The Orioles are about to turn the page on Sacramento, and they’re doing it with the kind of deadline-survival math that keeps a season alive without ever letting anyone relax. After today’s finale, they head to Denver, then back home for four against the Red Sox and three against the Guardians. That stretch will finish off the softer part of the schedule, and Baltimore is still hanging around in the Wild Card race - one game back of Cleveland after the Guardians dropped back-to-back home games to the Royals and fell back to .500.
It’s a strange kind of race, the kind built on everyone stumbling at once. If you enjoy that brazen display of parity, fine. If you’d rather watch great teams play great baseball, well, get back to me when you’re able.
What keeps popping up with this Orioles group is the sense that they keep finding a way to dodge the fatal blow. Tyler O’Neill’s diving catch in right field on Aug. 22 helped force extra innings and a win.
Jackson Holliday made a diving stop and throw in St. Louis to protect an 8-7 lead in the ninth.
Dylan Beavers added his first outfield assist at home plate Friday night to keep the game tied in the eighth, and Baltimore won 4-3 in 10. A month ago, there was the comeback from a 7-0 hole after six innings in Detroit with Tarik Skubal on the mound.
It keeps happening: just when the Orioles look ready to sink, they come up with something that changes the game. Maybe it all ends up as footnotes in a losing season.
Maybe it means more. Time will tell.
There’s also the question of whether the Orioles came out ahead in the deadline deal with Seattle. It’s too early for any final verdict, but the return is already starting to show some life.
Taylor Ward was the big piece on the Orioles’ side in the swap, and he can become a free agent after the season. Baltimore sent Grayson Rodriguez to the Angels in a separate rental deal and got three pitchers from the Mariners’ system in the Ward trade: Brock Moore, Harrison Kreiling and Alex Hoppe.
Hoppe is the one making the quickest impression. He’s already in the Orioles’ bullpen and being used in leverage spots.
Friday night, he picked up his first career save by allowing only the automatic runner to score. Last night, he retired his only batter with the bases loaded.
In 10 appearances, he hasn’t allowed an earned run. That’s a sharp turn after he posted a 5.79 ERA and 1.357 WHIP in 24 games with Seattle.
Ward, meanwhile, was the Orioles’ on-base leader during his time in Baltimore, hitting .246/.383/.346 with 20 doubles, seven homers and 87 walks in 111 games. He started yesterday 6-for-56 with Seattle, with seven walks and 16 strikeouts in 16 games, and he was in an 0-for-23 slump.
He also missed about a week because of right quadriceps tightness. Seattle, now 64-72, has lost three straight and sits four games behind the Guardians.
Colton Cowser is another player whose recent stretch has changed the feel of the roster. He entered last night at .227/.322/.379 in 119 games, and the overall line still doesn’t match the leap Baltimore wanted from him after last season.
But the last few weeks have looked a lot different. He went 4-for-39 with no home runs in July, then hit .315/.345/.593 with four homers in his first 22 games this month.
He had a pinch-hit double and a walk on Friday, entered last night on a six-game hitting streak, and was 9-for-18 with two homers over that span. He also hit his 13th homer last night.
His average had been .209 with a .657 OPS as recently as Aug. 20.
Add in the best outfield defense on the team, and Cowser is becoming a more important piece.
And then there was the Orioles’ extra-inning sequence in the opener, the kind of matchup that makes you wonder how a bullpen decision looked good on paper. Left-hander Brady Basso was left to face Coby Mayo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the 10th, and that opened the door for Baltimore’s right-handed bats to do damage.
Mayo and Encarnacion-Strand each came through with RBI singles, and the Orioles scored two runs in the inning. One would not have been enough.
Mayo’s knock was his first career go-ahead RBI in extra innings, and he continues to punish lefties. That includes his 446-foot three-run homer in St.
Louis. He’s been seeing the ball better, stringing together quality at-bats, and the approach looks much cleaner than it did earlier in his minor league days.
Mayo and Pete Alonso were both 9-for-25 (.360) with five RBIs with two outs this month before last night, while Encarnacion-Strand led the club with eight two-out RBIs in August.
Raquet also got a brief look with the Orioles, allowing three runs in 3 2/3 innings over four appearances. He has a 3.68 ERA in 33 games with Norfolk.
In Other News...
Orioles Fans May Hate Where The Grayson Rodriguez Debate Is Heading
Grayson Rodriguezs first run with the Angels looked a lot like the kind of rough transition that can make a trade look better in hindsight for Baltimore. Through his first 10 starts in Los Angeles, he was hit hard, carrying a 7.98 ERA and a 5.81 FIP as the former Orioles right-hander fought through early struggles and injuries after last Novembers deal that sent him to Anaheim for Taylor Ward.
Since an August 4 start against his old club, though, Rodriguez has started to look more like the pitcher the Angels thought they were getting, with his ERA trending down and his strikeout total climbing. That is the part Orioles fans probably wont enjoy hearing, because the trade was always going to be judged not just by Wards production in Baltimore, but by whether Rodriguez eventually settles in as the long-term asset the Angels believe theyve secured through 2030. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles September Push Suddenly Carries Much Bigger Roster Stakes
With four weeks left in the season, Baltimores push for the third American League wild-card spot has become about more than just the scoreboard. The Orioles sit one game behind Cleveland, and the stretch run is giving the front office another look at how certain pieces might fit beyond this year, especially as the organization weighs the performances of infielders Blaze Alexander, Coby Mayo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand with an eye on the 2027 roster.
The late-season evaluation does not stop there. Baltimore is also taking a closer look at catcher Carlos Narvezs offense while anticipating the return of Flix Bautista to the bullpen, a move that could reshape the back end of games as the standings tighten. For a club still very much alive in the race, every decision now carries a little more weight than usual. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Face A September Call-Up Decision That Could Shape The Playoff Push
With the Orioles pushing to stay in the playoff picture, the front office has a familiar late-season question to sort through: whether there is a minor league bat or arm worth bringing up for the stretch run. It has not been a banner year for the farm system to this point, with the Norfolk Tides struggling and not offering much in the way of obvious help, which has left Baltimore leaning more heavily on the roster it already has built in the big leagues.
Even so, there are a few names worth watching as September approaches, including Heston Kjerstad and Kyle Bradish, along with the deeper pitching options sitting at Double-A and Triple-A. The Orioles have enough organizational arms to consider different roster paths over the final month, but the bigger issue is whether any of those call-up choices can meaningfully change the shape of a postseason push rather than simply fill innings and bench spots. [Read more 🡒]