The Orioles did their part and then had to sit with the rest of the afternoon, waiting on someone else to finish the job.
Baltimore beat the Blue Jays 4-2 to finish off the doubleheader sweep before an announced crowd of 19,824 at Camden Yards, bringing the final home attendance to 1,829,252. Their elimination number stayed at one, but the White Sox were still working in Kansas City, so the celebration came with a pause attached.
Trey Gibson gave the Orioles exactly what they needed. He worked 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowed three hits and struck out seven, a sharp turnaround from his June 30 outing against the White Sox, when he gave up eight runs, walked six and lasted just 2 2/3 innings.
His ERA had been 7.36. On this night, he retired 10 straight and never let the Blue Jays settle in.
Baltimore gave him breathing room immediately. In the first inning, Coby Mayo doubled to left at 110.9 mph, and both runners came around on Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s nine-pitch double. Colton Cowser then floated a fly ball into left field to make it 3-0.
Encarnacion-Strand added more later, launching his 11th homer on a first-pitch cutter and pulling it over the left field wall. The Orioles weren’t about to let CJ Van Eyk get comfortable.
The right-hander, a second-round pick in 2020 out of Florida State, was making his first major league start after throwing 6 2/3 relief innings this season and his fifth big league appearance overall. He struck out two of the first three Orioles he faced, hit Pete Alonso in between, and had already thrown 33 pitches after Jeremiah Jackson grounded out.
Gibson kept stacking zeros while the rest of the night turned into scoreboard watching. MLB Pipeline lists him as the organization’s No. 17 prospect, and he showed why, touching 98.2 mph in the second inning and later getting Charles McAdoo on a 97.3 mph strikeout after a walk. In the third, Myles Straw opened with an infield hit, Ernie Clement rolled into a double play, Nathan Lukes reached on a hard one-hopper Gunnar Henderson couldn’t backhand, and Josh Smith flied out.
The seventh brought another tense sequence. Alejandro Kirk singled to start the inning, and the Orioles turned another double play.
Sean Keys then grounded out but was awarded first base on a shift violation error on Jackson, whose heels were on the outfield grass. The play went to review while both teams waited in the dugout.
Gibson returned, walked Davis Schneider, and then exited to a standing ovation. Yennier Cano loaded the bases with a walk and struck out Straw to escape trouble.
Josh Walker kept a runner stranded in the eighth. Félix Bautista then made his second appearance and gave up Davis Schneider’s two-run homer with one out in the ninth, a 351-footer down the left field line.
By the time the game was over, the Orioles were headed to New York with a 78-81 record and a chance to finish at .500. They moved into fourth place in the American League East.
The season had been aimed much higher than that, with a return to the playoffs the real target. That may still have to wait.
For now, Baltimore is hanging on and refusing to go away quietly.
In Other News...
Orioles Still Have Tough 40-Man Calls On Several Young Players
The Orioles took care of six roster decisions on Nov. 19, adding Flix Bautista and Kyle Bradish to the 40-man as part of the usual offseason protection process, even with the 2021 Rule 5 draft canceled. But the bigger work is still ahead. Baltimore is sorting through the rest of its 40-man picture with an eye on the wave of young talent moving through the system, and the next set of choices could say as much about the organizations priorities as anything it has done so far this winter.
Enrique Bradfield Jr., Aron Estrada, Michael Forret, Creed Willems and Nestor German are among the names in the mix, and each brings a different kind of case. Recent performance matters, but so do ceilings, injuries and the bumps that have shaped their seasons. For a club that has built so much of its identity around stocking the pipeline, these are the kinds of decisions that can feel routine on the surface and revealing underneath. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Suddenly Have A Jackson Holliday Problem This Offseason
The Orioles offseason health picture took another hit as Jackson Holliday is set to undergo wrist surgery later this week or early next week, a development that adds another layer of uncertainty around one of the organizations most important young players. The expected recovery window is about 10 weeks, which at least gives Baltimore a clearer sense of the timeline, even if it leaves the club waiting longer than it would have liked for a full offseason reset.
Holliday was already central to whatever the Orioles hope to build moving forward, and his situation now sits alongside a few other notable injury updates. Samuel Basallo has been placed on the 7-day concussion injured list, while Tyler ONeill received a PRP injection in his shoulder as the team looks toward getting him ready for next spring. For Baltimore, it is a reminder that even in the quiet months, the roster picture can shift quickly before the new season even begins. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Front Office Move Wont Silence The Bigger Mike Elias Debate
The Orioles have added Ty Holub back into the organization, hiring him as a senior analyst in the scouting department after his time with the Mariners and a previous stint in Baltimore as a Baseball Operations Assistant. Holubs background gives the front office another voice with a track record in both scouting and player evaluation, and it fits a franchise that has spent years trying to sharpen every layer of its talent pipeline.
Still, moves like this tend to raise the larger question around Mike Elias rather than quiet it. Baltimore has steadily tried to build out its staff and improve the process behind player acquisition, and Holubs return is another piece of that effort, but the broader debate over whether the Orioles have enough impact in the front office to match their on-field ambitions is not going away anytime soon. [Read more 🡒]