ARLINGTON, Texas – The Orioles arrived in Texas last night, determined to keep their season alive when they take the field in Game 3 of the American League Division Series on Tuesday night.

They have lost by scores of 3-2 and 11-8 to the Texas Rangers, a 90-win team during the regular season. A club that lost four of its last six to let the AL West title get away, only to now go 4-0 through the postseason thus far.

The math is daunting for the Orioles.

Per Elias Sports Bureau, in MLB playoff history, in best-of-five or longer series, teams taking a 2-0 lead are 154-25 (.860) in those series. In strictly best-of-five series, teams up 2-0 are 78-10 (.886).

“Obviously, definitely not our two best games we have played. We are capable of much better,” said Ryan O’Hearn this afternoon in the Baltimore clubhouse. “You know, it happens, So, it’s time to turn the page and try to figure out how to win the next one and the next one and hopefully we continue to play.

Next stop Arlington, Tex. That is where the Orioles are headed looking for a win. What they hope is the first of three in a row over the next five days to save their season.

The Texas Rangers ended the regular season losing three of four at Seattle to let the AL West title get away. They were 40-41 on the road this year. None of that mattered as first they took out the 99-win Tampa Bay Rays, winning two on the road. And now they have a 2-0 lead in games in a best-of-five on the 101 win Orioles. Winning two in Baltimore.

In Game 1, the Orioles didn't hit enough. In Game 2 they didn't pitch well enough. Not nearly losing 11-8. The 11 runs allowed is the most they have ever given up in their postseason history, which amounts to 94 games since 1966.

They walked 11 batters and six of them scored and all 11 helped the Rangers to the win.

In the quiet of the postgame clubhouse, Gunnar Henderson who went 2-for-4 with a homer, expressed confidence they have another three-game win streak in them.

The Orioles are now down 0-2 in this best-of-five American League Division Series. They had 101 wins in the regular season and won the AL East championship, but after today’s 11-8 loss to Texas, their season will be over with one more loss.

With the Orioles down 11-5 in the ninth, Aaron Hicks blasted a three-run homer off Texas closer Jose Leclerc. He drove in five runs today. But the pitching gave up 11. 

The Orioles have now lost seven straight postseason games since their last win in the 2014 ALDS versus Detroit. The Rangers are 4-0 in the 2023 playoffs. 

The Orioles face a must-win situation Tuesday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

A few thoughts on Game 2:

The Orioles (101-61), champions of the American League East and the No. 1 seed in the AL playoffs, need a win today against the Texas Rangers (90-72) to even the AL Division Series.

Texas used six pitchers Saturday to hold the Orioles to five hits in a 3-2 win in the series opener. Andrew Heaney got the start, allowing one run in 3 2/3 innings, and Dane Dunning pitched two innings of relief to get the win. José Leclerc got the last three outs to record a save.

O's starter Kyle Bradish allowed two runs over 4 2/3 to take the loss. The O's six pitchers combined to strike out 16 batters, their most ever in a nine-inning postseason game.

The Orioles have now lost the first game of three straight playoff series dating to an opening win in the 2014 ALDS versus Detroit. They are now 52-41 all-time in postseason games and 11-6 in ALDS games.

Heading into this year's playoffs, Texas had a six-game postseason losing streak. Now they have gone 3-0 versus the Rays and Orioles by a combined 14-3 score. Their pitchers have allowed just the three runs on 19 hits in 27 innings for a postseason ERA of 1.00.

He ended the season getting a lot of big outs out of the Baltimore bullpen, and that continued through Saturday's Game 1 appearance versus Texas.

Late this year, in that relief role, lefty DL Hall looks very much like the top prospect he was coming up through the O's farm system.

In his last seven regular-season games, Hall pitched 7 1/3 innings, allowing one unearned run on just three hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. In that span, opponent batters hit just .115 off him with a .231 OPS.

Yesterday, in 1 2/3 innings, he did not allow a run or hit while recording one walk and three strikeouts.

For manager Brandon Hyde right now, the plan is simple: Get Hall the ball.

Orioles fans had waited for their first home playoff game since the 2014 season. The rain that lingered made the wait even longer. But when they got their chance to cheer, it was loud. It was almost deafening at times amid a sea of orange Saturday afternoon at Oriole Park.

The Orioles fans put on a spectacular show. It was electric and special. 

But the O's offense had its issues - a carryover from the end of the regular season - as they lost 3-2 to Texas in the AL Division Series opener.

“It was unbelievable, it was a dream come true to run out there with orange flags being waved everywhere," outfielder Austin Hays said. "An awesome experience. It was electric, loudest ballpark I’ve ever been in. Louder than the All-Star game. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for sure. So I am looking forward to doing it again (today)."

Ryan Mountcastle doubled in the first Baltimore run in the fourth but the Orioles never got the lead or tied the game once Texas scored twice in the top of the fourth.

The Orioles seemed confident their late-season hitting slump would not carry into the postseason. But for one day at least, it did as the Orioles lost 3-2 to the Rangers this afternoon in Game 1 of the American League Division Series. They need a win on Sunday to even this series before it heads to Arlington.

It was a day where their starter went fewer than five innings and the Rangers pitcher that started went fewer than four. But after getting Anthony Santander’s 420-foot homer in the sixth, that pulled them within 3-2, the O’s could not score further and they dropped Game 1.

They scored two runs or fewer in three of their last four regular season games and in seven of the last 11 leading into these playoffs.

The O's held down the highest-scoring team in the league and their pitchers recorded 16 strikeouts. They held Marcus Semien and Corey Seager to one combined infield hit, but they could only get two of their own runs.

Today they hit into two double plays and chased some pitches as Texas used six pitchers to get the victory. 

In their first playoff game since the 2016 season and first at home since 2014, the Orioles host the Rangers this afternoon in Game 1 of the best-of-five American League Division Series. 

The Orioles have lost their past five playoff games counting four in the 2014 AL Championship Series to the Royals and they lost the one-game AL Wild Card Game at the Blue Jays in 2016.

Baltimore (101-61, .623) won the AL East this season for the first time since 2014. The Orioles ended the year two games ahead of the Rays.

Texas (90-72, .556) lost four of its final six regular season games to end the year tied with Houston atop the AL West. But they lost the tiebreaker and Houston advanced to the postseason as the AL West champs and second seed while Texas moved on as the No. 5 AL seed.

Then the Rangers, after the disappointing end to the regular season, won at The Trop against the Rays by 4-0 Tuesday and 7-1 Wednesday to advance past the Wild Card round to now play the top-seeded Orioles. For the Rangers, they snapped a six-game postseason losing streak and improved to 5-8 all-time in playoff series.

He may have a career ERA of 7.63 in seven career games versus Baltimore batters and that includes a start this year in April in Texas when he allowed seven runs over 2 2/3 innings, but the Rangers are going with lefty Andrew Heaney (10-6, 4.15 ERA) as their Game 1 starter today.

He will oppose Orioles righty Kyle Bradish (12-7, 2.83 ERA) today at 1:03 p.m. in the opener of the American League Division Series at Camden Yards.

"We looked at a lot of things, but, number one, we looked at how well he's been throwing the ball," Texas manager Bruce Bochy said during his pregame press conference. "We had to win in Seattle. He pitched that game. He threw the ball well. He's our freshest guy. And they're a team that does a lot of platooning. And lefty or righty, they were going to match up. And we felt like he's the guy to go right now."

Heaney made the start last Saturday at Seattle and pitched 4 1/3 scoreless on five hits, throwing 85 pitches. He also threw nine scoreless innings combined over his past four games with three of them out of the bullpen.

Also, while Heaney had that poor start in April against the Orioles, on May 27 in Baltimore he allowed just one run over seven innings to the Orioles.

Tyler Wells doesn’t remember much about it now. But he once attended a Major League Baseball playoff game. He recalls it was in 2018 and it was at Dodger Stadium. He remembered going with his dad and that “Justin Turner did something cool, but I don’t remember what it was.”

Starting today he can make some of his own memories and take part in an MLB playoff game as the Orioles host Texas this afternoon to start the American League Division Series.

After 101 regular-season wins, the Orioles are three wins from reaching the AL Championship Series, seven wins from reaching the World Series and 11 from winning it.

For Wells, it’s a wonderful and exciting time, and one that was not guaranteed even a few weeks ago. He spent nearly two months in the minors. Coming out of the All-Star break he gave up 11 runs in nine innings over three starts and soon after found himself in Double-A Bowie and later Triple-A Norfolk. He finally returned to the O's active roster Sept. 22 and has thrown five hitless and scoreless innings upon his return to the majors.

“It’s incredibly special. I think it’s just made me a little more grateful,” said Wells. “To share the field with these guys and just enjoy it. It is hard to put into words how much appreciation I have for it.

The wait is almost over for the Orioles. A young team that went from losing 110 games in 2021 to winning 101 this year. Their first playoff game is set for 1:03 p.m. on Saturday at Oriole Park when they host the Texas Rangers to start the American League Division Series.

O’s catcher Adley Rutschman played his first big league game on May 21, 2022. Before too long, both last year and this year, other young players from the O’s farm were joining him in Baltimore. And a young team was winning and winning a lot.

“To see guys go through multiple years of development, experience that together, see them end up at this spot achieving their dream and their goals is really cool,” Rutschman said today during a pre-series press conference at Camden Yards. “You feel invested in the process and their journey. I’m just excited for these guys. To see their character and they are such good guys, you want to see them succeed. I think that is what makes our clubhouse so close – you have guys that care about each other genuinely. It makes it that much more exciting and better to show up to the ballpark each day.

“I'm super excited. This is a complete blessing to have an opportunity like this to play postseason baseball with a great group of guys in the stadium with an electric atmosphere. So, there's nothing more you can really ask for. The opportunity to do something like this is amazing, you kind of cherish it.”

There is a buzz in and around the city and region in anticipation of Saturday’s game.

I first met Matt Hicks somewhere I guess it was in 1985 or 1986 maybe as we were both broadcasting high school football and teams we were covering were going to play each other in the Maryland state playoffs. It was Frederick High of Frederick County on my end against McDonough High of Charles County, the team Matt was covering. 

He was an outstanding broadcaster then and remains that many years later as a radio broadcaster in his 11^th year with the Texas Rangers. Matt has broadcast baseball play-by-play for 34 years and from 1989-1994 broadcast the games of the O’s Frederick Keys affiliate.

A Washington, D.C. native who grew up following his hometown Senators until they moved, Matt would later get his baseball fix attending games with friends and traveling to 33^rd Street watching the Orioles at Memorial Stadium. He grew up in Prince George’s County, is a graduate of Bladensburg High and is a 1983 University of Maryland grad. This Terp is back in the state where he grew up. When we see each other this weekend, neither of us is covering high school football any longer, but those were fun days too.

The Rangers and Orioles play Game 1 of the American League Division Series tomorrow afternoon. The winner of the best-of-five series advances to the AL Championship Series.

The Rangers are on what amounts to a two-week road trip. Starting Sept. 25, they ended the regular season with three games in Anaheim against the Angels and four in Seattle vs. the Mariners. When they failed to win the AL West on the final day, it was a cross-country flight to Tampa where they would beat the Tampa Bay Rays two in a row, and they landed in Baltimore Thursday afternoon.

When the regular season was winding down for the Orioles, they went through an eight-game stretch from Sept. 15-22 when they allowed nine runs once, seven runs twice and five runs twice. But then their pitching was really rolling in the season’s final eight games, pitching two shutouts in that span and allowing one run or less five times.

But the Baltimore offense was certainly not rolling. They hit just .138 scoring eight runs in the last four-game series versus Boston. In the last 11 games, the Orioles scored two runs or fewer seven times.

But over the long haul, the stats covering all 162 games, this just served to improve the O’s in the pitching stats. Their final team ERA of 3.89 ranks fifth best in the American League. And while their final runs scored per game dipped under 5.00 to finish at 4.98, that is still fourth best in the AL.

And while there are many different stats we could look at to evaluate their pitching and offense, ranking fifth in pitching ERA and fourth in scoring is a pretty good combination, one that led this team to 101 wins.

But should Birdland worry about an offense that scored just 32 runs while hitting only three homers in those last 11 games?

For the Orioles Gunnar Henderson, seemingly on his way to the American League Rookie of the Year Award, a season that ended well did not start that way.

In mid-May, when he was batting .170 with a .651 OPS, some around Birdland wondered if a trip back to the minors was needed. But team management never flinched, they remained confident in the then 21-year-old talent, and that confidence was rewarded.

Henderson ended the year batting .255/.325/.489/.814 with 29 doubles, nine triples, 28 homers, 100 runs and 82 RBIs. He set an O’s rookie record with 66 extra-base hits and his OPS+ was 125. After that slow start into mid-May, his OPS was .849 his last 117 games.

On his way to winning the Most Valuable Oriole award, he led MLB rookies with 6.3 Wins Above Replacement per baseball-reference.com and also led them in home runs and extra-base hits.

Among all AL position players, just Marcus Semien (7.4) and Corey Seager (6.9) of Texas produced more bWAR although he ranked 12^th in the league in fWAR.

It has been an interesting last 13 or 14 months for Orioles Triple-A pitcher Chayce McDermott. Last Aug. 1, he was acquired from Houston in a three-team trade that sent Trey Mancini to the Astros. Houston had drafted McDermott in 2021 in round four out of Ball State.

This season he advanced from Double-A to Triple-A in mid-July and ends his first full season in the organization named Saturday as the O’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year, winning the Jim Palmer Award.

Ranked as the club’s No. 10 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 14 via Baseball America, MLB Pipeline ranks him as the club’s top pitching prospect.

Late last season his life was uprooted by the trade, but this season ends with the Palmer award. Joining the Orioles has proven to be huge for McDermott, who turned 25 Aug. 22.

“I think people overlook sometimes that getting traded is very hard,” he said Saturday after the announcement of his award. “You get used to an organization and then you pick up and move. Meet new people, new coaches. But I feel like it was a super smooth transition, super easy. I love everyone in the Orioles organization, and they have been super helpful in my career. Now it just feels like I am part of the family.”

When the public memorial at Camden Yards began this morning, held fittingly on the foul ground right near the third base bag, emcee Scott Garceau from the Orioles broadcast team began the program saying - “I’m sure we’re all here for the same reason – we love Brooks Robinson.”

Over the next hour or so that love was on display as fellow Hall of Famers, former teammates, representatives from all around Major League Baseball, current Orioles and fans, or as Brooks would call them, "friends," honored the player that many call the greatest third baseman ever.

Early in the ceremony, among the speakers were Grant and Brooks Farley, two of Robinson's grandchildren and his son Brooks David Robinson.

“RIP Dad, we love you and if there is anything you can do up there to help the Orioles bring another championship to Baltimore, we'd greatly appreciate it," the younger Brooks said.

O's Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray spoke, as did former O's first baseman Boog Powell and former third baseman Doug DeCinces.

Next stop for the Orioles – the MLB postseason. Their next game will be Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday Oct. 7 at Baltimore’s Camden Yards against the Tampa Bay-Texas wild card series winner.

They are three wins from the League Championship Series, seven from the World Series and 11 from winning the World Series for the first time since 1983.

They will enter the playoffs with a roster devoid of much playoff experience. Manager Brandon Hyde though believes his club has indeed had big-game experience dating to late last season. And he believes it will help a lot coming up.

“I think it started last year with all the close games that we won and the type of games that we played, (and those) benefitted us big time this year,” said Hyde. “We’ve won a ton of one-run games (going 30-16) and won a lot of close games late. I think it’s been beneficial for the regular season and feel like we’ve been playing playoff-type games. Especially these last couple of weeks. The four games against Tampa, three games in Houston. Feel like we needed to win those two in Cleveland. Felt the guys wanted that and needed that. So, I feel like we’ve been playing some high-pressure games and I hope that benefits us in the postseason.

“But you never really know. There are a lot of guys without postseason experience. I do believe in the makeup of our club, I think it’s a real confident group. The young guys that have never been in the playoffs, they play with a ton of confidence. I don’t think they’ll be shaken by how different postseason baseball is.”

The Orioles end the 2023 regular season today against the same team they started with back on March 30 - the Boston Red Sox. They won that game 10-9, their first win on their way to 101 and an AL East championship.

This year this will not be the last game. The Orioles, the No. 1 seed with home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs, will host Game 1 of the AL Division Series at Oriole Park on Saturday, Oct. 7.

At 101-60, Baltimore will head into the final game with a three-game lead over Tampa Bay (98-63). Even though those clubs have the two best records in the league, they could meet in the ALDS next week.

The Rays will be the fourth seed for the AL playoffs and the Orioles, as the top seed, will play the winner of the No. 4 versus No. 5 wild-card round. The Blue Jays could very well be that No. 5 team, but going into the final day today, it could still also be the Astros or Rangers.

The Orioles' 5-2 win last night ensured they will finish this season with a winning record over every other AL East team for the first time since 2014.

The Orioles' Triple-A affiliate, the Norfolk Tides, won a franchise record 90 games this year, setting several team records along the way. Then they lost the first game of the best-of-three International League championship series last Tuesday, before winning two in a row to take their first IL crown since 1985.

But the Tides had one more big win in them last night as they beat Oklahoma City 7-6 to win the Triple-A championship game in Las Vegas, pitting the IL champion Tides against the Pacific Coast League champion Dodgers.

Norfolk trailed 2-1 in the top of the seventh but had the bases loaded with two outs. Down 0-2 in the count against lefty Alec Gamboa, Colton Cowser mashed a grand slam to right center to turn the one-run deficit into a 5-2 lead with one swing. He hit the ball with a 107.6 mph exit velocity and it went 455 feet and deep into the Las Vegas night.

A mammoth blast just when the Tides needed it by the player ranked No. 11 on the top 100 by Baseball America and No. 14 by MLBPipeline.com.

On a cell phone call from the Las Vegas ballpark postgame, I asked Cowser what it felt like to mash a baseball in such a big spot.

And then there were two. Two games left in the 2023 regular season as the American League East champion Orioles (100-60) tonight host last-place Boston (77-83) in the third game of a four-game series at Oriole Park. 

The Orioles won their 100th game and clinched the division title with Thursday's 2-0 win. They lost to Boston 3-0 last night as they were held to three hits and blanked for the ninth time this season.

The Orioles offense has scored two runs or fewer in four of the last six and six of the last nine games. Baltimore batters have scored eight runs over the last four games and 26 in the past nine. They have hit just three homers in those nine games.

In this series the Orioles are 7-for-55 (.127) with two doubles and one homer, scoring two runs and going 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

The loss Friday ended Baltimore's five-game win streak by a combined 15-3 score. Over longer stretches, the Orioles have still won nine of 13, 17 of 26 and 29 of the last 44 games.