If you didn't think a team could erase a magic number of three in one day, you are wrong. The Orioles begin today with a magic number of three to wrap up a 2024 MLB playoff spot. They can get there with a win over Detroit this afternoon and a loss by Seattle tonight at 7:05 p.m.

A potential Clinchmas is here for an Orioles team that heading into Thursday's game having lost five of six, eight of 10 and nine of the last 12 games and was 26-30 in the second half.

The Orioles (86-68) take the field today with eight games remaining. They are four games behind New York for the American League East lead and four ahead of Kansas City for the No. 1 AL wild-card spot. If the O's wrap up the No. 1 wild-card berth, should they not win the AL East, they will host all games in the best two-of-three wild-card playoff round beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

The Orioles hit a season-best five home runs last night in beating a hot Detroit team 7-1. The Tigers (80-74) entered the night having won four in a row, nine of 11 and 18 of 25. And since Aug. 11 Detroit was 25-10, best in the majors in that span.

But Anthony Santander hit his 43rd home run while Colton Cowser and James McCann hit two homers each. It was Cowser's second career multi-homer game and McCann's third.

Winning one Most Valuable Orioles award is quite special. Doing it two seasons in a row takes Gunnar Henderson to a whole new level.

By doing that today he joins a list littered with some of the best players in Orioles history.

Eddie Murray once did this five years in a row from 1981-1985. Others to get two in a row are Adam Jones (2011-12), Rafael Palmeiro (1995-96), Jim Palmer (1972-73), Boog Powell (1969-70), Cal Ripken Jr. (1990-91) and  Frank Robinson (1966-67).

Gunnar joins that list that includes four Hall of Famers.

“Yeah, just the history of this team and just the caliber of players that have come through this team. It’s pretty special to win it back-to-back years. There have been a lot of highly-touted guys that have won this award so I’m humbled to be part of that,” said Henderson.

They are a trio of players who took part in Orioles batting practice before Friday’s game. They all hope they will have another chance to do that here later in their careers and that they will be on the Orioles' active roster when that happens. 

But Friday afternoon under the Baltimore sun, the O’s first three selections in the 2024 MLB Draft took part in some pregame work.

That includes top draft pick, No. 22 overall, University of North Carolina outfielder Vance Honeycutt. Also the O’s second selection, University of Virginia infielder Griff O’Ferrall, taken No. 32 overall and catcher Ethan Anderson, Baltimore’s second-round pick, No. 61 overall, also out of UVA.

Honeycutt was asked about hitting during batting practice.

“It was cool,” he said. “Definitely nervous for the first round. But just taking this all in.”

Two teams hoping to play October baseball meet this weekend at Oriole Park. The Orioles (85-68) host the Detroit Tigers (80-73) in their final home series of the 2024 regular season.

The O’s beat San Francisco 5-3 Thursday on Anthony Santander’s two-run, walk-off homer in the ninth. When the Yankees lost later they had moved to four games back in the American League East with nine to play, including three next week at Yankee Stadium. The O’s begin play tonight leading Kansas City by three games for the top AL wild card spot.

Detroit, which took two of three at Comerica Park last weekend versus the Orioles, has now moved into a tie with Minnesota for the third and final AL wild card and No. 6 seed.

Minnesota, however, holds the tiebreaker over the Tigers, having won the season series, 7-6.

Last weekend, Detroit beat the Orioles 1-0 Friday on a one-hitter, the O’s won 4-2 Saturday and lost 4-2 Sunday. Baltimore was outscored 7-6 in that series.

Two players the Orioles acquired in and after the 2020 MLB Draft have won their two top player development and scouting awards, the club announced today.

Slugger Coby Mayo wins the Brooks Robinson Award as the Orioles' minor league Player of the Year. Right-hander Brandon Young is the Jim Palmer Award winner as minor league Pitcher of the Year.

The Orioles also today named Latin America Coordinator of Instruction Samuel Vega the Cal Ripken Sr. Player Development Award winner and Donovan O'Dowd the Jim Russo Scout of the Year.

Due to the pandemic, the 2020 draft was just five rounds. The O’s selected Mayo in round four at selection No. 103. After that draft, they added Young out of Louisiana-Lafayette as a non-drafted free agent.

Mayo is ranked as the club’s No. 1 prospect and No. 8 overall in the top 100 by both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline after a big year at Triple-A Norfolk.

With one swing, the Orioles ended a losing streak and maybe relieved some pressure on their clubhouse. They have scored five or more runs just twice in the last 13 games.

The second time was Thursday afternoon when Anthony Santander hit a two-run walk-off homer in the ninth to beat the Giants 5-3.

Did that swing relieve some pressure on the clubhouse?

“Yean, I mean, whether you are winning or losing, there is always pressure. It’s the big leagues,” said catcher James McCann. “We are coming down to the wire here. It’s a matter of being able to handle that pressure. You know, things haven’t been going our way right now, so to finally break through after what seems like an extremely long stretch, this is big. Big for the guys and hopefully this is something we can build on.”

Santander hit No. 42 and produced his third career walk-off homer and the O’s first walk-off win since July 14, the final day of the first half.

With three straight losses and their last win coming Saturday at Detroit, the Orioles host the San Francisco Giants this afternoon in the finale of this series. With wins Tuesday by 10-0 and last night by 5-3, the Giants can sweep this series this afternoon.

The Orioles (84-68) are 16 games over the .500 mark, the fewest over they have been since May 29.

In last night's loss, the O's scored two runs in the third on James McCann's RBI double and Cedric Mullins' groundout. An RBI double by Ryan O'Hearn in the sixth produced their final run. They had seven hits and went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

The Orioles have scored nine runs their past five games and 24 in the last 12 games. In those 12 games they are batting .191/.263/.312/.575 and have gone 11-for-74 (.149) batting with RISP.

Overall, Baltimore has lost three in a row, five of six, eight of 10 and nine of the last 12 games. The Orioles are 26-30 since the All-Star break, 31-37 since July 1 and 19-26 on the season versus National League teams. 

It wasn't the most productive inning as the Orioles, after scoring once in the last of the third inning to tie San Francisco 1-1, had runners on second and third and no outs. They scored another run there, but just one more, letting yet another chance for a bigger inning pass by.

The Orioles took a brief lead last night, 2-1 after the third, but by the top of the fourth the lead was gone and later another game was lost. 

The Orioles fell to 84-68 after a 5-3 loss to San Francisco, and they have now lost four series in a row. They are 16 games over .500, their fewest since May 30.

And they are now five games back in the American League East with just 10 to play. The Yankees won 2-1 over Seattle in 10 innings to clinch an AL playoff spot and reduced to six their magic number to clinch over the Orioles.

The O's have a series in the Bronx next week, but right now, even with a sweep, they would still be two games back.

Having fallen four games out in the American League East race with 11 games left, the Orioles host San Francisco tonight in Game 2 of a three-game series at Oriole Park.

The Orioles (84-67) were held to five hits and blanked 10-0 last night. They have been shut out twice in the last four games, three times in the last eight and eight times on the season.

They have scored six runs the past four games and just 21 over the last 11 games, going 3-8. In that span, they are batting .189 with a .577 OPS and are 9-for-64 (.141) with runners in scoring position. Baltimore batters have scored two runs or less seven times in this span.

The Orioles are now 17 games over the .500 mark, the fewest they have been over .500 since June 6.

The O's have lost four of five, seven of nine, eight of 11 and are 26-29 since the All-Star break, 19-23 since Aug. 1 and 31-36 since July 1.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde described it as a “tough day” as the team designated for assignment closer Craig Kimbrel. Hyde called him a “great teammate and class act.”

When I asked ace right-hander Corbin Burnes about Kimbrel, he said similar things. He may have been a poor pitcher for the team in the second half but his teammates sure seemed to support and have respect for him. And Burnes said even as Kimbrel’s season was spiraling downward he was in the clubhouse helping other players.

But in the end, performance matters most. And he went from an ERA of 2.80 in the first half to a pitcher that in 18 second-half games was 1-3 with a 10.59 ERA and 2.177 WHIP.

“Obviously it’s tough,” said Burnes. “You never want to see a guy get designated. A guy that has been here all year and given a lot to this team. And been a leader in the clubhouse, been a leader in the bullpen. You never want to see that happen. You understand why it happens, how baseball and how the business goes.

“I wish him the best. He’s had a Hall of Fame career, if this is it. If he comes back to play, I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Craig much about that. But he’s going to be a Hall of Famer.”

Of their 67 losses this year, only three have come by 10 runs or more for the Orioles. Chasing an AL East title this week and beginning the final regular season homestand was not a good time for that to happen.

But it did for the third time in 2024 as the San Fransico Giants beat the Orioles 10-0 at Oriole Park. The O's have now been shut out twice in the last four games, three times in eight games and eight times for the year.

The Orioles got blown out last night by a struggling team. One that began this series at 72-78 losing four in a row, five of six, 10 of 14 and 15 of their past 22 games. Last Thursday through Saturday, San Francisco was shut out three times in a row for the first time since June 23-25, 1992. The Giants were 3-9 with no series wins against AL East opponents.

Since Aug. 11 they had been 11-20 and scoring just 3.5 runs per game before winning last night. But they took an early 3-0 on the Orioles with former Oriole Mike Yastrzemski driving in two runs and they poured it on late scoring six runs in the ninth charged to Craig Kimbrel.

The Orioles keep saying they remain a confident team and can soon turn this around. But when? There are just 11 games left.

The final homestand of the 2024 regular season has arrived. The Orioles host the Giants for three games and then the Tigers for three to wrap up the home schedule.

The Orioles (84-66), with 12 games and four series remaining, begin play tonight three games behind the Yankees (87-63) for the American League East lead. This week the Yankees are on the West Coast with three games at Seattle beginning tonight and then three at Oakland.

This is before the O’s and Yankees play a three-game series in the Bronx beginning a week from tonight. With the Royals loss to the Tigers last night, the Orioles are 2 1/2 games ahead of Kansas City for the top AL Wild Card spot.

While the Orioles scored just six runs in the Tigers series and have scored only 21 runs the past 10 games (going 3-7), their starting pitchers have quietly been on a good roll:

* 1.42 ERA with five quality starts the last five games
* 2.33 ERA with six quality starts the past nine games
* 2.55 ERA with eight quality starts in 13 games this month

Coming off a losing road trip and a stretch with seven losses in the last 10 games, the Orioles return home tonight for the regular season’s final homestand trying to find some good vibes, some runs and some wins.

They begin play tonight at 84-66, three games out in the American League East and 2 1/2 ahead of the Royals for the top Wild Card spot and No. 4 playoff seed with 12 to play.

“Lot is at stake in terms of us trying to create some momentum going into the month of October,” center fielder Cedric Mullins said this afternoon. “Think a lot of guys are excited about this last homestand. Excited to get things going in the right direction.”

How is the team mood right now with the club 26-28 in the second half and 31-35 since July 1?

“I think it’s following suit with the wins and losses," said Mullins. "It’s like trying to create that continuous win streak. Yeah, there might be a little pressure added to that. But the off-day was big just to come back home, take a day, refresh and get back into it."

Talk about being thrown into the deep end and having to swim, that is, in a sense, what is happening to Orioles prospects Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo.

These are top young talents, rated among the best in the game, that may be cornerstone players one day, but right now they are battling to get hits in a pennant race. And at a time when the team has lost games while the club is not scoring much. It puts pressure on everyone.

Yeah, a real challenge.

Over 51 games for the year, Holliday, age 20, has hit .170/.223/.298/.521. When he came back to the majors on July 31, he hit a grand slam and had an OPS of 1.072 in a 10-game span, hitting five homers with 12 RBIs. A few days later he had a four-hit game.

But now he is 2-for-26 with nine strikeouts the last 10 games. He did not start Saturday or Sunday in Detroit.

DETROIT – As the Orioles offense continues to struggle and the team can’t seem to find a spark or any answers right now to turn it, the Orioles are probably still secure to make the playoffs.

Probably.

But each loss makes it harder to win a second straight American League East title and each loss gives Kansas City the chance to gain ground on the Orioles for the top AL wild card spot. If the season ended today, the Orioles would host the Royals in that best two-of-three series. But a few more losses could send the O’s on the road for that.

The O’s Adley Rutschman believes the Orioles can still do great things and said so after Sunday's game. But it’s getting harder to believe that when the team has now lost three series in a row at such a critical time. They went 1-2 each versus Tampa Bay, Boston and Detroit.

Rutschman, whose two-run homer yesterday accounted for the only O's runs in a 4-2 loss, was asked if it was hard to keep the faith and stay upbeat with the losses mounting?

DETROIT – An O’s starter pitched well, but got little or no run support. A recurring theme in Birdland a lot lately.

Facing a traditional starter – not an opener – was not something that helped the struggling Orioles offense today.

They saw Detroit right-hander Keider Montero. And while his 4.88 ERA was not impressive, his last outing was. He pitched a three-hit shutout Tuesday on 96 pitches versus Colorado.

Today, he didn’t get that deep in the game, but the O’s could not score off him either.

They finally got some offense, but it proved too little and too late today.

DETROIT - They lost Friday's game 1-0 at Comerica Park. And, behind right-hander Corbin Burnes, the Orioles beat the Tigers 4-2 Saturday night. Today they try to end this series and road trip on a winning note. 

At 84-65, they begin play two games back of the Yankees for the American League East lead and two games up on the Royals for the top AL wild-card spot. The Orioles went 4-2 against the Royals this year, so should the teams tie for a playoff spot, the O's hold the tiebreaker and will get the higher seed.

Even in winning last night, the Orioles have lost five of their past seven and six of nine games. They are 26-27 since the All-Star break and 31-34 since July 1.

The Orioles are 1-1 versus the Tigers and the teams play again next weekend in Baltimore. The Orioles are 17-8 (.680) versus AL Central teams, their best win percentage this year against any division.

In the two games this series, Baltimore pitchers have allowed just three runs. Over the past four games, the O's team ERA is 2.04.

DETROIT – Heston Kjerstad is back with the Orioles, finally free of concussion symptoms and feeling good about his swing and his health.

He is batting fourth as the DH today, so thrust right back into the mix in a prominent spot. He wants to help an offense that has produced just 15 runs in five games this road trip. Over the last nine games, in going 3-6, Baltimore batters are averaging 2.1 runs per game with a team OPS of .583.

Kjerstad is ready to try and provide a boost with his bat.

“Oh 100 percent. All of us want to provide that boost. Maybe I can bring that. It’s a great lineup we have here. Baseball, you want to play well and the offense, we need to get rolling a bit better. All it takes is one. Once one goes, the rest of the offense will roll with him, so we’ll get it rolling here,” he said.

After he was hit in the helmet July 12, Kjerstad went on the seven-day concussion injured list. He returned eight days later but the symptoms lingered.

DETROIT - The Orioles are adding Heston Kjerstad to their roster for today’s series finale with the Detroit Tigers.

The O's announced that move and series of others this morning. In addition they have reinstated righty reliever Jacob Webb from the injured list where he was out due to right elbow inflammation. Webb has pitched to a 3.08 ERA with 53 strikeouts in 49 2/3 innings pitched. He last pitched on Aug. 2 at Cleveland.

They designated for assignment pitcher Cole Irvin and infielder/outfielder Nick Maton. The O's 40-man roster right now is at 38.

Kjerstad has been on the injured list with a concussion and playing minor league rehab games in the last several days with both High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie.

He went 4-for-13 with a double and three RBIs in four games with Bowie after going 2-for-5 over two games with Aberdeen. He was the leadoff hitter last night for Bowie at Erie and went 0-for-1 with two walks.

DETROIT – The pressure was most definitely on the Orioles Saturday night at Comerica Park. On this night, they stood up to it with an important and impressive 4-2 win over a hot Detroit Tigers team that had won 21 of 30 coming into play.

The O’s were three games back of the Yankees for the division lead and Kansas City had pulled within two games for the top American League wild card seed.

They needed a win to gain a game on one team after the Yankees lost Saturday afternoon and hold off another. Now they are two back of the Yankees and two up on the Royals.

They were 2-6 over the last eight games and not scoring much. The clubhouse was trying to stay together and avoid the outside criticism the team was getting.

After the win Saturday, catcher James McCann said they have stayed strong as a team.