The Blue Jays lost last night in Sacramento and left the Guardians alone with the final Wild Card.

The Orioles keep chasing it.

They’re three games back and trying tonight to clinch a series win over the Guardians at Camden Yards.

Coby Mayo is the cleanup hitter tonight and serving as designated hitter.

Mayo hit his 20th and 21st home runs yesterday, and his 16 against left-handers rank second in Orioles history after Gary Roenicke’s 18 in 1983.

You know what happened that season.

Mayo also extended his hitting streak to 11 games. He’s batting .279/.331/.574 in 42 games since the All-Star break.

“The game is very unforgiving and it’s a very tough league, especially when you’re young and coming up and you have these high expectations,” Mayo said. “People think that you’re just going to hit the ground running and be an All-Star by year one or year two, and that’s just not realistic sometimes. Sometimes it takes longer, and I’m still figuring it out.

“Nothing’s ever done. You’ve never figured it out in this game. So when you’re feeling good and stuff’s going your way, you just want to keep riding that as long as you can, because this game is super, super hard and, like I said, very unforgiving. You just don’t want to ever underestimate the game.”

Mayo slashed .193/.264/.395 in 74 games before the break. The Orioles didn’t put him back on the shuttle, and now he’s becoming an established major leaguer.

“Early in the year, it’s tough,” Mayo said. “You’re trying to get off to a strong start. Everyone always wants to hit .300 the first month. You’re trying to just start off hot, because it’s easier to play when you’re hitting really good than trying to play catch-up all year. Early in the year is also cold and I’ve never been the best cold-weather hitter. But just happy that the results have been good recently.” 

“The second half of the season, he’s shown that he’s resilient,” said manager Craig Albernaz. “I mean, going through the first half, it’s just like any young player navigating the ups and downs of the season. He did a great job of doing that. Now you look up, he has two of them today, his 20th and 21st of the year. One off a lefty, which he’s been handling extremely well, and one off a righty.

“He’s getting more confidence, especially his first at-bat when he drove it to right field, was a good sign for him, like we talked about, going the other way. Coby’s starting to get confident and understand what he does really well in the box.”

Mayo is hitting .323 with a 1.135 OPS against left-handers and .164 with a .513 OPS against right-handers. Fortunately for the Orioles, it’s become an advantage to see a bunch of lefties lately – three in the Red Sox series and two more against the Guardians.

They get right-hander Tanner Bibee tonight and lefty Foster Griffin in Wednesday’s series finale.

Asked about finding more starts for Mayo against right-handers, Albernaz said, “It’s I guess a balance, and also we understand who the really tough righties are. And also, we have some good left-handed hitters, as well, so it’s finding the spots.

“With Coby, even if it’s a tough righty, he’s still dangerous in the box, just staying diligent to approach. But yeah, it’s a delicate balance, and that’s what I talk to hitting guys all the time about in-game. Talk to Donnie (Ecker) just to see if I’m missing anything, where we’re at, if this is a good at-bat for him. The tougher ones is when it’s a leverage spot with guys on base. But yeah, Coby, he’s slowly this year becoming a real dangerous hitter.”

Blaze Alexander is at third base, Leody Taveras is in right field and Colton Cowser is in center. Samuel Basallo is catching.

Brandon Young is 9-3 with a 3.42 ERA and likely to receive votes for Most Valuable Oriole. He’s got back-to-back quality starts with one run in seven innings against the Athletics in Sacramento and three runs in 6 2/3 against the Red Sox. And he held the Rays to two runs in 5 2/3 innings on Aug. 22.

Young faced Cleveland last season and allowed three runs in 4 1/3 innings. José Ramírez homered.

Bibee’s 15 losses are tied with Shane Baz for most in the majors. Baz starts on Wednesday.

Bibee had three consecutive quality starts and seven of nine before his most recent outing, when he allowed five runs in four innings against the Blue Jays. He shut out the Orioles over six innings on April 17 and owns a 3.65 ERA against them in four career starts.

Gunnar Henderson is 4-for-12 with two doubles and a home run against Bibee. Taveras is 4-for-11. Pete Alonso is 3-for-6. Heston Kjerstad is 3-for-5 with a double and home run, but he’s on the bench.

For the Orioles
Jackson Holliday 2B
Pete Alonso 1B
Gunnar Henderson SS
Coby Mayo DH
Samuel Basallo C
Dylan Beavers LF
Blaze Alexander 3B
Colton Cowser CF
Leody Taveras RF

Brandon Young RHP

Ryan Helsley is throwing live batting practice today at Camden Yards. Ryan Mountcastle and Christian Franklin are starting their hitting progressions. Franklin is in Sarasota.

Update: Helsley totaled 24 pitches in his live batting practice session. He threw everything in his mix and his velocity was mid-to-90s, according to Albernaz. He also was in the strike zone.

“He looked great out there,” Albernaz said.

“The biggest thing is how he wakes up tomorrow, how he feels. That’s going to be predicated on kind of like the next step. We’re just trying to get a bunch of different plans in place and variables, but ultimately is how he responds from this.”

Outfielder Luis Robert Jr. will rehab his injured left hamstring with the team instead of reporting to the Sarasota complex.

The Orioles are 2-for-29 with runners in scoring position since the homestand began on Thursday.

For the Guardians
Steven Kwan LF
Travis Bazzana 2B
José Ramírez 3B
Jo Adell DH
Nathaniel Lowe 1B
Angel Martínez RF
Patrick Bailey C
Petey Halpin CF
Brayan Rocchio SS

Tanner Bibee RHP