Looking forward to playoff baseball in Baltimore (plus other O's notes)

Now we know for certain there will be playoff baseball in Baltimore this year. That Oriole Park at Camden Yards will host at least two home games and hopefully many more.

With Friday's 7-2 win over Minnesota, the Orioles wrapped up the No. 4 seed, the top Wild Card seed, and will host a series next week, beginning Tuesday versus either the Tigers or Royals.

It's a best two-of-three series with all games at the higher seed, which will be the Orioles.

Can't wait to see and hear the Yard rocking as it was last season in the American League Division Series.

Detroit is currently holding the No. 5 seed to be the O's opponent. The Tigers lead the Royals by one game. Should they tie, Kansas City gets the No. 5 spot via winning the tiebreaker.

If the Yankees win one of their remaining two with Pittsburgh, they wrap up the AL's top seed and would host the winner of the O's Wild Card series in the ALDS.

Burnes playoff schedule: In holding Corbin Burnes to five innings on Thursday night at New York, the Orioles cited keeping him fresh for a start five days later. That would be the opener of the Wild Card round on Tuesday as the Orioles play that best-of-three series.

Burnes would be pitching that game on four days’ rest. While we think of that as normal rest, for Burnes the last two years it turns out – normal has been five or more days’ rest.

Another reason cited by manager Brandon Hyde for Burnes’ 69-pitch outing at Yankee Stadium. He will be pitching on four days' rest.

During the 2024 season, Burnes has made only eight starts on four days’ rest, going 5-1 with a 2.83 ERA. The O’s often work to get their starters extra rest and we can see that in Burnes making 21 starts this year on five days’ rest, going 8-8 with a 3.08 ERA.

Of his past 10 starts, since the beginning of August, Burnes made nine starts with extra rest and just one on four days’ rest. He started on his fifth day Sept. 2 versus the Chicago White Sox allowing one earned run over five innings.

Also by starting Burnes in Game 1 on Tuesday, he could make two starts should the Orioles advance to the best-of-five-game American League Division Series.

The schedule for the ALDS includes off days following Game 1 and Game 2 plus one after Game 4, if it goes that far. So Burnes would pitch Game 2 on five days’ rest. He could throw Game 1 but it would be on three days’ rest. So Game 2 seems much more likely.

But a Game 2 ALDS start would also have him available to pitch a potential deciding Game 5 on four days’ rest.

Not an 800-run season: On Sept. 6 I wrote an article stating that even with the second-half up-and-down nature of the Orioles offense, the club was still on a pace to score 800 runs for the season. They were then but this is no longer true.

The Yankees are the highest-scoring AL team at 5.05 runs per game with the Orioles second at 4.81.

But Baltimore, with 764 runs going into the weekend, projects to finish at 778. If they end with exactly that number, the 2024 Orioles would be the 15th-highest-scoring team in club history.

But it would fall short of a more elite group. In 70 seasons of Orioles baseball since 1954, the Birds have scored 800 runs or more just eight times. The 2024 team will fall short of becoming No. 9.

Here is the list with four of these coming during the so-called “steroid era” of 1994 through 2004.

949 runs – 1996

851 runs – 1999

842 runs – 2004

818 runs – 1985

817 runs – 1998

812 runs – 1997

807 runs – 2023

805 runs – 1980

On Sept. 6, the Orioles were on pace to produce 812 runs. But since then they have scored 3.2 runs per game heading into last night with an OPS of .646 which will find them coming short of the 800 number.

In the majors this year three clubs have already reached 800 with Arizona (872), the Los Angeles Dodgers (816) and the Yankees (803). The Phillies (774) and Orioles (764) are likely to fall short.

Another Twins win: Well another win over the Twins for the Orioles. They are now 4-0 this year against Minnesota, outscoring them 29-11. They have won eight in a row over the Twins by a combined 55-17 score.

The Orioles have now won three of four and five of their last eight. 

With 89 wins, they now are tied for the 22nd most in club history with O's teams from 1960, 1992 and 2016.

Should the O's win one more they will have back-to-back 90-win seasons for the first time since 1982 and 1983. 

The O's are now 45-34 on the road.

Baltimore has scored 41 runs the past eight games.