BALTIMORE—It was supposed to be a feel-good weekend for the Orioles. Jim Palmer, Boog Powell and Eddie Watt celebrating the 60th anniversary of the 1966 World Series champions, and the 30th anniversary of Eddie Murray’s 500th home run. Plus there was the return of Adley Rutschman to Baltimore and a series vital to their playoff chances.
By the end of Sunday, the Orioles’ playoff chances had nearly vanished after the Boston Red Sox completed a four-game sweep and sent the Orioles to their sixth straight loss, 3-1, before 27,596 at Camden Yards.
It’s their longest losing streak since losing eight straight from May 14th-20th, 2025, a streak that cost former manager Brandon Hyde his job.
The Orioles are 69-75, and with Cleveland’s 3-2 win over Detroit in 10 innings, they trail the Guardians by four games for the final wild-card spot. They’ll play Cleveland in three games beginning Monday.
“Of all the blows we’ve taken this year, this is by far the biggest, just because where we’re at in the season,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “Where we’re at in the standings with the wild card, fighting for it. Especially having a solid road trip, a really good road trip, but dropping the last two in Colorado and steamrolling to here, that’s a huge blow.”
Before the game, Murray was introduced by Cal Ripken Jr. and the ceremony concluded with Murray throwing a first pitch to the Iron Man on the 31st anniversary of Ripken breaking the consecutive games streak.
The game began with the Orioles quickly breaking their 18-inning scoreless streak. Coby Mayo extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a double to left and Christian Encarnacion-Strand brought him home with a ground-rule double to left against Payton Tolle.
Tolle (9-6) allowed just that run and four hits, striking out 12 in six innings without a walk.
“We just couldn’t get anything going against him, or pretty much anything all series,” Albernaz said.
The Orioles, who were shut on Friday and Saturday, scored six runs in the four games.
Tolle, Erik Miller, Jovani Moran and Aroldis Chapman combined for 17 strikeouts, the most the Orioles have struck out this season.
The only other hits were a double by Rece Hinds in the fifth luiand a single by Pete Alonso in the sixth. Hinds, who was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to replace Luis Robert Jr., who landed on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring injury, was picked off second by Rutschman.
Albernaz hopes that Robert will be able to play sometime before the season ends on September 27th.
Kyle Bradish (7-13) labored through four innings. He threw 75 pitches in the first three and hasn’t won in his last eight starts.
After walking Chad Durbin with one out in the second and getting Jarren Duran to ground out to second, Andruw Monasterio grounded to Gunnar Henderson at shortstop. Henderson booted the ball for an error. Eli White followed with a three-run home run, his eighth.
“The error didn’t help,” Albernaz said. “It turns into a three-run homer. Gunnar makes that play all the time and, outside of that, the four walks. It’s a ton of foul balls, pitch count was getting up there. KB, he did enough for us to win. He kept us in it. He battled. Yeah, he only got through four, but he wanted to go back out. But I couldn’t let him go back out with the pitch count. Our bullpen came in and did a great job of keeping the game there.”
Bradish allowed the three unearned runs on two hits and four walks in four innings. He struck out three.
“Errors are going to happen,” Bradish said. ”It’s what you do after. We didn’t lose that game because of Gunnar’s error. We lost it because I hung a slider to White. That’s about it.”
Rutschman, who homered twice on Thursday night, doubled under Alonso’s glove at first base in the third.
Miller retired all three Orioles in the seventh, striking out two, and Morán struck out one in a spotless eighth.
Aroldis Chapman recorded his 33rd save this season and 400th overall, allowing a single to Alonso, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. He struck out Mayo and Encarnacion-Strand to end the game.
How big was Henderson’s error? Henderson committed his 16th error on Monasterio’s ground ball.
“I just didn’t attack the ball, kind of let it play me,” he said. “Yeah, that’s exactly what happened.”
Henderson knows time is running out on the Orioles, who would have to go 12-6 to finish at .500.
“I felt like on the road trip we were playing some pretty good ball, and obviously the last two games in Colorado didn’t go the way we wanted it to,” Henderson said. “Felt like we just needed to take a breath, get a little breather, and then obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted to here. But what are we going to do about it? Can’t sit here and [focus] on the past. Got to play the cards you’re dealt. Cleveland’s coming in, they’re ahead of us right now, so got to take it to them and win games.”
What does it mean? The Orioles have played poorly when they needed to play well.
What’s the stat of the day? 58. Hinds was the 58th player used by the Orioles this season. Last year, the Orioles used a franchise-record 70 players.
What’s the word? “We’ve got to win tomorrow, win the day after that and win the day after that. We’ve got Cleveland and Toronto coming up, those are kind of the two teams ahead of us. So if we take care of business, we should be back to where we want to be. But, yeah, this was definitely a big letdown this weekend.”-Bradish on the state of the team.
What’s going on in the minor leagues? Trey Gibson allowed three runs on seven hits in five innings in Norfolk’s 8-1 loss to Jacksonville.
Vance Honeycutt and Victor Figueroa homered in Double-A Chesapeake’s 9-7 loss to Portland. Honeycutt has hit three home runs for the Baysox in 16 games, and Figueroa has 27 with the Tides and Chesapeake.
Enddy Azocar and DJ Layton each drove in two runs as High-A Frederick ended its regular season with a 6-5 win over Brooklyn. The Keys begin the postseason on Tuesday at Greensboro.
Esteban Mejia allowed six runs on five hits in 1 2/3 innings as Single-A Delmarva ended its season with a 14-3 loss to Kannapolis. The Shorebirds finished 45-87. Mejia, the 27th-ranked prospect, was 0-9 with a 9.80 ERA.
What’s next? The Orioles will open a three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians on Monday at 1:35 p.m. Trevor Rogers (9-9, 4.30) will start against Joey Cantillo (9-8, 3.81).
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