O's rally to win finale, finish 25-35

Given one last chance to get a win this year, the Orioles did just that, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5. They take the final game in this series and season to finish at 25-35.

After playing .312 ball in losing 223 games over the last two seasons, the Orioles finished in fourth place this year, playing .417 ball. They went 13-20 at home and 12-15 on the road. They went 14-26 versus the American League and 11-9 against the National League.

They end with a win after coming into Sunday with four losses in the last five games, eight in 10 and going 4-14 since they were 20-21 on Sept. 8. They finished 2-8 against the playoff-bound Blue Jays.

Their win over Toronto also assures the New York Yankees of avoiding a first-round playoff matchup with the No. 1 AL seed Tampa Bay Rays. Toronto (32-28) will now get that No. 8 seed and play Tampa Bay on Tuesday to begin a best-of-three first-round playoff series.

The Orioles rallied to get their 25th win. They trailed 4-1 after three innings, but tied the game with three runs in the fourth and went ahead with three more in the fifth. In the fourth, Cedric Mullins, who earlier was robbed of a home run, hit a two-run triple and scored on Austin Hays' sac fly. In the fifth, Rio Ruiz doubled in the go-ahead run for a 5-4 lead. They added two more on Hanser Alberto's groundout and Pat Valaika's single.

Mullins went 2-for-4 with a pair of triples. Ruiz drove in his 32nd run to tie Anthony Santander for the team lead.

O's starter Keegan Akin gave up just one homer in 22 2/3 innings for the season before today. Then he gave up two in a span of three batters in the Blue Jays third as they went ahead 4-1. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a solo shot and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. added a two-run blast.

Akin allowed four runs and five hits over three innings. He ends the year going 1-2 with a 4.56 ERA. He went 1-2 with an ERA of 4.03 in his six starts and the Orioles went 3-3 in those games.

The O's final rotation ERA for the year is 5.09, which is 11th in the AL. This year's rotation allowed one earned run or less 11 times in the last 23 games. The O's rotation ranked 14th in the AL in 2019 at 5.57.

The O's bullpen did not allow an earned run today over six innings. The 'pen ERA finished at 3.90, a big improvement on the 5.79 that ranked last in the league.

So the delayed and truncated season has ended for the Orioles. Their next game in the regular season is April 1, 2021 at Boston.