Good morning, Camden Chatters.
It’s going to be a long while until the Orioles play baseball again. That’s probably a good thing. But in the meantime, the MLB postseason kicked off yesterday with a four-pack of Wild Card Series, and there were plenty of tense, hard-fought battles that represented October baseball at its finest. (Even though it, uh, technically wasn’t October.)
I don’t have any particular rooting interests in any of these series — other than hoping the Yankees and Red Sox can somehow
both lose, despite playing against each other — but as an impartial observer, these were some fascinating baseball games. The Yankees/Sox game was probably the most thrilling, if you could put aside your disdain for both teams. It was an instant-classic pitcher’s duel between each team’s shiny new 2025 ace, Max Fried and Garrett Crochet, and both more than lived up to their billing, with Fried working 6.1 scoreless innings and Crochet unfurling a dominant, 11-strikeout performance. Remember how the Yankees and Red Sox got those two guys last offseason and the Orioles signed Charlie Morton? I’m shocked — shocked, I tell you — that the Orioles didn’t make the playoffs.
The Red Sox stole that game by erasing a 1-0 seventh-inning deficit with three unanswered runs against the Yankees’ bullpen, then held on for dear life in the bottom of the ninth to escape a bases-loaded, no-out jam. I take great delight in the Yankees’ misfortune but will try to ignore the fact that it came at the hands of the Red Sox.
Elsewhere, two other division rivals, the Tigers and Guardians, tangled for another nail-biting affair, a 2-1 Detroit win on the back of ace Tarik Skubal, the soon-to-be two-time AL Cy Young winner. Skubal racked up 14 strikeouts and the Tigers squeeze-bunted home the go-ahead run in the seventh. But before you go proclaiming, “This is why the Orioles should bunt more!”, also note that the Guardians thwarted their own scoring opportunity in the fourth when Brayan Rocchio bunted back to Skubal with two outs and a runner at third, handing him a free pass out of the inning.
In the NL, the San Diego Padres and their contingent of ex-Orioles came up short against the Cubs in a 3-1 loss. The two former O’s in the lineup, Manny Machado and Ryan O’Hearn, went a combined 0-for-6. Bummer. The only blowout among the four games last night was the one you’d expect, as the superstar-laden Dodgers demolished a mediocre, 83-79 Cincinnati team that backed into the playoffs on the season’s final day. Even the Reds seem surprised that they made the postseason, and at this rate, they won’t be there much longer.
Today is another wall-to-wall day of baseball as all four series head to Game 2 of the best-of-three, a potential clincher for every team that won yesterday. I’ll be watching, and wishing the Orioles had been part of the fun.
Links
Meoli expects that Elias’s plan to “adapt and evolve” will lead to tweaks in how they operate, but not any massive, wholesale organizational changes. That doesn’t exactly thrill me, but we’ll see what happens.
More Mansolino a day after Orioles press conference – School of Roch
Both Kubatko and Schmuck are in favor of hiring Tony Mansolino as the permanent Orioles manager. I repeat: that doesn’t exactly thrill me, but we’ll see what happens.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! And happy 31st birthday to Cedric Mullins, the longtime fan-favorite Orioles center fielder who was traded this year as part of the Birds’ deadline purge. I was looking forward to cheering on Mullins in the postseason, but then the Mets had to go and suffer a historic collapse to miss the playoffs entirely. (It must be said that Mullins’ performance didn’t help matters.) I’m not sure what lies ahead in free agency for Mullins after his disappointing 2025 season, but best of luck of him wherever he lands. And happy birthday, Cedric.
It’s also the 29th birthday of David Bañuelos, who appeared in exactly one game for the Orioles in both 2024 and 2025. Nice work if you can get it. Former Orioles born on Oct. 1 include right-hander Mitch Atkins (40), lefty Chuck McElroy (58), and the late first baseman Bob Boyd (b. 1919, d. 2004).
The Orioles have played three postseason games on this date, including just last year, when they dropped Game 1 of the Wild Card Series to the Royals in a maddening 1-0 loss. Despite ace Corbin Burnes pitching the kind of postseason masterpiece that legends are made of, with eight dominant innings of one-run ball, the Birds’ offense went completely silent with a woeful five-hit performance. O’s fans could only hope that Burnes would get to make another start as an Oriole, and that the hitters would eventually get their act together. (Narrator: He didn’t, and they didn’t.)
But in happier memories, the O’s won playoff games on this date in 1996 and 1997. In ‘96, the O’s routed Cleveland in Game 1 of the Division Series, 10-4, in front of 47,644 at Camden Yards. Brady Anderson, who mashed 50 homers during the regular season, appropriately homered in his first postseason at-bat with a leadoff blast against Charles Nagy. B.J. Surhoff swatted two dingers, and Bobby Bonilla iced the game with a sixth-inning grand slam.
And in 1997, the O’s kicked off the Division Series with a comfortable 9-3 win in Seattle. The O’s stunned Hall of fame lefty Randy Johnson for five runs and 11 baserunners in five innings, including a Gerónimo Berroa home run, while fellow Hall of Famer Mike Mussina outdueled him with seven superb innings for the Birds. Johnson fell to 3-8 in his career against the Orioles.
