The current homestand was billed as Fan Appreciation Weekend in Baltimore and unfortunately it hasn’t lived up to that billing. The Baltimore Orioles dropped Saturday’s game with the New York Yankees (87-68) by a score of 6-1 and assured themselves of a losing record in 2025 after two previous seasons of winning records and playoff appearances.
Birdland Members were granted the opportunity of early entry into the ballpark in order to watch batting practice in person. Those members probably saw more hits during BP than the Orioles produced in the game. Yankees pitchers limited the Orioles to just four hits in the game, two of those coming off the bat of Coby Mayo. Mayo doubled in the seventh inning, allowing Tyler O’Neill to score; O’Neill walked to open the inning, advanced to second on a passed ball and went to third on a Jeremiah Jackson ground out.
Gunnar Henderson and Ryan Mountcastle recorded the other Baltimore hits. At one point early in the game, ten Orioles in a row were retired by Yankees’ pitching.
Tomoyuki Sugano (10-9) made the start on Saturday and lasted only 3.0 innings, allowing 4 runs on 6 hits with a walk, 3 strikeouts and a hit batter. Sugano’s downfall was pitching to Aaron Judge with a 3-2 count. In the first inning Judge hit a bloop single to right field on a 3-2 count with two outs that started a Yankees’ rally that ended with a Giancarlo Stanton three-run homerun to the right field flag court.
On a 3-2 count leading off the third inning, Judge cleared the left field wall for his 49th homerun of the season.
Cody Bellinger scored from second base in the fifth inning on a ball that Jazz Chisholm Jr hit and deflected off the glove of Henderson into left field. Trent Grisham knocked in Anthony Volpe from second in the sixth inning; all runs scored before Baltimore finally put their run on the board.
The Orioles required three relievers to finish what Sugano started with Jose Castillo and Yennier Cano each allowing a run. The lone bright spot was newly acquired and the 70th player used this season, Jose Espada who allowed a lone hit and struck out 4 over 3.0 innings. The one hit should not have occured as Paul Goldschmidt‘s pop up should have been caught rather than landing between Jackson Holliday, Mayo and Jackson in the eighth inning.
After the game Mayo summed up the season quite well, saying, “Of course, it’s disappointing I think for everybody in this locker room. But I think it kind of gives everybody a chip on their shoulder going into the offseason. You don’t want to feel this feeling again of playing games at the end of the season and you kind of know your plan. You want to always look forward to the playoffs. I think that this, you kind of need a negative to go forward. Sometimes you need to take a step back for a few steps forward, and I think that’s what everyone in this room hopes to do next year.”
There’s always next year.
2025 Record: 73-82
Next Game: Sun. 9/21 @ 1:35 pm vs. New York Yankees