The Boston Red Sox have handled business all series long against the Baltimore Orioles, and with one game left, they’re still in position to finish the job.
Boston will hand the ball to Payton Tolle on Sunday afternoon with a chance to complete a four-game sweep of an American League East opponent that has been on the wrong end of everything this weekend. Saturday was more of the same: a 5-0 Red Sox win, Boston’s second straight shutout. And it came even with Ceddanne Rafaela, Caleb Durbin and Adley Rutschman all out of the lineup, while Willson Contreras remains on the Injured List and was unavailable as well.
That kind of absences list usually tilts a game the other way. Not this time.
Instead, the Red Sox keep moving themselves into a better spot in the American League Wild Card picture. They’ve cut into the gap on the New York Yankees during this series, and Boston now sits 3 1/2 games back of its biggest rival with 19 games left.
A three-out-of-four series loss to the Yankees, along with the season series, looked like it might slam the door on any real run at the top Wild Card spot. But Boston is still hanging around.
The Yankees still control that race, but the margin is not exactly safe. One rough series can change the whole look of it.
Baltimore, meanwhile, is spiraling. The Orioles have dropped five straight after appearing to be a legitimate playoff club just a week ago. They’re now three games behind the Toronto Blue Jays and the Cleveland Guardians for the final American League Wild Card spot, while the Texas Rangers sit one game ahead of them on the outside looking in.
And the Blue Jays? They’ve been one of the surprises of the year. It’s been a rough season in Toronto, and yet if the season ended today, they’d be in the playoffs.
That’s what makes Boston’s sweep chance on Sunday matter. The Red Sox have shaved the Yankees’ lead a bit, and they’ve put another dent in Baltimore’s postseason hopes at the same time.
In Other News...
Orioles Late-Season Injury Picture Just Got More Complicated
The Orioles spent part of their series against the Guardians sorting through a late-season injury picture that keeps shifting around the edges. Keegan Akin and Ryan Mountcastle are both with the club, giving Baltimore at least a couple of familiar faces back in the mix, while the team also laid out where several others stand in their recoveries as the calendar keeps moving toward the finish.
Mountcastle will not play again this season because of an oblique injury, a reminder of how much attrition has worn on the roster, and the rehab updates do not bring a simple wave of reinforcements just yet. Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin are working in Sarasota, Flix Bautista is at Triple-A Norfolk on assignment, and Kyle Bradish is being handled carefully after Tommy John surgery, with his workload watched closely as the Orioles keep managing one of the more complicated health charts on the board. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Face Two Big Questions As Wild Card Push Gets Tighter
The Wild Card race has tightened enough that every little update matters, and Craig Albernaz had a familiar opponent in mind when he talked about the Orioles place in it. The Baltimore manager, who spent time on the Guardians coaching staff, knows how closely these two clubs are watching each other as the standings compress and the margin for error shrinks. For the Orioles, the late-season picture is being shaped not just by the schedule, but by the health of a roster that has had to juggle a few key moving parts.
Ryan Helsley, Tyler ONeill, Flix Bautista, Ryan Mountcastle, Keegan Akin, Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin all figure into that evolving injury picture, and Baltimores recent stretch has made each of those updates feel more important. The club has been trying to keep pace while sorting through those absences and tracking its recent results, but with the Guardians right there in the mix, the bigger questions are starting to come into focus. How quickly those players can return, and how much they can help once they do, may decide just how long the Orioles stay in the hunt. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Fans Just Got Another Brutal Reminder About This Rebuild
A rough week for the Orioles in Boston did not end with much comfort for anyone still tracking where this rebuild stands. The Red Sox completed a four-game sweep, and in the same stretch of bad news for Baltimore, former Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman was already making noise in his new home with Boston by leaving the yard against Angels pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, another familiar name to Baltimore fans.
Rodriguez, once a first-round pick the Orioles hoped would help anchor the next wave, is now with the Angels after being dealt last winter for outfielder Taylor Ward. His Baltimore exit followed a frustrating run of injuries and uneven performance, which only adds to the sting when ex-Orioles keep popping up in meaningful moments elsewhere. Baltimore did at least stop the bleeding with a win the same day, ending a six-game skid, but the bigger picture for fans remains hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]