A nor’easter may end up having the last word on the Orioles’ season, which is not exactly how anyone draws it up. Major League Baseball tried to dodge the storm by moving the start time to 1:05 p.m., but after Friday’s doubleheader, there’s still a real chance the club heads home early.
That wouldn’t be new territory for this franchise. The Orioles have had more than a few seasons shortened by weather or labor issues, including 2008, when Tropical Storm Hanna wiped out a Sept. 6 game and left them with 161 games and a 68-93 record.
The 1990 season also stopped at 161 games after a rainout at Memorial Stadium, and the famously miserable 1988 campaign ended the same way. The strike years brought their own unfinished business, too: 60 games in 2020, 112 in 1994, 144 in 1995 and a split 1981 season in which the Orioles went 59-46.
If today does get played, Shane Baz is lined up to start and would make his team-leading 32nd appearance. He already leads the club with 31 starts, one more than Trevor Rogers, who missed time on the injured list with a bad case of the flu.
Baz also entered the day tied with Tanner Bibee and Brady Singer for the major league lead in losses, and a defeat would leave him with 16. That number doesn’t tell the whole story, though.
He’s thrown 179 2/3 innings with a 4.11 ERA, and the Orioles clearly see the value in the ceiling that helped justify his $68 million extension.
Kyle Bradish also finished with 14 losses after landing on the injured list with a sports hernia that might require surgery. The latest update had him seeking opinions and weighing his options. According to STATS, two Orioles pitchers haven’t finished a season with the top two loss totals in the majors, even if tied with others.
The standings tell a more ordinary story. Baltimore goes into the day one game ahead of the Blue Jays for fourth place in the division, with the tiebreaker in hand. The Orioles are 39-42 at home and 40-40 on the road, and their minus-21 run differential is at least a step forward from the minus-111 they put up in 2025.
Gunnar Henderson missed Game 2 of Friday’s doubleheader and said afterward that he’s dealt with right wrist soreness for about half the season. He stressed that it wasn’t an excuse and said he won’t need surgery.
Earlier, in a January WBAL Radio interview, he also said he had a left shoulder impingement for about three-quarters of the season. Even with all that, he still posted a .226/.311/.404 line this season, hit 17 home runs and managed only six after the break.
The Orioles are not the same team without him, and they haven’t really contended without him in the lineup.
Baltimore’s bigger problem, though, was the whole season. The club has dropped back-to-back years and still hasn’t won a playoff game since sweeping the 2014 Division Series.
There’s still a chance the day belongs to Pete Alonso, if the game happens. He’d finish with a .267/.363/.522 line, 24 doubles, 43 home runs, 113 RBIs, 81 walks and a 5.0 bWAR in 700 plate appearances, falling nine short of last year’s career high with the Mets.
His power run has been ridiculous: five homers in his last five games, eight in 10 and 10 in 16. Since Aug. 9, he’s hit 20 homers with 42 RBIs in 44 games.
Even in Game 2, when he didn’t leave the yard, he still reached base with a single, two walks and two runs scored.
There’s no comfortable way to pitch to Alonso, not unless the plan is to roll the ball to the plate or aim at his ribs. He could also become the fourth Oriole to lead the American League in home runs and RBIs, joining Frank Robinson in 1966, Eddie Murray in the strike-shortened 1981 season and Chris Davis in 2013. His 43 homers are tied with Rafael Palmeiro for eighth on the franchise’s single-season list, with Anthony Santander’s 44 from 2024 sitting one spot ahead.
A final game would also give fans one more chance to watch Alonso’s late surge and wait on where he lands in Most Valuable Player voting. The Athletic’s Keith Law did not include him in his top 10.
On the mound for the Yankees, rookie right-hander Elmer Rodríguez is listed as the starter. It would be his seventh appearance, and he’s allowed 16 runs and walked 16 batters in 26 2/3 innings.
His last major league game came on Aug. 31.
Baltimore’s outfield situation has been a little less settled. A more standard setup would have featured left-handed-hitting Dylan Beavers and Colton Cowser and switch-hitting Leody Taveras, but Christian Franklin was in left field for Game 1 and went 2-for-5 with his first major league RBI. He stayed there in Game 2 and went 2-for-5 again, which at least makes the evaluation part easy.
Rece Hinds, on the other hand, had a rougher night in right field. He went 0-for-5 with five strikeouts, was charged with an error and missed a fly ball near the line. He’s now 5-for-28 with 13 strikeouts and has played below-average defense, though the sample is still small.
Beavers remains in a different spot. He isn’t trying to win a roster job so much as a more regular role instead of platooning.
He hit his first career grand slam in Game 1 and added another homer in the nightcap, but he’s still just 14-for-64 with no homers against left-handers. Last season, after his August call-up, he went 3-for-20 with one homer against them.
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