Turn Out The Lights, The Season’s Over

The Baltimore Orioles 2025 season came to an ignominious end at 5:51 pm in the Bronx on Sunday. Despite defeating the Birds 3-2 and completing a three-game sweep, the New York Yankees (94-68) will now move on to the AL Wild Card Series. The Toronto Blue Jays (94-68), by virtue of their 13-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays (77-85), did what the Orioles couldn’t and that was to prevent the New Yorkers from taking the AL East.

Once again, the Baltimore bats failed to represent. Back to back one-out homeruns by Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson in the fourth inning essentially made up the totality of the the Orioles offense. Westburg did add a sixth inning single.

Tyler O’Neill‘s fourth inning single and Jackson Holliday‘s single in the eighth rounded out the Orioles hits.

The Orioles put runners on the corner with one out in the sixth but that threat was erased when Westburg was thrown out at home on an Adley Rutschman fielder’s choice.

New York’s Ben Rice was the thorn in Baltimore’s side on Sunday, going 2 for 4 and homering off of both starter Kyle Bradish in the first inning and reliever Rico Garcia (0-2) in the eighth.

Bradish finished his start by allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and striking out 8 across 4.0 innings.

The bullpen, outside of Garcia held the Yankees hitless. Keegan Akin walked a pair in the fifth but picked off Jose Caballero at second base to calm that threat. Dean Kremer, pitching with the intention of not allowing the Yankees to celebrate on their field, walked 1 and struck out 2 over 1.1 innings. After the game Kremer explained his reasoning, “We really wanted for the Yankees not to be able to clinch on their field today. That was our ultimate goal. I told them I’d be available, and that was the game plan going in. To get used or not, I was there and available.”

Kade Strowd recorded the final out in the eighth.

Appropriately the game ended on a Colton Cowser (0 for 4, 3 K) strikeout on a 3-2 count.

Westburg sent a message to the entire team after the game, stating, “I think there needs to be a reflection from everybody in this clubhouse, on a big scale and on a small scale. What did every individual do or did not do to add to this or to make us where we are? And then, kind of what can we do to change things? It’s going to be different for everybody. Everybody’s going to have a different scenario or come into camp maybe with a different opportunity. I think everybody’s a professional, though, and they’ll reflect and correct.”

As he awaits word of his status, Interim Manager Tony Mansolino lamented, “Losing is really miserable and really hard to go through. I don’t think when you feel miserable and you’re unhappy with how you’re playing, things go by quickly. I think it’s quite the opposite. I do think it slows to a crawl in a lot of ways…it was a long year.”

Not as long as it was for Birdland, Tony.

BOX SCORE

2025 Record: 75-87 (5th place in the AL East)