After a pitching-led 2-1 win over the New York Yankees Friday night the O’s return to the Bronx this afternoon for Game 2 of the weekend series. They will have a series win if they take one of the next two games.

At 81-76 the Orioles have clinched .500 season and now have five games left to record their first winning season since going 89-73 in 2016.

The wins by Tampa Bay and Seattle Friday eliminated the Orioles from playoff contention. Both teams now have 86 wins, and that is the max number the O's can reach. But Baltimore would lose tiebreakers to both teams, and so they are eliminated from wild-card contention. 

It was another night without much going on for the Baltimore offense, which has had a roller coaster of a road trip for the bats. On Monday and Tuesday at Fenway Park, the Orioles scored 23 runs, hit nine homers and went 10-for-26 with runners in scoring position. Now the last three games – two at Boston and one at New York – they have scored six total runs on 21 hits while going 1-for-21 with RISP.

The Orioles have scored three runs or fewer 14 times the past 25 games and got a rare win in such instances last night. They're now are 3-11 in those 14 games.

There are a lot of ways to evaluate a team on offense, but I often revert to an easy one. How many runs do they score? That is the best evaluation tool, right? It doesn’t matter how a team gets there, but scoring runs is pretty important.

Heading into the series at Yankee Stadium, in the 2022 season the American League team average for runs per game was at 4.24. The Orioles average was – yep, exactly 4.24. They are a league-average offense in the stat that matters most.

But what fans see is an offense that is very inconsistent. Since Sept. 4, the Orioles have scored three runs or fewer 14 times in the last 25 games, going 3-11 in those games. They picked up the third win last night. But their offense has come up short often in the season's final days. The Boston series was the latest example of the consistency issue. The Orioles scored 23 runs the first two games at Fenway Park and four in the last two. A nice four-game average, but surely inconsistent, and fans remember them struggling against Rich Hill and then coming up short again Thursday.

You want a real surprise? The Orioles team OPS for September is .736. That is much better than their season-long number and ranks sixth in the American League. I guess scoring 23 runs in back-to-back games in Boston and all those homers helped that. They scored 10 in one game versus Houston. But certainly, the offense has been very inconsistent. There is that word again.

The Orioles rank 11^th in the AL in batting average at .238, and league average is .243. They rank 11^th in OBP at .306, below the average of .310. They are just above average in slugging and rank seventh at .395 with the league average at .393. The league average team OPS is .702 (it was .731 last year) and the Orioles are ninth at .700.

With their playoff hopes about all but over and elimination likely near, the Orioles begin a series at Yankee Stadium tonight, playing a three-game set versus the New York Yankees. The clubs played 13 times in the season’s first 45 games and just one series since, three games right out of the All-Star break.

The Orioles (80-76) have lost three in a row, five of six and nine of 14 games. They are 9-15 the last 24 games and are 12-15 in September with one game to go in the month. Their elimination number is one.

The Orioles scored 23 runs and hit nine homers in the first two games of their series at Boston this week. But they scored just four runs on two homers in the last two games. They have scored three runs or fewer in 13 of the last 24 games, going 2-11 in those 13.

As this series begins, the Yankees' Aaron Judge is sitting on 61 homers. His two-run shot in the seventh inning Wednesday night tied Roger Maris (who hit 61 in 1961) for the American League record for homers. Both men now with one more than the 60 Babe Ruth hit in 1927. If Judge homers again in the final six games, he will alone be the single-season AL record holder for homers in a year.

At the same time he is also trying to become just the second player since 1967 to win the Triple Crown. For the year, over 151 games, he is batting .313/.425/.699/1.121 with 61 homers and 130 RBIs. Mike Trout is second in homers with 38 and José Ramírez is second with 119 RBIs. But Judge begins this weekend second in the AL in batting average, which is led by Minnesota’s Luis Arraez at .315.

You have to have a pretty strong year to beat out Gunnar Henderson for an O's farm award this year, and Jordan Westburg sure had one.

Today he was named the Brooks Robinson Award winner as the Orioles Minor League Player of the Year. Right-hander Ryan Watson won the Jim Palmer Pitcher of the Year award while High-A manager Roberto Mercado was named winner of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Player Development award. Scott Walter is the Jim Russo Scout of the Year.

The winners will be recognized in an on-field ceremony before Tuesday's game with Toronto at Camden Yards. 

Westburg spent time between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk and batted .265/.355/.496 (144-for-544) with 39 doubles, three triples, 27 homers, 96 runs scored, 106 RBIs, 70 walks and 12 stolen bases in 138 games.

He led all O's minor league players in doubles, extra-base hits (69), total bases (270) and RBIs. He also finished second in the organization in hits and home runs. After being promoted to the Tides on June 6, he led the International League with 74 RBIs, tied for the league lead with 25 doubles, while also ranking second in the IL with 46 extra-base hits, 184 total bases and 64 runs scored through the end of the season.

No team from the Orioles farm system won a league championship in the minors this year with High-A Aberdeen coming close and losing out on the final game of the playoffs. But it’s been a great year for the Orioles farm and one big reason is that it’s considered among the best farm systems in the sport.

That is not the Orioles saying that, but outside independent sources and three of the most well-regarded and credible. In midseason organization rankings, Baseball America, MLBPipeline.com and ESPN all rated the Baltimore farm system No. 1.

Beyond that, how many farms could even boast of two players that were ranked as the No. 1 prospect from the same organization in the same year as the O’s have had in Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson? And beyond that both those players got to the majors and excelled at the big league level.

In an interview yesterday, O’s director of player development Matt Blood talked about a strong year for the Baltimore farm.

“I’m not sure if there has been another time when two players from the same draft (in 2019) from the same team were ranked No. 1 overall in the prospect rankings,” said Blood. “What we have kind of seen now after four drafts for Mike Elias is that, not only are the first picks excelling and playing well, but the second picks are, too. You look at Henderson and (Jordan) Westburg and (Connor) Norby. They are all getting out in professional baseball and performing.

With their playoff hopes dwindling to about a small flicker at this point, the Orioles take the field today at Boston. They are looking to split a four-game series and win their season series with the Red Sox.

The last time the Orioles won a season series over Boston was 2017. And today the clubs play their final game of the year with the season series tied at nine wins each.

O’s against Red Sox the last few years:
2021: 6-13
2020: 5-5
2019: 7-12
2018: 3-16
2017: 10-9

The Orioles also lost the season series versus the Red Sox in 2016, going 8-11. But in the four-year stretch from 2012 through 2015, the O’s won all four years, going in order starting in 2012, 13-5 and then 11-8 the next three seasons.

The Orioles (80-75) have lost two in a row, four of five and eight of 13, and are 9-14 the last 23 games. They no longer can have a winning September at 12-14 with two games to play in the month.

Heading into last night’s last game of the Triple-A season, the Orioles' last minor league game of the year, O’s prospect Connor Norby was the organization’s home run leader with 28 for the season. Norfolk teammate Jordan Westburg had 27.

Could Norby hang onto his lead for one more game?

He would be, perhaps, a bit of a mild surprise as O’s farm homer leader. Norby goes 5-foot-10 and 187 pounds, and most analysts have rated his hit tool over his power tool. He hit over .400 twice in college at East Carolina. And then he went in the second round of the 2021 draft, No. 41 overall, to the Orioles.

And yes, some players with big homer numbers on the farm - Kyle Stowers and Gunnar Henderson - moved on to the big club. But Norby’s year has been pretty darn good.

And he ended it with one last homer, a two-run shot in Norfolk's season-ending 5-3 home loss to Jacksonville. That was Norby's 29th homer of the year. Westburg finished with 27.

The Orioles have scored 23 runs on 29 hits the last two nights at Fenway Park, but they have split the two games. They won 14-8 on Monday and lost 13-9 last night.

The Orioles pitching, which recently had a three-game stretch versus Detroit and Houston where it allowed one run over three games, has now yielded 38 runs over the past four games.

The Orioles bullpen pitched just one-third of an inning during that three-game stretch, but has now given up 21 earned runs in 23 2/3 innings the past four games.

But the Baltimore offense has picked it up a bit lately. The Orioles have scored, as mentioned 23 runs this series, 42 runs the last five games and 52 in the past seven.

In this series, the Orioles have hit four doubles, five triples and nine homers while going 10-for-26 with runners in scoring position.

After he went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts on Sunday against Houston, O’s rookie Gunnar Henderson saw his average drop to .276. At that point he was 0-for-13 with seven strikeouts his previous four games and 4-for-29 with 11 strikeouts his previous eight.

Reason to worry? Nope.

Henderson, still just 21, began the game Monday at Boston by drawing a walk. Then he walked again. Then he walked again. Three walks in the first five innings. Then he mashed a baseball out to center in the sixth. A two-run homer that he hit 111 mph and it went 428 feet. A mammoth blast.

What slump?

Henderson continues to show he belongs in the majors and that he has smarts and poise and composure beyond his years. When he made his MLB debut Aug. 31, he became the youngest player to make his debut for the Orioles (21 years-063 days) since Dylan Bundy (19-313) on Sept. 23, 2012 and youngest position player since Manny Machado (20-034) on Aug. 9, 2012.

Their regular season is now down to single digits – nine games remaining over the next nine days – as the Orioles return to Fenway Park tonight for Game 2 of a four-game series and seven-game road trip.

The trip got off to a great start last night, even though they had to put up with a 100-minute rain delay. The O’s mashed five homers in beating Boston 14-8. They never trailed in the game and took a 4-0 lead in the second. But Boston pulled within 6-5 in the fourth inning. The O’s then pulled away, scoring seven runs their next three at-bats. They scored in seven of their nine at-bats during the night.

The Orioles are now 6-0 when hitting five homers this year:

* Aug. 5 vs. Minnesota, win 5-3
* June 7 vs. Cubs, win 9-3
* June 27 at Seattle, win 9-2
* Aug. 19 vs. Boston, win 15-10
* Sept. 3 vs. Oakland, win 8-1
* Sept. 26 at Boston, win 14-8

Anthony Santander, who recently went through a stretch of 13 straight games without a homer or RBI, now has hit two homers in two of the last three games. He has 31 on the year, four over the past three games and 10 in his last 29 contests.

The top-ranked pitching prospect in baseball made his latest outing last night and right-hander Grayson Rodriguez threw well for Triple-A Norfolk at home in a no-decision versus Jacksonville.

Will his next start be with the Orioles?

A lot of fans would be excited to see that. Whether the Orioles are in or out of the playoff race with a few games to go, it would be a sight to see, the No. 4 ranked prospect in baseball joining the big club and no doubt there would be Adley Rutschman at the plate to catch him.

With just two games left in the Norfolk season, Rodriguez will end his Triple-A campaign, going 6-1 with a 2.20 ERA over 14 starts. In 69 2/3 innings this season at Triple-A he allowed 44 hits and just two homers with 21 walks and 97 strikeouts.

Last night versus Jacksonville, he went five innings allowing three hits and one run (on his second homer allowed) with three walks and six strikeouts, throwing 89 pitches.

The Orioles begin the final road trip of the season tonight, starting a seven-game trip to Boston and New York with the opener of a four-game series at Fenway Park. The Orioles have had two straight losing homestands at Camden Yards going, 4-6 from Sept. 2-11 and going 3-4 in the homestand versus Detroit and Houston that ended on Sunday afternoon. Two of their three losses during the homestand were by one run, and another game went extra innings.

The Orioles (79-73) have 10 games left and need to go 3-7 or better to secure their first winning season since going 89-73 in 2016.

The Birds are 11-12 in September with five games left in the month and would need to go 4-1 or 5-0 to clinch their fourth consecutive winning month after going 17-10 in August, 16-9 in July, and 14-12 in June. The last time the Orioles had four consecutive winning months in a season was June (16-12), July (17-8), August (19-9) and September (17-10) 2014.

The Orioles have gone 30-36 (.455) this season versus American League East opponents. In 2021 they went 20-56 (.263) in division games. They won just three series last year against AL East clubs, going 3-19-2. This season they are 9-11-1 in AL East series.

The Orioles are 8-7 versus Boston, 8-8 against Toronto, 9-10 versus Tampa Bay and 5-11 against the New York Yankees.

You are not going to find his name on many American League pitching stat leaders – although he has given up about as many hits as anyone in the AL this year – yet right-hander Jordan Lyles has meant a ton to the Orioles this year. Just ask his teammates and those he has mentored this year in the Baltimore starting rotation.

A starting rotation with a lot of youthful potential that is starting to show their stuff with his support and leadership along the way.

Lyles is 11-11 with a 4.50 ERA heading into tonight’s start in Boston. But stats and being a so-called “innings eater” don’t begin to tell the full story of his impact on the 2022 Orioles.

“He is invaluable in so many ways,” right-hander Tyler Wells said Sunday. “You can’t really put a price on what he has done for us as a starting staff, as a team, and as a mentor for a lot of us. He really teaches us what it’s like to be a starter and how he has made a 10-year career into what he has. All based on certain principles – like going deep into games and giving your team a chance to win every single time.

“As us young guys continue to develop, our mindsets, our development and pitching strategies we are getting are based off of learning from a guy that has had a very successful career.”

After their gut-punch loss on Saturday night, it’s a quick turnaround for the Orioles today as they try to erase that memory and win this afternoon to take the series from the now 100-win Houston Astros.

When Anthony Santander hit his second homer of the game – a two-run shot in the last of the eighth – the Orioles had taken a 9-7 lead. But that lead would not hold. Houston’s four-run ninth led the Astros to an 11-10 win. Houston improved to 100-53 by winning for the fifth time in seven games, 11^th in 14 and 19^th time in the past 25 games.

Houston has become the first club in American League history to reach 100 wins four times in the span of five full seasons, per Elias Sports Bureau. And Dusty Baker is one of four managers in MLB history to win 100 games with a team in both leagues (also: Sparky Anderson, Whitey Herzog and Tony LaRussa). Their 100 wins ties a franchise record for most wins in the first 153 games of a season (also: 2019). Houston recorded its 28th comeback win and this marked their third game of the season surrendering 10-or-more runs (last: 5/14 at WSH, 13).

The Orioles (79-72) now have 11 games remaining. They lost ground Saturday to both Seattle and Toronto in the wild card race. They are four games behind Seattle, 4 1/2 back of Tampa Bay and 5 1/2 behind Toronto, which holds the first AL wild card today.

The Orioles had their streak of 22 scoreless innings pitched snapped with Jose Altuve’s two-run home run in the third inning. Baltimore scored five runs in the fourth inning, their 11th time scoring at least five in an inning this season. They fell to 58-2 when leading after six innings and are now 21-24 in one-run games. The O’s 17 hits is their most in a loss since Aug. 10, 2018 versus Boston, when they also had 17. Six different O’s tallied multi-hit games, the second-most in a game this year (8/19 vs. Boston, 7).

When the high Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds played for the South Atlantic League championship this week, I wrote that the last two O’s minor league championship teams were the 2011 Single-A Frederick Keys and the 2015 Double-A Bowie Baysox.

And while Aberdeen fell short of a title, a reader on Twitter asked if they were the only O’s minor league titles. And the answer is certainly no since the Orioles have been playing in Baltimore since 1954.

I asked the club's public relations staff a question I have also often wondered about – how many minor league championships have O’s farm clubs won in team history? And, as with most minor league information one would seek, records are incomplete and hard to fully know since we are talking about so many teams in so many leagues over so many years.

But thanks to Nate Rowan and Liam Davis of the O’s staff, their research did produce a list of champions. And the O’s want to take a longer and closer look at this list this winter to produce as complete a list as they can for next year’s media guide.

So far, this is what can be confirmed.

The Orioles look to continue their winning ways over the Astros tonight as the teams play the third game of a four-game series at Camden Yards. The O’s will also try to keep their amazing recent run of pitching going, a run that has seen their staff allow just one run the last three games.

The Orioles (79-71) have 12 games remaining in the regular season and have now won three in a row by a combined 16-1 score. After scoring just two runs in the first two games of the Detroit series, they now have 16 in these three games and they have gone 10-for-18 with runners in scoring position in those games.

The Orioles improved to 44-32 at home with Friday’s win and they are 27-15 at home since June 22.

For the third time in the five games that they have played against Houston this year, the Orioles shut out the Astros last night as right-hander Dean Kremer pitched a complete-game four-hitter on 106 pitches. He threw a combined 29 two and four-seam fastballs with 29 cutters, 27 curveballs and 21 changeups. He got 15 swings and misses. In two starts versus Houston, Kremer has allowed one run and eight hits over 16 2/3.

In his past eight starts, he is 4-1 with a 2.29 ERA and has allowed just two homers in that span over 51 innings. For the season Kremer improved to 8-5 with a 3.07 ERA.

Anyone watching the Orioles the last two nights had to be impressed with their pitching after back-to-back shutouts of the Astros, who lead the American League with 99 wins. A Houston team that entered this series third in the AL in runs scored, winners of 10 of their last 11 games and with a seven-game road win streak.

Then Houston lost 2-0 and was held to two hits and lost 6-0 and held to four hits.

O’s starters Kyle Bradish and Dean Kremer threw 17 2/3 scoreless innings with two walks and 16 strikeouts combined.

Count former Oriole Trey Mancini among those impressed. Mancini talked about those two Baltimore pitchers today from the visiting clubhouse at Oriole Park.

“The stuff is electric. Both of them,” Mancini said. “Both times we saw them they shut us down and it’s not an easy offense to shut down. You have to tip your hat to them. They did a great job out there and the stuff looks really good. I was their teammate for a long time and to see them come along the way they have is very impressive. The stuff has always been there and now that they are pounding the strike zone, it’s tough to hit.

In recent days, some fans in Birdland have begun to slowly check out a bit on the 2022 Major League Baseball season. But just when some headed out, did the Orioles pull them back in?

Looks that way.

With a stunning run of pitching that includes allowing just one run over the last three games, the Orioles are now three games behind Seattle for the third American League wild-card spot. Tampa Bay and Toronto (84-67) are tied for the top two spots with the Orioles 4 1/2 games behind both clubs.

Is edging out Toronto, in what would be a stunning late-season run, the Orioles' best path to the playoffs? Probably yes, because of the three games the teams still have to play to end the regular season at Oriole Park.

Now 4 1/2 games behind Toronto, the Birds would need to gain 1 1/2 games on Toronto in the next 10 days to be within three games with three to play when the clubs begin that series in Baltimore on Monday, Oct. 3.

The score is 8-4. Not from last night’s game, but from four games this year played between the Orioles and the 99-win Astros, who have the best record in the American League. Yep, four games and a total of 12 runs scored by the teams.

In a Houston series that began Aug. 26, the Orioles won by 2-0 and 3-1 before losing 3-1. They won the series opener in Baltimore last night 2-0.

In those four games, O’s pitching has allowed just four runs versus the Astros. O’s starting pitchers have recorded an ERA of 0.59, allowing nine hits and two runs over 30 1/3 innings. That is against a Houston team that began this series third in the AL averaging 4.58 runs per game and third in the league in slugging and team OPS.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish took a perfect game to the sixth inning last night as he retired the first 17 batters he faced before No. 9 hitter Mauricio Dubon singled to left. Bradish came within an out of pitching a second straight complete game for the Orioles after Jordan Lyles did so Wednesday against the Tigers. He allowed two hits over 8 2/3 with no walks and 10 strikeouts. He threw 100 pitches, 70 for strikes, and improved to 4-7 with a 4.65 ERA.

In two starts this season versus Houston, Bradish has thrown 16 2/3 scoreless, allowing just four hits. Houston batters have gone 4-for-53 (.075) against him. In his last six starts, Bradish has an ERA of 1.64 and has allowed just one homer and an OPS of .420 over 38 1/3 innings. He has thrown seven innings or more in four of the six starts, and the Orioles are 4-2 in those games.

Orioles infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra's bat has started to heat up again, just as it did when he first got to the majors and went 6-for-13, batting .462 to start to his big league career.

Nothing to it, right?

Of course, we know that is not true. And while Vavra looks solid and comfortable again at the plate, for about a month starting in early August he was struggling, and not playing very much. Then he left the team briefly on paternity leave.

Over an 18-game stretch he was just 6-for-37 (.162).

“That was a big learning stage for me,” Vavra said before Thursday’s game. “It was easy to get frustrated right away. You know, when you are not getting opportunities, it’s not the easiest to get back into a rhythm, so you kind of have to create that. Luckily, we have some great guys in this clubhouse that helped me with that, as well as some great hitting coaches. Just try to a find a routine and build rhythm with that, so when you do get your chance you can, hopefully, feel more comfortable at the plate.”