Here we are at the penultimate Orioles game of the season. It was supposed to go better than this and it did not, so there’s nothing to look forward to now except maybe that the Orioles could play spoiler a tiny bit against the Yankees. We didn’t even get a fun final Trevor Rogers start of the year last night. Perhaps the final Kyle Bradish start will be more fun, but that’s not until tomorrow.
Maybe we can at least settle for “don’t give up a bunch of homers to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.”
Bit of a tough ask for today’s starting pitcher, Tomoyuki Sugano, who has allowed 30 home runs in 29 starts to date. That’s a 1.8 HR/9, a bad rate. Mariners fans might be rooting for Sugano to avoid giving up homers to Judge even more than Orioles fans are, so that Cal Raleigh’s season achievements for the MVP race stand out even more. He’s going to have to help himself out there. I don’t know if he’ll get any help here today.
There is not much left to do except hope that the Orioles are able to do something over this final weekend to give us a bit of a good feeling heading into the offseason. Beating the Yankees in the final two games would be the easiest way to do that, and this would feel even better if the Yankees go on to lose in the wild card round after failing to get the division title and bye.
Good individual performances would be a decent consolation prize: Dylan Beavers, Samuel Basallo, or Coby Mayo getting some big hits, particularly. Mayo is on the cusp of getting his OBP over .300 for the season. That would mark a nice turnaround after some early scuffles.
Orioles lineup
- Jackson Holliday – 2B
- Jordan Westburg – 3B
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Tyler O’Neill – DH
- Dylan Beavers – LF
- Jeremiah Jackson – RF
- Colton Cowser – CF
- Samuel Basallo – C
- Coby Mayo – 1B
Beavers is back in the lineup the next day after exiting a game early due to fouling a ball off of his shin. X-rays were negative. Hopefully that means he’s actually feeling better and not just being rushed back into this game.
Tomoyuki Sugano will make his final start of the season for the Orioles in this one. He’s been fine. I hope he can have a nice outing to take with him into the offseason and perhaps back to Japan if nobody wants to sign him over here for 2026.
Yankees lineup
- Trent Grisham – CF
- Ben Rice – C
- Aaron Judge – RF
- Cody Bellinger – LF
- Giancarlo Stanton – DH
- Jazz Chisholm Jr. – 2B
- Paul Goldschmidt – 1B
- Ryan McMahon – 3B
- Anthony Volpe – SS
Rookie Cam Schlittler makes the start for the Yankees as New York tries to beat the Orioles and then hope to get an edge on the Blue Jays if they lose to the Rays. Not as much chance for simultaneous scoreboard watching on this Saturday afternoon compared to last night, since the Rays-Jays game doesn’t start until 3. All teams will play at the same time tomorrow.
