Good morning, Camden Chatters.
This is not a drill. As we wake up this morning, your Baltimore Orioles are currently in playoff position.
In a turn of events that would’ve been nearly impossible to believe just three days ago, the O’s have claimed a half-game lead for the third and final AL wild card spot. Yesterday, every single one of the other wild card contenders was defeated. The Rangers, who had been in possession of the third spot, lost to the Athletics. The Blue Jays lost. The Tigers lost. The Guardians
lost. The Twins lost, blowing a 5-0 lead, as Dean Kremer melted down in the sixth after throwing five scoreless innings. Every one of these sub-.500 teams did their usual thing, as the staggering mediocrity of the American League has never been more apparent.
Of course, all of their competitors losing wouldn’t have made much difference if the Orioles hadn’t handled their own business. But boy, did they ever. The O’s bagged their third straight win over the Rays, and this one was an absolute beatdown, 10-2. Check out Mark Brown’s recap to soak in every glorious detail.
It was the latest incredible result in a series that has blown away the expectations of even the most optimistic Orioles fans. A mere three days ago, the O’s stumbled into Tampa Bay as a team on the brink of irrelevance. They’d just squandered a pair of opportunities to make some noise in the playoff race, losing series to two of their direct wild card opponents, the Rangers and Twins. And they were about to face a scalding hot Rays team that had the best record in the American League, the best home record in baseball, and was riding a nine-game winning streak. This could have been the series that finished off the Orioles’ 2026 playoff hopes for good.
Instead, the O’s have delivered their most impressive series performance of the season. They gutted out back-to-back, hard-fought, one-run victories in the first two games, stealing the momentum away from the Rays with quality pitching performances and a few key hits. And yesterday, the Orioles played a dominant brand of baseball that was almost unrecognizable from what we’ve seen from this team for most of the year. Their offense erupted for double-digit runs for just the eighth time in 124 games. Most impressively, for a team that has so often struggled to get timely hits, they came through in the clutch over and over again. I can’t stop being amazed by their seven-run, sixth-inning rally in which eight consecutive batters reached base after there were two outs and nobody on. A guy could get used to this.
The Orioles’ 10-game gauntlet that started last Friday, featuring two series against the Rays and one against the Yankees, is off to a sensational start. I was expecting the Orioles to go something like 3-7 during that stretch. (And technically that’s still possible, but don’t harsh my buzz, okay?) They’ve collectively stepped up their game against the toughest competition in the league, and they’re firing on all cylinders at the right time.
Not all days are going to go as perfectly as yesterday’s from here on out. It’s not often you can count on the exact combination of an Orioles win and losses for every single one of their competitors. With six teams all within 1.5 games of that third wild card spot, there’s going to be quite a bit more jostling for position before all is said and done. The only thing the Orioles can do is to keep playing good baseball and control what they can control.
The Birds have one game remaining at Tropicana Field tonight, with Tampa Bay ace Shane McClanahan coming off the IL to start the finale against the Orioles’ Brandon Young. The Rays of all teams certainly aren’t going to suffer a four-game sweep without a fight. But right now, the Orioles are playing like the kind of club that might just be able to pull it off.
Links
Among the heroics by O’s hitters yesterday were Jackson Holliday’s left-on-left RBI single and Colton Cowser’s left-on-left two-run homer. Are the Orioles actually…good against lefties now?
Basallo (shoulder) begins rehab assignment with 3-RBI showing – MLB.com
The Orioles’ lineup is showing signs of life, and they’ll be getting a massive upgrade real soon. No offense, Carlos Narváez, but you, well, provide no offense.
Will Orioles continue to trade their stars? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
Probably yes, sorry. That doesn’t mean we can’t have some good times along the way.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! And happy 85th birthday to Orioles Hall of Famer and eponymous barbecue master Boog Powell. The left-handed slugger bashed 303 homers in his 14-year Baltimore career, third-most in franchise history, and is one of just four Orioles to tally more than 1,000 RBIs. Powell was named the AL MVP in 1970 after hitting .297/.412/.549 with 35 homers and 114 RBIs, and was an integral part of the Birds’ World Series championships in 1966 and 1970. Enjoy your day, Boog!
Other former Orioles with Aug. 17 birthdays include left-hander Chris Waters (46) and the late righties John Buzhardt (b. 1936, d. 2008) and Vern Bickford (b. 1920, d. 1960). Bickford, a former Brooklyn Dodgers All-Star, pitched a single game for the inaugural 1954 Orioles.
On this date in 1989, Cal Ripken Jr. played his 1,208th consecutive game, passing Steve Garvey for the third longest streak in major league history. Spoiler: he ended up getting a lot further than that.
In 1999, O’s lefty Jesse Orosco broke Dennis Eckersley’s MLB record by pitching in his 1,072nd career game, retiring the one Twins batter he faced. Orosco, who ultimately pitched until he was 46 years old, finished his career with 1,252 appearances, still the most in major league history.
And in 2009, the Orioles traded Aubrey Huff to the Tigers, a prime example of addition by subtraction. Even better, the prospect they got for him, Brett Jacobson, was one of two players the O’s later traded for eventual Orioles Hall of Famer J.J. Hardy.
Random Orioles game of the day
On Aug. 17, 1958, the Orioles eked out a 2-1 win over the Washington Senators at Memorial Stadium. O’s right-hander Connie Johnson, a former Negro Leagues star, went the distance with a three-hit, one-run complete game, the 54th (and final) of his career. Johnson also helped his own cause by hitting a sacrifice fly, and Gene Woodling drove in the other O’s run with a first-inning RBI single.
