For six innings, you couldn’t have written a better script.
The perfect farewell party was ruined. The Orioles were on the way to having as good of a good-bye for Cedric Mullins and Ryan O’Hearn as you could possibly get. All that they had to do was hold a little lead to the end. What they got instead was a bullpen disaster, specifically a Yennier Cano disaster, and instead a fond finale for these likely-to-be-traded O’s turned into a frustrating loss that reminded everybody of why the Orioles ended up in this situation in the first place.
The Orioles brought a 5-4 lead into the seventh inning. Part of what got them to that point with the lead was O’Hearn delivering a two-run home run early in the game. Another part of it was Mullins saving the game – at least for the moment – with what’s got to be the finest home run robbery of his career, spikes in the wall, full extension, climbing sky high to casually pull back a would-be homer and preserve that 5-4 lead for another inning.
You could hardly have scripted it better for Orioles fans to be able to have a fun final memory of these guys with the team, and even for the Orioles being able to make the case for their value as trade pieces. The only thing standing in their way was another thing that’s gone horribly wrong with the 2025 Orioles season.
Think about this: The Orioles have traded Bryan Baker, Gregory Soto, and Seranthony Domínguez since the start of the month. Félix Bautista is on the injured list. Not only is Cano not the closer after all of that, he’s only the seventh inning guy. Maybe he shouldn’t even be that high in the pecking order. Cano, after blowing the game on Wednesday afternoon, now has six losses on the season. He’s not the reason that the Orioles are bad this year, but you could probably call him a reason why the Orioles are about two wins worse than they’d be otherwise.
I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow of Cano’s horrible day, which is also to spare myself having to write it. Here are the ugly totals: Cano faced seven batters and gave up five runs. Those men reached base thanks to four hits and a hit batsman. He put himself in a bad situation by giving up singles to the first two hitters he saw. There was a two-run single that flipped the 5-4 Orioles lead to 6-5 in favor of the Blue Jays. Then, just to really kick everybody in the teeth, Cano also gave up a three-run dinger to pinch hitter Nathan Lukes, putting the O’s in a 9-5 hole.
After all of that, Cano is sitting on a 5.40 ERA. He is far removed from the form that got him named to the 2023 All-Star team. He is about as far removed from even looking like an acceptable relief option to carry over into next season. He deserved no better than what he got today.
Cano’s absolute meltdown takes on even more of a tragic character because the Orioles did not stop fighting there. Jays reliever Yariel Rodríguez ran into command problems in the bottom of that inning. Three straight singles started by Jackson Holliday brought the O’s one run closer. Adley Rutschman ripped a hard grounder past Jays first baseman Ernie Clement for an error and another run, pulling the O’s within two runs. Back-to-back walks first loaded the bases and then brought an eighth Orioles run across, leaving the O’s with the bases loaded and one out.
After Rodríguez walked Colton Cowser to bring in that eighth run, the Jays finally gave the hook and brought in another reliever, Braydon Fisher, to face Mullins. Another chance to script a last heroic moment. Unfortunately, there wasn’t one more in the cards. Mullins struck out for the second out. The Orioles pinch-hit Ramón Laureano for Dylan Carlson to try to squeeze more offense out of this scoring chance. Laureano worked a full count and then took a pitch that was outside of the strike zone. Unfortunately, this happened:
Can only imagine Ramón Laureano said “Bro???” when he got punched out on the seventh pitch of this
— Andy Kostka (@afkostka.bsky.social) 2025-07-30T19:20:53.427Z
Umpires, you’re bad sometimes and you should feel bad and suffer rebuke from the league when those times go against the Orioles. The tying run should have scored here and it did not. If the advent of the automated ball/strike challenge system can prevent these game-altering errors, it should be good for the game.
Certain Orioles pitchers are also bad. Dean Kremer wasn’t all that good today, allowing three runs in just five innings. That set in action the chain of events leading to Cano’s disaster. Grant Wolfram allowing a run while pitching the sixth inning is also bad. Having a bullpen where you need to count on Wolfram is bad. Still, these are bit characters in the tale of woe. Cano is the central figure.
Scoring eight runs should always be enough. This pitching staff is tragic. The tragedy has not been interrupted by trading three of the best relievers (who honestly weren’t even all that good anyway) and it won’t likely be interrupted by whatever other trades happen between now and 6pm Eastern on Thursday. Adding to the sting, Domínguez, who started this series on the Orioles, pitched the eighth inning against them for his new team and sent them down in order.
One final shot at a parting miracle presented itself in the ninth inning. O’Hearn was due up third in the ninth inning. No one got on base ahead of him, so he represented the tying run as he batted with two outs. Jays closer Jeff Hoffman struck O’Hearn out to end the game.
It is a fitting end. In stories of epic triumph, the reinforcements arrive at the last moment. Éomer, son of Éomund crests the eastern hill on the third day at dawn, as foretold by Gandalf the White. I’ll stop myself before my nerdy references only get more obscure. In real life, sometimes a last stand is such because it’s the last stand: There is no miracle coming. They lose and everybody dies.
Things aren’t quite so dramatic for the remaining 2025 Orioles. They’ve only suffered death of postseason hopes. Many of the same players will have the last two months to prove they can do consistently better next year. Mike Elias has between now and next March to get better pitchers than the ones he already traded away, better than the ones he’ll soon be trading away, and especially better than the worst of the ones who are left behind. Your excitement level for 2026 probably depends on how well you think he can do this.
Whoever is left on the Orioles roster, along with whoever will join them after any further trades, will next be in action on Friday in Chicago, with the first of three 2:20 Eastern start times for a three-game weekend set.