Good morning, Camden Chatters.
AL East teams are continuing to have a bad time in the 2025 postseason. Three of them made the playoffs and, one by one, they’ve fallen by the wayside. The Red Sox exited
in the Wild Card Series at the hands of the Yankees, who in turn were eliminated by the Blue Jays. Now it’s the Jays who are on the ropes after suffering a 10-3 loss to the Mariners yesterday, falling behind two games to none as the best-of-seven series heads to Seattle.
The series isn’t over yet, by any means. The Jays have a talented team and are more than capable of rattling off some wins on the road. But all the momentum is on the Mariners’ side right now, and T-Mobile Park is sure to be rocking as the M’s look to advance to the World Series for the first time in their 49-year franchise history.
If the Jays ultimately do get eliminated, Orioles fans could enjoy a certain schadenfreude about the failure of all of their divisional rivals. Not that it would do anything to erase the failure of the Orioles themselves, of course. But we’ll take what we can get. Meanwhile, over in Milwaukee, the NLCS kicked off with a tightly contested 2-1 Dodgers win over the Brewers, led by Blake Snell’s brilliant eight shutout innings. Come on, Brewers. Get back in this thing. Don’t let the Dodgers get to the World Series yet again. Bo-ring!
In other MLB news, San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt abruptly announced his retirement from the team yesterday, leaving another managerial void to be filled. That’s relevant to the Orioles because the Padres could target some of the same candidates as the Birds, including Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty, who worked on the San Diego staff for five years. Flaherty was a finalist for the Padres’ managerial job two years ago before they hired Shildt.
Of course, we don’t know for certain if any of the Orioles preferred candidates overlap with the Padres or any other teams. We don’t even really know who the Orioles’ preferred candidates are, or if they’ve even begun conducting interviews. The O’s, as is their custom, are keeping the whole process close to their vest. We may well continue to hear nothing until the moment the new manager is hired.
At least at that point we’ll have some Orioles news to discuss. Until then, we’ve got the playoffs to tide us over. Go, Mariners!
Links
Will the Orioles’ Colton Cowser have a better season in 2026? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
He’d better hope so, or he’s cooked.
A fix for the O’s offense might start with the core group already on the roster – Steve Melewski
As Melewski notes, most of the Orioles’ key homegrown hitters underperformed in 2025. Getting those guys back on track could make all the difference in 2026, if only the O’s can figure out exactly what went wrong with them.
3 O’s prospects who could make their MLB debuts in ’26 – MLB.com
After years of ballyhooed debuts like Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Grayson Rodriguez, and Jackson Holliday, I’m not sure the Nestor Germans and Trey Gibsons of the world will spark quite the same excitement. But if they turn out to be productive big leaguers, I can forgive the lack of hype.
The Orioles hope Coby Mayo’s late success can turn into consistent production – The Baltimore Banner
Mayo seems like a confident guy and a hard worker. I hope he turns out to be more like the player he was in September and not the one he was for pretty much the rest of 2025.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have four Orioles birthday buddies: outfielders Midre Cummings (54) and Carl Nichols (63), infielder Kiko Garcia (72), and designated hitter Tommy Harper (85).
Oct. 14 has, unfortunately, been a nightmarish date in Orioles history. They have played six postseason games on this date and lost five of them. Brutal. That included three consecutive years of the Orioles losing World Series games: Game 3 to the Mets in 1969, Game 4 to the Reds in 1970, and Game 5 to the Pirates in 1971. The Birds also lost on this date in 1979 (Game 5 of the World Series against the Pirates) and 2014 (Game 3 of the ALCS against the Royals).
The Orioles’ lone win on Oct. 14 in franchise history came in 1983, when they beat the Phillies, 3-2, to take a 2-1 lead in the World Series. The Birds, trailing 2-0 in the sixth, got a run back on “Disco” Dan Ford’s solo homer, tied the game on Benny Ayala’s pinch-hit RBI single, and took the lead on an error by Phillies shortstop Iván de Jesús. Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, making just the second relief appearance of his postseason career, pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win, with Tippy Martinez working a perfect ninth for the save.
