The Orioles have won three of their last four series for the first time since the early-to-mid-July stretch that produced their season-best seven-game winning streak.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, they have also lost ground in the American League wild-card race over that time and remain four games below .500. That wouldn\u2019t be as discouraging if it were still June or July, but there\u2019s now less than a month to go in the 2026 regular season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, each of those series wins included an unsuccessful opportunity to sweep in the final game, and that series defeat was a sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees at Camden Yards.\u00a0It all added up to a 7-6 record that didn\u2019t move the needle. <\/p>\n
One or two steps forward, two or three steps back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That said, the opportunity to flip the script and optimize a potential September run before they return home late next week is right in front of them. In fact, the Orioles just need to take a cue from the club they\u2019re now chasing in this lackluster wild-card race.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not even two weeks ago, Cleveland appeared to be circling the drain after going a miserable 10-20 since the All-Star break to fall a season-worst five games below .500. But they then embarked on a six-game road trip to face two of the worst teams in baseball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sound familiar?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Guardians went 6-0 against Colorado and the Los Angeles Angels to move back above .500 and go from one game back to two games up in less than a week. We\u2019ll see whether Cleveland comes anywhere close to sustaining this red-hot pace or falls back to the pack in the coming days, but the inspiration is there for Craig Albernaz\u2019s club.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After taking two of three in St. Louis, the Orioles now travel to Sacramento to face an Athletics club that\u2019s won a total of 13 games since the start of July. They\u2019ll then finish the road trip against a Rockies team trying to avoid a fourth consecutive 100-loss season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If there were ever a time to pique interest and enthusiasm for September, a 5-1 or 6-0 mark against teams holding the two worst run differentials and two of the three worst records in baseball is in order. We\u2019ve accepted the idea that the bar is so low for that final wild-card spot, but getting back to .500 for the first time since April 30 is the bare minimum if you want anyone to really buy into Baltimore\u2019s place in this race of the undead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anything less than going 4-2 against the lowly A\u2019s and Rockies, and the Orioles might as well get their purple and black out of the closet with the rest of Baltimore when they get home. The burden of proof is on the team that hasn\u2019t had a winning record since before the NFL draft and hasn\u2019t sustained a long stretch of truly inspiring baseball in more than two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Will Pete Alonso\u2019s red-hot bat continue carrying this club into the season\u2019s final month?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can a couple others catch fire and sustain it?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Will a starting rotation beginning to display some signs of wearing down hold up down the stretch?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Will the bullpen continue to outperform its perception?\u00a0<\/p>\n
How will the returning Blaze Alexander and \u2014 potentially \u2014 Felix Bautista fit into the mix?\u00a0<\/p>\n
These questions and others will persist when the Orioles return home to host the Boston Red Sox for the start of a four-game set next Thursday. But they can\u2019t expect anyone to embrace them as a playoff contender without disposing of two of baseball\u2019s dregs over these next six days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Baltimore\u2019s track record warrants skepticism. We\u2019ve seen the Orioles compete with the best \u2014 they entered Friday with the ninth-best winning percentage in baseball against teams at or above .500 \u2014 and then play down to their competition throughout the season, which is why they\u2019ve hovered somewhere between two and nine games below .500 for five months now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nothing will be decided, of course, but if the Orioles can\u2019t make their move over this next week, it probably isn\u2019t happening.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orioles have won three of their last four series for the first time since the early-to-mid-July stretch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":["post-790756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-orioles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117174007491738292","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}