The Orioles opened their road trip with a needed 7-4 win in Toronto on Friday night, but the standings didn’t move in their favor. Cleveland also won, beating the Twins 5-2, so Baltimore’s chase for the American League’s final wild card spot is still sitting three games back with 14 left to play.
At this stage, the scoreboard is only part of the story anyway. For the Orioles, the more useful exercise is finding what actually looks worth carrying forward.
Coby Mayo keeps giving them something to think about. He launched another home run in the win, this one coming against yet another right-handed pitcher, and he’s now up to 23 homers on the season.
His OPS+ sits at 112, he’s posted a .942 OPS since July 5, and he has put up an OPS of .873 or better in each of the last three months. If that bat keeps trending this way, the Orioles are going to have to find room for him in the everyday picture in 2027.
Chris Bassitt did his part, too. The veteran right-hander allowed two runs over five innings, which isn’t flashy, but it is exactly the kind of steady work Baltimore has been hoping for since he came off the injured list. Since his activation, Bassitt owns a 4.24 ERA and is averaging 5.2 innings per start.
There were also productive nights for a couple of other bats. Christian Encarnacion-Strand collected three more hits, pushing his season OPS to .803.
Maybe the time he spent in Triple-A for the first 3.5 months of the season helped him sort things out. It also leaves you wondering what kind of difference he might have made if he had been in Baltimore sooner.
Dylan Beavers chipped in as well, leading the team with three RBI. His spot in the lineup has fluctuated all year, but he’s been getting steadier run in September, and that may be starting to show. Getting him as many at-bats as possible over the final stretch ought to matter more than giving those chances to someone like Leody Taveras.
Baltimore and Toronto are back at it today, with first pitch set for 3:07. Kyle Bradish, who is 7-13 with a 3.91 ERA, will face opener Spencer Miles, who is 6-2 with a 2.77 ERA.
Kyle Bradish turns 30 today. He’s been one of the better success stories for the current regime after being acquired from the Angels as a modest prospect, developing into a Cy Young candidate in 2023, signing a big extension earlier this season, and returning solidly from Tommy John surgery this year.
Keith Hughes is 63. The outfielder backed up for the 1988 Orioles and hit .194/.294/.324 that season.
Mark Thurmond turns 70. He spent two seasons on Baltimore’s pitching staff from 1988-89 and logged 164.2 innings, mostly out of the bullpen with a few starts mixed in.
The late Albie Pearson was born on this day in 1934. He played as a reserve outfielder for the Orioles from 1959-60 and finished with a .621 OPS in 128 games.
In Orioles history, Sept. 12 has brought a few notable moments. In 1964, Baltimore beat the Athletics 1-0 in a game in which both clubs had just one hit, and the Orioles set a nine-inning record with only 19 at-bats. John Orsino opened the eighth with a double, Bob Saverine pinch-ran for him, and Saverine scored the only run.
In 1988, Eddie Murray got his 2,000th career hit, though the Orioles lost 6-1 to the Red Sox.
In 2009, Brian Roberts hit a grand slam and his club-record 51st double of the season in a 7-3 win over the Yankees.
And in 2014, the Orioles swept a doubleheader from the Yankees, winning 2-1 and 5-0 to move closer to an AL East title. That day also brought word that Chris Davis would be suspended 25 games for testing positive for amphetamines, a ban that would carry into the postseason.
In Other News...
Orioles Front Office Shake-Up Raises A Bigger Question About Team Direction
Matt Bloods departure from the Orioles removes one of the most familiar faces in a front office that helped shape the clubs recent rise. As vice president of player and staff development, Blood had been a key part of the organization since 2019, with responsibilities that stretched across player development, amateur scouting and the draft.
His exit comes at a time when Baltimore is already navigating new ownership and management changes, which makes the timing harder to ignore. For a team that has built much of its identity around a strong development pipeline, the bigger question now is how much the Orioles baseball operations are about to change, and who will be steering that next phase. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles MVO Debate Comes Down To One Tough Question
Voting for the Most Valuable Oriole award is winding down, and the final homestand will bring the announcement of a race that has been shaped by a seasons worth of arguments about value, not just production. The award is voted on by writers and broadcasters who cover the Orioles, with each ballot allowing three names and a 5-3-1 point system, which means the conversation has been broad enough to include several players who made their case in different ways.
Pete Alonso has emerged as the clear favorite after pacing the club in multiple offensive categories, but the ballot still has room for more than one line of thought. Rico Garcia, Blaze Alexander, Brandon Young, Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish have all remained in the mix, and next weeks finish should say plenty about how this group of voters weighed impact across a long season. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Got The Win But This Felt Like The Same Old Problem
The Orioles grabbed a 7-4 win over the Blue Jays in the series opener, and the second inning did most of the heavy lifting. Baltimore hung five runs on Max Scherzer, a burst that gave the game its shape early and helped the club get enough separation to survive a few shaky moments later on. Chris Bassitt worked five innings for Toronto, allowing two runs on six hits and three walks, but the bigger story was Baltimores offense jumping on an established veteran before the night could settle into a more familiar, tense script.
Even with the lead, the game had the feel of something Orioles fans have seen before, with Toronto chipping away and forcing Baltimore to keep answering. The bullpen did enough to close it out, but not without giving the Blue Jays a late opening that brought the tying run to the plate and made the final stretch far more stressful than the first few innings suggested. [Read more 🡒]