And just as quickly as the Orioles climbed into a playoff spot, they fell back out of it.
The O’s continue to be a maddeningly frustrating team to follow. After a strong week that put them in pole position for the final wild card spot, they promptly lost four in a row and finished the week five games below .500.
They lost the finale of the four-game series in Tampa, then suffered a three-game sweep at the hands of the Yankees, before recovering to take two of three at home against Tampa.
The good news, if we can call it that, is the American League Wild Card race remains almost comically forgiving. The Orioles are still only 2 games out of the final spot with five teams sitting between .481 and .496. The bad news is they continue doing very little to separate from that pile of mediocrity.
The week started Monday with the finale of the four-game wraparound series in Tampa Bay. The O’s had already secured the series and looked on their way to a sweep after building a 6-4 lead. Coby Mayo launched a massive 468-foot homer, Pete Alonso added another and Christian Encarnacion-Strand drove in four runs with a single and homer.
Brandon Young struggled with the long ball, allowing three homers and four runs, but the offense had done enough to put the Birds in position to win. Instead, Yennier Cano and Josh Walker combined to surrender three runs in the seventh, with Jonny DeLuca’s two-run single putting Tampa ahead for good in the 7-6 loss.
Things got much more frustrating when the Yankees arrived at Camden Yards. Shane Baz delivered a strong start Tuesday, striking out a season-high ten over 6⅓ innings. He left a 1-1 game with two runners on in the seventh, however, and Walker allowed both to score on a Trent Grisham single. Coby Mayo’s solo homer off Carlos Rodón accounted for the entirety of the offense in a 3-1 loss. Baz was technically charged with all three runs, but this was another example of a starter doing more than enough to win and getting almost nothing from the lineup or bullpen.
Wednesday was no better. The Yankees scored three early runs off Chris Bassitt, but the Orioles fought back behind a Pete Alonso homer and a Dylan Beavers solo shot to tie the game at three. Then came the play everyone will remember. Alonso appeared to hit his second homer of the night and his 30th of the season down the left-field line in the seventh, only for it to be called foul. Replay could not conclusively overturn the call, Alonso eventually struck out and the Yankees scored twice in the eighth on an infield single and wild pitch by Yennier Cano. Whether the ball was actually fair or foul, the Orioles still had opportunities to win the game and did not. They fell 5-3.
There was much less controversy Thursday. Gerrit Cole and the Yankees simply beat them. Kyle Bradish allowed five runs, three earned, over 5⅔ innings, with New York breaking things open on back-to-back solo homers in the sixth. Beavers provided the lone offensive highlight by homering off Cole for his second straight game with a long ball, but Baltimore managed only one run in the 6-1 loss. A team that had briefly climbed into a playoff spot four days earlier had now lost four straight and been swept at home by the Yankees.
Thankfully, the Rays came to town and once again provided a temporary cure. Trevor Rogers gave Baltimore exactly what it needed Friday after the ugly Yankees series, working seven innings while allowing three runs on six hits with six strikeouts and only one walk. The O’s fell behind 3-1 in the second, but Beavers homered for the third consecutive game, Jackson Holliday tied it with a sacrifice fly and Alonso finally got his unquestioned 30th homer, blasting a two-run shot in the fifth to put Baltimore ahead 5-3. Rico Garcia closed it out with a scoreless ninth.
Saturday brought one of the more entertaining wins of the season, although apparently the true breakthrough was everyone wearing orange stirrups. The Orioles trailed 2-0 into the eighth before Samuel Basallo came off the bench and launched a game-tying two-run homer. Tyler O’Neill preserved the tie with a diving catch in the ninth, then Garcia made a tremendous play on a bunt in the tenth to throw the automatic runner out at home. Dylan Beavers finished it in the bottom half, driving a Bryan Baker changeup to deep right for a walk-off double and a 3-2 win. It was already Beavers’ fourth career walk-off RBI in only 110 major-league games.
Unfortunately, the magic stirrups had a one-day expiration date. Shane Baz and Nick Martinez traded zeroes through five innings Sunday before Tampa finally broke through for three runs in the sixth. The Orioles offense did almost nothing in response, with Colton Cowser’s ninth-inning homer providing their only run in the 3-1 loss. Baz was charged with three earned runs over 5⅔ innings, giving him another solid-but-unspectacular start that received virtually no offensive support. Which has been the story of his season.
The offense was the obvious problem this week.
Last week the Orioles scored 35 runs in six games and reached at least four runs in every one. This week they scored only 20 runs across seven games. Five came during the entire Yankees series. They scored one run Tuesday, one Thursday and one again Sunday.
There were individual bright spots, particularly Alonso, Beavers and Mayo, but too many spots in the lineup provided almost nothing. Jackson Holliday went 3-for-28. Encarnacion-Strand went 3-for-20. Tyler O’Neill went 2-for-16. Gunnar Henderson reached base nine times but slugged only .308 and did not drive in a run.
That is not enough production for a team trying to overcome mediocre pitching, a negative run differential and a roster that already sold at the deadline.
The Orioles remain alive because the Wild Card race refuses to demand much from anybody. That is an opportunity. It is not a reason to pretend this team is playing well.
Player of the Week
Pete Alonso gets the award for the second consecutive week.
He did not reproduce the absurd .545/.630/.864 line from the previous six games, but going 10-for-29 with three home runs and five RBI still gave him a .345 average and 1.000 OPS. More importantly, his production showed up throughout a week when most of the offense disappeared.
Alonso homered Monday in Tampa Bay, went deep again Wednesday against the Yankees and then provided the biggest swing in Friday’s win with his two-run homer off Freddy Peralta. This is now two straight weeks where Alonso has carried the offense. The Orioles paid him to provide middle-of-the-order power and consistency, and at least lately he has been exactly that.
Dylan Beavers deserves the strongest honorable mention. His overall line was a strange but extremely productive 4-for-14, because three of those four hits left the ballpark and the other was Saturday’s walk-off double. Beavers homered in three consecutive games from Wednesday through Friday and finished the week with a .286/.333/1.000 slash line and 1.333 OPS.
That is a pretty efficient use of four hits.
Coby Mayo also continued providing evidence that the power is translating at the major-league level. He went 5-for-20 with two doubles and two home runs for a .250/.318/.650 line and .968 OPS. His 468-foot blast Monday was the fourth-longest homer hit in MLB this season, and he followed it with another homer off Carlos Rodón the next night. He has been excellent against lefties this season.
Trevor Rogers gets the pitching mention for Friday’s start. He allowed three runs across seven innings while striking out six and walking one, giving the Orioles length immediately after the Yankees sweep and allowing the offense time to come back from an early deficit. It was not dominant, but seven competitive innings are valuable for a team that has needed to piece together far too many games from the bullpen.
Down on the Farm
At Norfolk, Heston Kjerstad had the best offensive week, going 6-for-12 with a double and triple while reaching base ten times in 16 plate appearances. That produced a .500/.625/.750 line and 1.375 OPS. It was a small week in terms of plate appearances, but Kjerstad continues to hit enough at Triple-A to beg the question of when he may get another shot in Baltimore.
Michael Forret also bounced back after getting shelled last week. The right-hander worked five innings while allowing two runs on four hits, striking out five and walking three. One solid start does not erase his previous outing, but given how prominently Forret could factor into the 2027 rotation discussion, it was good to see him respond.
The more interesting pitching continues to come from Chesapeake, where Anthony Eyanson delivered his best outing since joining the organization, allowing one run over a career-high seven innings while striking out eight without a walk. The start lowered his Double-A ERA to 1.93, which ranked second in the Eastern League among pitchers with at least 65 innings. The only pitcher ahead of him was teammate Joseph Dzierwa at 1.89. Dzierwa added another solid outing of his own this week, allowing one run over five innings.
There was some good position-player production at Chesapeake as well. Wehiwa Aloy hit .300 with two home runs, two doubles and a 1.117 OPS. Vance Honeycutt reached base in more than half of his plate appearances, batting .385 with a .529 OBP while stealing six bases. Honeycutt’s combination of speed and defense has never been the question, so weeks where he gets on base at that rate make his major-league projection considerably more interesting.
Kyson Witherspoon, one of the other major pieces from the Adley Rutschman trade, deserves mention from High-A Frederick as well. He threw five hitless innings Friday while striking out eight. The three walks show that command remains the part of his game to monitor, but the raw stuff continues producing impressive results since the trade.
Finally, Félix Bautista made his first game appearance in more than 13 months Sunday with Chesapeake. The results were ugly. Bautista recorded only one out while allowing one hit, three walks and three earned runs on 22 pitches, only ten of them strikes. That obviously is not what anyone wanted to see, but the box score matters considerably less than the fact that he was back on a mound throwing around 95 mph and touching 97 after major shoulder surgery.
This is rehab, not a ninth inning at Camden Yards. Command may take time. The more important question is how his shoulder responds and whether the velocity and execution improve over the next several appearances. If he recovers well, the current plan is for him to continue the assignment at Norfolk.