Good morning, Camden Chatters.
The Orioles’ dreams of the 2026 postseason, such as they were, are officially dead. Last night, the White Sox won in Kansas City to clinch a playoff spot and mathematically eliminate the Birds from wild card contention. It’s over.
Of course, it’s actually been over for quite some time, even if the math didn’t agree until yesterday. It’s been painfully obvious for weeks — perhaps months — that these 2026 Orioles just didn’t have what it takes to be a playoff team. Even
in a historically mediocre American League, the O’s didn’t do enough to clear the very low bar needed to sneak into the dance. (If only they played in the AL West, where it’s quite possible that a sub-.500 team will win the division.)
So there it is. Six months ago, the Orioles began their season with promise, armed with the newly signed Pete Alonso, expecting to surge back into contention after their dismal 2025 campaign. Instead, they will end it in exactly the same way — by watching the postseason from their couches. Alonso did his part, but the rest of the team collapsed around him.
There’s no shortage of reasons that the O’s fell so short of expectations. They played sloppy defense. They were bad at fundamentals. They got injured all the time. Their rookie manager was in over his head. And most alarmingly, almost every homegrown Orioles hitter either failed to improve or dramatically regressed.
At its core, something seems fundamentally broken about how this organization develops talent, and that should be more than enough cause to fire Mike Elias and bring in a new general manager to reassess and revamp this organization. But Elias’s recent statement that he expects to remain with the Orioles — and retain the overwhelmed Craig Albernaz too — makes me skeptical that anything will improve in the near future. The team has been out of whack since mid-2024, and sticking with the same voice atop the organization — if that is indeed what ownership intends to do — seems like foolishness of the highest order.
For now, there’s nothing left for the Orioles to do but play out the string with a season-ending three-game series at Yankee Stadium. In case you missed it, the O’s and Yanks will be playing a doubleheader today, with the first game starting at 4:05 and the second one no earlier than 7:05. There will be no game on Saturday due to the severe storms that are expected to pound the East Coast. Sunday’s game is also in jeopardy because of the weather, and it could be scrapped entirely. These games mean nothing for the now-eliminated O’s, nor for the Yankees, who have already sewn up the first wild card spot and will be resting players to prepare for the Wild Card Series on Tuesday.
This weekend is the last time we’ll watch the 2026 Orioles play baseball. And that’s probably for the best.
Links
The Orioles beat themselves too many times. These were the most maddening examples. – The Baltimore Banner
Is it bad that I can think of like 10 other games that didn’t even make the cut for this list? There sure were a lot of miserable ones this season.
Will Orioles re-sign Trevor Rogers? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
Do it, Orioles. Rogers has earned it, and whatever contract he commands will be pocket change for David Rubenstein.
Orioles Select Albert Suarez – MLB Trade Rumors
The Orioles couldn’t finish the season without one last appearance by Big Al, now in his sixth stint with the team this year. He’s a trooper.
Gunnar Henderson is determined to regain his past form & very confident he can get there – Steve Melewski
Well, if Gunnar says he can do it, then that’s all it takes, right? (Don’t answer that.)
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Four ex-Orioles were born on this day: infielder Vimael Machín (33) and right-handers Tyler Wilson (37), Vance Worley (39), and Brad Bergesen (41).
On this date in 1983, the Orioles clinched the AL East title with a 5-1 win in Milwaukee. The victory improved the Orioles’ record to 96-59, putting them 7.5 games ahead of the second-place Tigers with seven games to play. The O’s stormed out to a big lead on a Jim Dwyer three-run homer in the third and a Joe Nolan two-run shot in the fourth, and Storm Davis (six innings, one unearned run) and Tippy Martinez (three-inning save) took it from there to punch the Birds’ ticket to October.
And on this day in 2014, the Orioles gift-wrapped Derek Jeter a storybook ending to his Yankee Stadium career, letting him hit a walkoff single in his final home game. The O’s, who had already clinched a playoff spot, erased a three-run deficit in the top of the ninth on homers by Adam Jones and Steve Pearce, but manager Buck Showalter brought in forgettable reliever Evan Meek and his 5.78 ERA to pitch the bottom of the ninth, where he promptly put a runner in scoring position and then coughed up an opposite-field single to Jeter to end the game in front of the euphoric Yankee Stadium crowd.
Random Orioles game of the day
On Sept. 25, 1987, the Orioles lost their seventh consecutive game, an 8-4 defeat to the Yankees at Memorial Stadium. This game was all but over in the second inning, when the Yanks erupted for six runs, including back-to-back homers by Don Mattingly (a grand slam) and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield. Orioles rookie starter José Mesa was tagged for six runs in 1.2 innings in his fourth major league game. Things eventually got much better for Mesa, who pitched in the majors for 20 more years and collected 321 career saves.
