A cold Wednesday at Camden Yards felt like the end of the line for a long, ugly Orioles season. Instead, Baltimore stayed alive - barely - by sweeping a split doubleheader from the Blue Jays and keeping its faint playoff hopes hanging on pending later White Sox results.
The Orioles needed almost everything to break right. They had to win both games, then hope the White Sox would lose to the Royals later in the evening. They got the first part done, at least, with a pair of 4-2 victories that pushed Baltimore to 78-81 overall and 39-42 at home.
Pete Alonso set the tone for the day. He hit the decisive blow in the opener, a two-run homer that helped the Orioles survive despite Toronto piling up doubles. Alonso later spoke to the MASN broadcast after coming onto the field to salute the fans.
“We’ve got three games left,” Alonso told the MASN broadcast after coming to the field to salute the fans, “and we’re going to make the best of it that we can.”
The second game belonged to rookie Trey Gibson, who delivered the kind of outing that can change how a season looks from the player’s side, even if the team’s bigger picture is still hanging by a thread. Gibson worked 6 2/3 innings, allowed three hits, struck out seven and walked two while throwing 65 strikes on 92 pitches. For a pitcher who struggled badly in his earlier MLB look, it was a sharp turnaround.
“He was nasty,” Alonso said of Gibson. “He was moving the ball anywhere he wanted to.”
Craig Albernaz was just as impressed.
"I love the currer usage he was getting," Albernaz said, "and it allowed him to open up and get some swings and misses ... Big opportunity for him to show what he can do."
Baltimore’s nightcap starter wasn’t the only arm to make a statement. Felix Bautista came on for the ninth and, despite allowing a two-run homer, finished an inning for the first time since July 20, 2025. It was his second appearance since coming off the Injured List, a notable step after the long road back from Tommy John surgery and major shoulder surgery.
“To win two games in the same day is tough to do,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “So I’m proud of our effort.”
The Orioles’ bullpen kept doing what it has done for much of the season, backing up both wins. In the first game, Chris Bassitt gave Baltimore five innings while working through a steady stream of doubles without surrendering a run. The offense did enough around him, and Alonso’s homer proved to be the difference.
The Blue Jays also made things messy in the seventh inning of the nightcap. A final grounder was initially ruled an out on the grass, but video review changed the call and Jeremiah Jackson was charged with an error. Yennier Cano then worked into trouble, issuing walks and loading the bases before striking out Nathan Lukes to escape the inning.
There were other bright spots in the lineup as well. Christian Encarnacion-Strand drove in three runs, including a home run in the fourth, giving him 39 RBIs in just 190 at bats. Coby Mayo added his 18th double and is still in position for a season with 25 homers and 20 doubles.
The Orioles were initially pushed around by Max Scherzer, but they chipped away. Jeremiah Jackson drove in a run with a single, then stayed in a rundown long enough for another run to score and close out the second inning. Alonso’s two-run blast to left in the first game, a 412-foot shot, brought home Dylan Beavers and gave Baltimore the edge it needed.
Alonso’s 41st homer keeps him in the mix to lead the American League in home runs in his first season in Baltimore.
Whether any of it still matters will depend on what happened elsewhere and what comes next. The Orioles finished the games by around 9 p.m., then turned their attention to the final stretch in New York, with the season’s larger verdict still unsettled.
In Other News...
Orioles Still Have Tough 40-Man Calls On Several Young Players
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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
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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 🡒]