behind. While the Orioles and Jays duke it out, the Guards will be in Minnesota for the weekend.
There’s a scenario where the Jays sweep the series and take over the wild card lead, or a scenario where the Orioles and Jays trade blows but neither makes up ground on Cleveland. There’s even the extremely unlikely scenario in which the O’s sweep the series, the Guardians get swept by the Twins, and the Birds end up tied for a playoff spot by Sunday night. The fact that the five-games-under-.500 Orioles are still within shouting distance of a postseason berth is a striking indictment of the American League’s mediocrity. That third wild card spot is ripe for the taking and every team stubbornly refuses to grab it.
So why not the Orioles? Other than, you know, all of their problems. Their tragic number — the combination of O’s losses and Guardians wins that would eliminate them from the playoffs — is 12. It’s going to be a tall task for the Birds to avoid reaching that number, but until they do, let’s have some fun. Scoring runs like they did in Wednesday’s finale would go a long way to helping the Orioles stay afloat.
At the very least, even if the Orioles can’t catch the Guardians, they can do their part to make sure the Blue Jays don’t make the playoffs. The Birds still have six games remaining against Toronto — three on the road this weekend, and three at home later this month — so they have every opportunity to ruin the Jays’ postseason hopes with a couple of series wins. It’s not nothing.
We’re in the home stretch, with 15 games remaining on the schedule. Can the Orioles deliver a performance that inspires hope for the future, or will they limp to the finish line of a challenging 2026 season? Let’s find out.
Links
Orioles front office executive Matt Blood no longer with club, sources say – The Baltimore Banner
You might say the Orioles are experiencing… (puts on sunglasses) … some Blood loss.
No, but seriously, could this signal the start of a front office shakeup? I wouldn’t hate that.
The seemingly small transaction that has led to some big results for the Orioles – Steve Melewski
I’m as sour on Mike Elias as anybody. But darned if the guy doesn’t find some diamonds in the rough sometimes, with Christian Encarnacion-Strand a prime example.
Have Oriole fans suffered more than other fan bases? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
I don’t view suffering as a competition. Let’s just agree that basically every sports fan everywhere is miserable.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Six former Orioles were born on this day, five of whom have played within the past seven years, including Weston Wilson (32), who appeared in 19 games for the Birds earlier this season before joining the Mariners. Others include infielder right-handers Evan Phillips (32), Shawn Armstrong (36), and Andrew Cashner (40); infielder Domingo Leyba (31); and the late Eddie Miksis (b. 1926, d. 2005), who plated four games with the Orioles from 1957-58.
On this date in 1959, Orioles right-hander Jerry Walker pitched a 16-inning shutout. Yes, you read that right — one pitcher, 16 innings, no runs. He allowed just six hits and three walks in his masterful performance against the White Sox, and the Orioles won 1-0 when rookie Brooks Robinson hit a walkoff single in the 16th. That was the second game of a doubleheader; the Orioles also won the first game, 3-0, behind a Jack Fisher shutout. But he only pitched nine innings, the slacker.
In 1974, the Orioles won a 17-inning game against the Yankees on Boog Powell’s walkoff single. Orioles starter Ross Grimsley worked 14 innings and gave up two runs on 12 hits. So apparently this is the date in history for O’s starting pitchers to have ridiculously long outings. Chris Bassitt, I’m expecting at least a 13-inning performance from you tonight. The game lasted four hours and 12 minutes, and then the teams still had to play the nightcap of a doubleheader, which began at 10:16 PM in Baltimore and ended around 12:30.
In 2015, the Orioles hit two grand slams in the eighth inning en route to a 14-8 thumping of the Royals at Camden Yards. Trailing 6-4 to start the eighth, the O’s put three runners aboard for Nolan Reimold, who cleared them all with a go-ahead slam to left field. After a Manny Machado solo homer and Steve Pearce RBI double extended the lead, the Orioles loaded the bases again for Steve Clevenger, who crushed their second salami of the frame.
And in 2019, the Orioles’ Jonathan Villar hit the 6,106th home run of the MLB season, setting a new all-time record. Villar’s blast was a go-ahead three-run shot in the seventh to defeat the Dodgers, 7-3. And while Villar may have hit the momentous dinger, the Orioles’ pitching staff was a bigger contributor to the record by giving up 305 dingers that season, the most ever.
