The Baltimore Orioles have won lots of significant games since the start of the 2023 season. That’s not surprising, considering they’ve won more games (148) than any other MLB team in that timeframe. But I’m about to tell you about some of the significant games they didn’t win, so I don’t want to make it seem like I’m being purposefully obtuse. They’ve won lots of significant games!
Ahead of their rubber match against the Phillies on June 16, I found myself thinking, “This feels like a big game! Why do I feel like the Orioles haven’t won some of their bigger games?” It makes no sense. We all remember them winning three out of four against the Yankees earlier this season. We recognize that they have a league-best 22-12 record against teams above .500 this season. We remember those two massive wins against the Rays last September after Tampa Bay had gotten right back in the AL East race.
But I think my brain might have specifically been defaulting to “statement” games the Orioles have played the last few years. For example, by July of last year, the Orioles were quite clearly “for real,” as the kids might have said whenever I was still considered a kid. In the two weeks after the All-Star break, the Birds played two of the National League teams favored to reach the World Series. Those “statement” series … made the wrong statement. They lost two of three to the Dodgers at home then two of three to the Phillies a week later in Philadelphia.
In August, they got another shot with a visit from the defending World Series champion Astros … and lost two of three. They’d avenge that in September, taking two of three in Houston.
But those disappointing “statement” opportunities (combined with their cameo as “The Nail” in the playoffs against the Rangers) left a lasting memory that perhaps this group of young Orioles might have some issues when the spotlight shines the brightest.
All of this paints the picture for why it felt like the Orioles’ Saturday and Sunday wins during Father’s Day weekend were among the most significant of the “Baby Birds” era. Obviously no regular-season win can tangibly be described as “significant,” nor can a series in the first half of a baseball season — particularly an interleague series. But the significance of wins like this might not be something we can fully measure for some time.
One of my favorite tropes as an interviewer is to ask what the “special sauce” might be that is the difference between a playoff team and a World Series winner. No one — not World Series winners or those that came up short — can fully define that. I’m not sure how much it matters that a team has won its “statement” games during the course of a regular season. It’s not just that I can’t prove causation, I can’t even prove correlation!
But “the right to feel like the bully” is certainly a term baseball folks discuss. And the confidence that comes with having won the biggest games, those “statement” games during the course of the regular season, sure doesn’t feel like it could possibly hurt a team’s chances of winning the World Series.
In front of an absolutely raucous collection of crowds this weekend, the Orioles were challenged by a team that might well prove to reach the World Series. They lost the first game in truly heartbreaking fashion and had to go deep into their bullpen in the process. They lost one of their top pitchers (Kyle Bradish) to the injured list for an indefinite amount of time.
And then they gave up the first two runs of Saturday’s game, whipping the Phillies fans who made the trip and stimulated our economy into a bit of a frenzy. The Orioles never panicked. Grayson Rodriguez was brilliant. Anthony Santander was dominant. And then on Sunday, just about everyone got in on the act, battering one of the highest-paid pitchers in the game (Zack Wheeler).
What looked like it could be more disappointment in major moments turned quickly into one of the Orioles’ finest hours in recent memory. They stepped up and met the moment. They earned the right to feel like the big bad bullies on the block going into a potentially even larger series against the Yankees in New York.
Again, this doesn’t mean that the Orioles are a shoo-in to win the American League. It doesn’t solve any of their personnel issues. It just means that the tide is continuing to shift. The Orioles aren’t a good story. They’re among the World Series favorites and they’re ready for the biggest games and moments and series the rest of the way.
It was a great weekend in our city. It was a tremendous series victory for the Orioles.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox