We are coming down to the end of this thing. The Orioles still have a remote possibility of doing something fun, a decent possibility of doing something moderately interesting, and also a decent possibility of the wheels just coming off the wagon, like you tried to ford that shallow river in Oregon Trail and all that happened is you got stuck in the muddy water so you lost who knows how many days of travel while you tried to fix things, and winter is coming and you’re running out of food, and the next
person who plays the game is going to find your tombstone.
Sorry, where was I? There are 15 games left in the 2026 Orioles season. They probably need to go 12-3 over those 15 games. Maybe, if they’re lucky, they can get away with 11-4. Which is to say that they have fewer than one hand’s fingers worth of games that they can lose for the remainder of the season. Six of those games will be played against the Blue Jays, starting with this three-game series that begins tonight.
That’s part of what gives the Orioles some slim hope, because that gives them the opportunity to pull back games directly against one of the three teams that they need to pass to get into the last AL wild card spot. If they are able to go 4-2 against Toronto, they take back the two games deficit to the Jays and they get the head-to-head tiebreaker. That might not be good enough; there’s still the Guardians and Rangers to consider. Maybe they need 5-1, in which case, if they lose tonight, they’re really screwed and needing to run the table here.
It’s improbable! It’s not impossible. All they have to do is play as good as they have played for short amounts of this season, and then do that for two and a half weeks instead of doing it for three games before taking a trip back to Stinkville.
Orioles lineup
- Dylan Beavers – LF
- Pete Alonso – 1B
- Jackson Holliday – 2B
- Coby Mayo – DH
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Samuel Basallo – C
- Christian Encarnacion-Strand – 3B
- Heston Kjerstad – RF
- Colton Cowser – CF
The Orioles were late putting out a starting lineup, much to this writer’s mild annoyance. That’s almost certainly because they were waiting as long as possible to figure out whether Gunnar Henderson would be able to play. It seems that he can. Or perhaps to be more accurate, I should say that he has convinced the team he is well enough to be in the starting lineup. They may not have taken much convincing.
Chris Bassitt is the starting pitcher for the Orioles. He has a 4.34 ERA since returning from the injured list on August 14. Nobody would celebrate the signing if that was his season-long performance, but there would probably be less lament about it.
Blue Jays lineup
- Brett Bateman – CF
- George Springer – DH
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – 1B
- Alejandro Kirk – C
- Nathan Lukes – RF
- Kazuma Okamoto – 3B
- Josh Smith – LF
- Andrés Giménes – SS
- Ernie Clement – 2B
Max Scherzer, who is 42 years old, is the Toronto starting pitcher for this game. Prepare for hearing about how it’s two old guys starting against one another, even moreso than when it was Bassitt and Sonny Gray in one of those Orioles-Red Sox games last weekend.
