The final day of Orioles baseball at Camden Yards carried two moods at once: the usual goodbye to a season, and a nagging question hanging over the sport itself. With MLB facing the possibility of a lockout when the current labor deal expires Dec. 1, even a routine season finale came with a little extra weight.
That was easy to feel in the stands. Mike and Monique Thomas made the drive from Kent Island for the split doubleheader on Wednesday, and the sparse crowd in the first game gave them plenty of room in Section 354. Monique had taken a half-day off work, and the couple settled in for the kind of day they didn’t want to miss.
When “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” came on during the seventh-inning stretch, they got up and joined in like they always do. It was the last home date of the year, and they were determined to enjoy it.
“A lockout,” Monique sniffed. “We’ve been through those.”
That unease was part of the backdrop around a labor situation that already looks tense. Players and owners are heading toward an impasse, and the last collective bargaining proposal from the owners reportedly includes a salary cap, among other items the players union doesn’t like. Since summer, the sides have been described as far apart, with many around the game wondering whether that gap can really be closed by December.
Still, not everyone was bracing for the worst. The Thomases had already renewed their season tickets for what they believe is their 19th - or maybe 20th - season following the Orioles. They expect to be back in April, and they expect baseball to be there with them.
“I think they’ll come up with a resolution,” Monique said. “No one wants to disappoint the fans.”
Pete Alonso sounded just as confident. On the same day he would finish with his 41st home run of the year, the Most Valuable Oriole said he expects the Orioles to be better next season and believes the league will play through the labor issue, too. He pointed back to 2022, when the lockout compressed spring training but didn’t cost the season any games.
“Hopefully, everyone’s kind of like freaking out, and then all of a sudden, everyone gets a notification on their phone. And it will be like, ‘All right, 24 hours later, we’ll be heading back in March.”
Alonso described the lockout talk as a “negotiation tactic” by the league and owners. He also said the last work stoppage dragged on until the very end before the sides found common ground.
“Based on my experience prior, I think it’ll get taken down to the wire, and then the wire will get extended,” Alonso said. “Then there will be some gray area, and then it’ll be like, ‘Oh, all right, we’re back.”
By the time the second game of the doubleheader got going, the mood around the ballpark had shifted from uncertainty to celebration. More fans had filtered in under the string lights on Eutaw Street, bundled in jackets and sweatshirts as the evening turned chilly. The Orioles jumped ahead 3-0 in the first inning, Christian-Encarnacion Strand homered in the fourth, and Félix Bautista handled the late innings to close it out.
“The crowd tonight was awesome,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “The fans, we heard ’em. They were in it the whole time.”
When it was over, the Orioles came out of the dugout with Alonso at the front and tipped their caps to the fans who stayed until the end. The sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays gave the farewell a little extra shine.
For one night, the disappointment that has followed the club through much of 2026 was set aside. What remained was a cleaner, warmer image: players and fans together at the end of the line, savoring the last home game of the year while nobody could say with certainty when the next one would come.
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Orioles Doubleheader Featured A Baseball First Few Fans Ever Expected
A quirky bit of baseball history unfolded at Camden Yards during the Blue Jays-Orioles doubleheader, when identical twins Austin and Tyler Jones became the first twins to work the same umpiring crew in a Major League Baseball game. The siblings have shared crews before in the minors, but this was their first time doing it on the sports biggest stage, a rare pairing that gave an ordinary April doubleheader a little extra texture.
Their families were there to see it, which made the moment feel even more personal in a setting usually defined by routine calls and fast pacing. For the Jones brothers, it was clearly more than a scheduling oddity, and for everyone in the park, it was the kind of baseball-first detail that tends to stick with you long after the final out. [Read more 🡒]
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Just Gave Orioles Fans More To Say About Toronto
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Guerrero did express regret about how this year unfolded, but he stood by the original remark and framed the whole situation as part of the pressure that comes with a major deal. He also said he is continuing to work hard to get better for next season, leaving the Blue Jays star with one more layer of scrutiny as Baltimore keeps tracking every turn in the division race. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Kept Their Faint Hopes Alive But One Thing Still Looms
The Orioles kept their season from slipping any further on Saturday with a 4-2 win over the Blue Jays, finishing off a doubleheader sweep at Camden Yards in front of an announced crowd of 19,824. Trey Gibson gave Baltimore exactly the kind of lift it needed, working 6 2/3 scoreless innings while allowing three hits and striking out seven, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand did his part with a home run and a double.
Baltimores victory pushed it to 78-81 and into fourth place in the American League East, a small step forward in a year that has been defined by trying to salvage something late. The sweep offered a brief reminder that there is still some life left in the club, even as one bigger question continues to hang over what comes next. [Read more 🡒]