Good morning, Camden Chatters.
I never thought I’d be saying this, but I wish the Orioles could play every game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Birds’ inexplicable dominance against the American League’s best team continued last night with a dramatic, come-from-behind, 3-2 walkoff victory in 10 innings. The Orioles, given up for dead after being shut out into the eighth, put on a thrilling display for the Camden Yards crowd thanks to Samuel Basallo’s pinch-hit game-tying homer and Dylan Beavers’ pinch-hit walkoff double, besting a stunned Rays team yet again. Check out all the lovely details in Alex Church’s recap.
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The Orioles are now 8-4 against the Rays this year and eight games under .500 against everyone else. Conversely, the Rays, 4-8 against the Orioles this season, are 27 games over .500 against everyone else. It defies explanation, but that’s baseball, I suppose.
At a time of the season where every game takes on extra importance, this was one of the Orioles’ best wins of the year. Besides the obvious off-the-bench heroics of Basallo and Beavers, there were plenty of other O’s stalwarts on this night. Tyler O’Neill made up for a poor offensive showing by flashing the leather in right field, making a cannon of a throw to cut down at a runner at third and then making two outstanding catches in the ninth, the second one robbing the Rays of a would-be go-ahead hit.
Brandon Young struggled with his command but battled to work 5.2 solid innings, and the O’s improved to 17-5 in his starts. The bullpen was dominant, with scoreless outings both from high-leverage guys — Andrew Kittredge and a resurgent Rico Garcia — and from lesser known names like Josh Walker and Alex Hoppe. Pete Alonso had two hits on his bobblehead day to extend his career-best hit streak to 14 games.
Even much-maligned manager Craig Albernaz deserves credit for striking gold with his in-game tactics. I was silently screaming when he decided not to pinch-hit for the soft underbelly of the lineup in the seventh inning, and then when he did pinch-hit in the eighth for Coby Mayo, who’d been scalding the ball. But it worked out brilliantly. Basallo, batting for Mayo, delivered the tying homer, and Albernaz unleashed Beavers against Bryan Baker in the 10th with delightful results.
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Don’t look now, but thanks to their win and the Rangers’ loss, the Orioles are just one game back for the third wild card spot — albeit with the Blue Jays, Twins, and Guardians also ahead of them, and now Seattle only a game behind the Birds. This race of mediocre teams is going to go right down to the wire if none of them can bust out of their mediocrity. The Orioles are helping their own cause with exciting wins against a top-quality opponent like the Rays, but they’ll need to avoid stumbling into the quicksand that inevitably seems to trap them every time they start to build a little momentum.
Today, the Orioles play the Rays for the final time this season. I’m gonna miss them. The perpetually unlucky Shane Baz will take the mound against his former team, with Nick Martinez going for the Rays. Can the O’s do what they failed to do last week and complete the series sweep? If the Orioles can pull out a victory and a few other games break the right way, the Birds could find themselves back in a tie for a postseason spot by the end of the day.
Links
Orioles’ Shane Baz has 13 losses, but that doesn’t tell the whole story – BaltimoreBaseball.com
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Shane Baz’s 2026 season is example #1,000 of why pitcher win-loss records are pretty much meaningless.
The pop has arrived: At Chesapeake, Aron Estrada is youngest ever to hit 20 HRs – Steve Melewski
I, for one, am more than ready to jump aboard the Aron Estrada bandwagon. Join us, won’t you?
Orioles ride outstanding defense and 2 big pinch hits to comeback win over Rays – The Baltimore Banner
I love this picture so much. Of course Pete would be right in the middle of the celebration.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You probably played for the Orioles at some point, because there have been nine (9!) players in O’s history who were born on Aug. 23. The most prominent of the bunch is Orioles Hall of Famer Mike Boddicker, who turns 69. Boddicker, a sixth round pick in 1978, spent his first nine MLB seasons with the Birds, finishing fifth in the AL Rookie of the Year vote in 1983, when he helped the O’s to their third World Series championship. Boddicker was a 20-game winner and All-Star the following year, and finished his Orioles career with a 79-73 record and a 3.73 ERA. The O’s traded him to the Red Sox in 1988 for Brady Anderson and Curt Schilling, a deal that turned out quite well.
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The many other former Orioles born on Aug. 23 include right-hander Denny Bautista (46); infielders Alejando Freire (52), Casey Blake (53), and Jeff Manto (62); catcher Raúl Casanova (54); and the late righty Ed Barnowski (b. 1943, d. 2017), lefty John Morris (b. 1941, d. 2025), and Hall of Fame third baseman George Kell (b. 1922, d. 2009), who was Brooks Robinson’s mentor when he broke into the bigs in the 1950s.
On this date in 1958, the Orioles claimed knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm off waivers from Cleveland. A former relief ace for the New York Giants, Wilhelm was a 35-year-old journeyman by the time the O’s got him, but he revitalized his career in Baltimore. In four full seasons with the Orioles, Wilhelm made the All-Star team three times and won the ERA title in 1959, and he went on to pitch for another decade in the majors until age 49. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985.
Random Orioles game of the day
On Aug. 23, 1992, the O’s lost to the Oakland Athletics, 7-3, in Baltimore. With 45,479 in attendance for the inaugural year of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Birds trailed by just one until the top of the seventh, when the A’s rallied for four runs and six hits against starter Ben McDonald and two relievers. José Canseco drove in four runs, and future Oriole Harold Baines tagged McDonald for a solo homer. Athletics starter Mike Moore came within one out of a complete game before the O’s rallied in the ninth, prompting Oakland to call on Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley to get the last out. With the loss, the second-place Orioles remained three games back of the AL East-leading Blue Jays.
Read the full article here