From now until the end of the year, Camden Chat writers will be revisiting some of the biggest moments and storylines of the disappointing 2025 Orioles season.
The Orioles and Dodgers had very different seasons. One team stumbled all over itself to begin the year, fired their manager, dealt with a ridiculous number of injuries, and wound up at the bottom of their division. The other team won the World Series for a second consecutive season.
But one of the beautiful things about baseball is that you
never truly know which team is going to win on a given day, even if a pitching matchup or talent disparity is clearly pointing in one direction. It’s a large-sample game that requires the completion of 162 small samples to make up a season. Some goofy things can happen.
In that context, it makes perfect sense that after the Dodgers visited Camden Yards in September of this season, they left town as losers of two out of three. The circumstances by which they were handed those two losses, however, was far more interesting.
The series opener was a low-scoring affair despite both starting pitchers leaving the game early. Shohei Ohtani tossed just 3.2 innings as he built himself back up from arm injuries, and Dean Kremer exited after three shutout frames due to forearm discomfort. So it was left to the bullpens, and both units held up well. Through the eighth inning, each team had scored once; the Orioles on a wild pitch and the Dodgers on a Freddie Freeman solo homer. But the Orioles would snag the 2-1 victory with a walk-off homer from rookie Samuel Basallo in the bottom of the ninth off of Dodgers closer (and former Oriole) Tanner Scott.
There was definitely some Orioles Magic in that win. Basallo was still fresh off of his MLB debut and contract extension. The homer was his first home run at Camden Yards, and it stood out as a bright spot in a season that was, in general, incredibly disappointing for the Orioles. You would have liked to see the Orioles lineup beat up on a bad Dodgers bullpen a bit, but it’s not like anyone was surprised that they couldn’t manage it at that point in the year.
Game 2 of the series was the inverse of the opener. The two starters came into the night in great form. For Baltimore, Trevor Rogers had become one of the best arms in the sport out of nowhere. For Los Angeles, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was perhaps the only dependable and healthy member of a flawed pitching staff.
Rogers delivered yet another good outing, although not as dominant as he had been for much of the year. The lefty gave up two whole runs for the first time in more than 45 days, a testament to just how good he had been up to that point. Those two runs scored across 5.2 innings that saw him serve up eight hits and one walk while striking out six.
Meanwhile, the Orioles were doing nothing against Yamamoto, almost literally. Dylan Beavers and Basallo led off the third inning with back-to-back walks, although one was snuffed out by a double play. Apart from that, no other Orioles reached base. The 27-year-old righty was ripping through the Orioles lineup, giving the pitching performance of the year.
With Rogers out of the game, the Dodgers were able to add an insurance run in the seventh. Ben Rortvedt led off the frame with a single against Albert Suárez. A wild pitch moved him up to third, and then a Mookie Betts triple past a diving Beavers in right field made it 3-0.
It seemed like the Dodgers would cruise to a win. Yamamoto was still dealing. He worked a perfect seventh inning, followed by another in the eighth. In fact, he got all the way to the final out of the game without allowing a hit. All that was left to do was retire Jackson Holliday, who came to plate with an 0-for-3 line next to his name. Easy enough, right? Think again.
Holliday took a 2-1 inside cutter from Yamamoto, and laced it to deep right field. Andy Pages gave chase and then stopped, perhaps hoping for a favorable bounce off the wall. But it never came. Holliday’s fly ball had cleared the outfield fence by just a few feet, a home run in only a third of big league parks, but a home run all the same. The no hitter was gone. The shutout was gone.
Without hesitation, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts went out to the mound and got Yamamoto out of the game. He had thrown 112 pitches, and the Dodgers had higher aspirations than their ace throwing a now-mundane complete game against the Orioles in early September. And hey, maybe the bullpen could handle getting one out.
Blake Treinen was called on for the save attempt. It was not a good night for him. He gave up a double to Jeremiah Jackson, hit Gunnar Henderson in the foot, uncorked a wild pitch, walked Ryan Mountcastle to load the bases, and then walked Colton Cowser to push in a run and make it a 3-2 game.
Roberts had given Treinen plenty of rope. He had to make a change. But it’s not like the Dodgers bullpen had a ton of good options. The skipper turned towards Scott, who had just given up the walk-off the prior night.
The hard-throwing lefty would suffer the same fate in this one. In a 1-1 count, Emmanuel Rivera chased a fastball below the zone and golfed it into center field. Henderson scored easily from third to tie the game. Then Jorge Mateo (pinch running for Mountcastle) zoomed from second, around third, and headed for home. Justin Dean collected the ball in center field and fired towards the plate, but the throw was well off line. Mateo scored without issue, and the Orioles were walk-off winners for a second consecutive night against a team that, on paper, was far superior.
The win came on a special night in Baltimore, the 30th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played. Familiar faces from around baseball were in attendance. But for so much of the game, the focus shifted to the Dodgers and Yamamoto. At a certain point it felt inevitable that the second no-hitter in Camden Yards history was coming.
But Holliday changed the narrative with a single swing. And the Orioles, despite such a disappointing season and sporting a lineup with several of their stars missing, showed fight. The dugout got noticeable excited as they worked at-bats against Treinen. And the final at-bat of the night was between a fringy, up-and-down infielder in Rivera against a highly-paid all-star reliever in Scott. On paper, that matchup should only go one way, but the momentum and gravity of baseball in real time made it feel like a Rivera walk-off was coming no matter what. And that’s exactly what happened.
This game did not feature the Orioles at their absolute best. Rogers had much better starts. The lineup was overwhelmed by Yamamoto. The defense had a few miscues that weren’t discussed much here. But that ninth inning was everything that makes sports worth watching. The drama. The effort. The elation. It was incredible and worth suffering through 26 brutal outs ahead of it.
