The Orioles close out their four-game series against the Yankees this afternoon with Kyle Bradish making his fifth start. He’s allowed six runs and 16 hits in 22 innings, with eight walks, 30 strikeouts and only two home runs.

Bradish hasn’t faced the Yankees since May 2, 2024, his first outing after leaving the injured list. He allowed one run in 4 2/3 innings. The previous start against them was on July 6, 2023 in the Bronx, when he tossed six scoreless innings. He also faced them on the road May 23, 2023, when he allowed four runs in five innings.

Bradish’s final start in 2022 came against the Yankees, again on the road, where he allowed an unearned run over five innings. The second matchup at Camden Yards occurred in his fourth major league start on May 16, 2022, when he surrendered four runs and eight hits in 4 1/3.

Aaron Judge, who hit his 49^th home run last night, is 0-for-5 with three walks and two strikeouts against Bradish.

Per STATS: Bradish has a first-pitch strike percentage of 73.2 against right-handed hitters this season, compared to 57.8 versus left-handers.

NEW YORK – Has everybody caught their breath since the end of Saturday’s game? Whew, what a finish for the Nationals, who blew a three-run lead in the eighth and ninth, only to win it in the 11th on Daylen Lile’s inside-the-park home run. Just like that, the Nats had perhaps their signature win of the season while the Mets saw their lead in the National League Wild Card race drop to one game over the Reds, two games over the Diamondbacks.

The series concludes this afternoon, with Jake Irvin on the mound hoping to right his ship and come up with a quality start in this big game. The right-hander hasn’t actually delivered a quality start in nearly two months, not since his July 27 gem in his hometown of Minneapolis. As always, the two keys for Irvin are getting through the first inning with a zero on the board and keeping the ball in the yard. He has surrendered 35 homers, most in the majors and three shy of Josiah Gray’s single-season club record.

The Mets are going with a bit of an unconventional pitching plan in this one. Veteran left-hander Sean Manaea will make the start and go as far as he can. He’ll then be replaced by veteran right-hander Clay Holmes, who in theory could go the rest of the way and give the entire bullpen the day off. We’ll see if that plan actually works or not. The Nationals actually did a good job each of the last two nights making a rookie Mets starter work and preventing him from pitching deep into the game. Can they take a similar approach with Manaea and Holmes and have success?

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK METS
Where: Citi Field
Gametime: 1:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly sunny, 71 degrees, wind 9 mph in from right field

NATIONALS
DH James Wood
RF Dylan Crews
1B Josh Bell
LF Daylen Lile
2B Paul DeJong
C Jorge Alfaro
3B Brady House
SS Nasim Nuñez
CF Jacob Young

Plotting an offseason strategy to improve the roster and the Orioles’ chances of reaching the playoffs in 2026 requires a deep-dive into the weaknesses that must be addressed and an accurate measurement of payroll flexibility.

Contending comes at a cost.

The trade deadline, free agency and Félix Bautista’s shoulder surgery created openings across the board - in the rotation, bullpen, infield and outfield. The Orioles have room for Jorge Mateo and a need for a utility-type player with elite speed, but he might be running out of time.

Mateo is coming off back-to-back, injury-shortened seasons, appearing in only 68 games in 2024 before undergoing reconstructive elbow surgery and 40 this summer due to elbow inflammation and a hamstring strain that he sustained on his rehab assignment.

The Orioles added Mateo to their expanded September roster, but he’s started only four times – three since Wednesday against left-handers, and received 15 at-bats. He went 0-for-3 with a strikeout last night, is hitting .184/.225/.276 and owed $5.5 million next season.

The punishment that Tomoyuki Sugano absorbed tonight in the first inning looked a lot worse on the scoreboard than on the field.

Still counts, though.

Aaron Judge poked a two-out single into right-center field at 88.2 mph, and Cody Bellinger followed with a looping single to right at 68.5. Giancarlo Stanton lined a sweeper the opposite way, the ball carrying only 358 feet but reaching the first row of fans above the out-of-town scoreboard.

The sequence didn’t seem alarming but it set the tone, with the Orioles losing to the Yankees 6-1 before an announced crowd of 37,675 at Camden Yards and guaranteeing a sub-.500 finish to the season.

Judge hit his 49^th home run leading off the third, a full-count sweeper – the eighth pitch of the at-bat – staying fair down the left field line at 112.2 mph and landing deep in the lower section. That one was loud.

NEW YORK – The Nationals looked defeated, having just squandered Cade Cavalli’s five scoreless innings when Jose A. Ferrer surrendered three runs in search of a six-out save that was not to be. Citi Field was rocking, the Mets just needed to push across one more run to move one step closer to a playoff berth and the Nats were out of reliable relievers.

And then Daylen Lile decided to step up and turn an already remarkable September into something even more remarkable.

With an 11th-inning inside-the-park home run, Lile gave the Nationals the lead back in stunning fashion, then watched as PJ Poulin finished it off in the bottom of the inning for a most unlikely 5-3 victory to deal the Mets’ playoff hopes a serious blow.

"I keep saying it, but this team has a lot of fight in it," Lile said. "We're young. And I feel like we're opening a lot of eyes."

Lile, who on Friday night tied the club’s single-season record with his 11th triple, ripped a line drive off the wall in deep left-center off sidearm reliever Tyler Rogers. That guaranteed automatic runner Andres Chaparro would score the go-ahead run, and it seemed to guarantee Lile had just broken Denard Span’s triples record set in 2013.

The 2025 season hasn’t gone the way that anyone had hoped. 

At 73-81, the Orioles are likely on their way to a losing season, playing spoiler rather than contender. Just two active members of Baltimore’s roster have played more than 85 games, and only two pitchers have started more than 20 contests. 

Yet, despite disappointing results, there have been no shortage of positive stories. This week on “The Bird’s Nest,” we broke down some of our favorites. 

If you missed this week’s show, you can watch the full episode here: https://masn.me/v3mmyrwe. 

Trevor Rogers 

The Orioles claimed right-hander Dom Hamel on waivers today from the Mets and optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk. The 40-man roster is full.

Hamel, 26, was a third-round draft pick in 2021 out of Dallas Baptist University. His only major league appearance came on Wednesday against the Padres and he tossed a scoreless inning with three hits allowed and a hit batter.

Hamel made 31 appearances (11 starts) with Triple-A Syracuse and posted a 5.32 ERA and 1.330 WHIP. He struck out 75 batters in 67 2/3 innings.

Alex Jackson is catching tonight in a mostly right-handed lineup. Ryan Mountcastle is the designated hitter. Jorge Mateo gets another start in center field, which moves Colton Cowser to the bench.

Tomoyuki Sugano makes his 29^th start. His ERA is down to 4.39 in 149 2/3 innings after holding the Blue Jays to one run in six frames in Toronto.

NEW YORK – Josiah Gray has made it through his prescribed rehab program healthy. Now the Nationals must decide if they want to activate the right-hander to make one final game appearance in the big leagues before season’s end, fully completing his return from last summer’s Tommy John surgery.

Gray threw 45 pitches Friday night for Triple-A Rochester, tossing 2 2/3 scoreless and hitless innings while walking three and striking out two. That was his third rehab start across three levels of the minor leagues, a stint that ended with zero runs allowed across 6 2/3 total innings, with four hits, five walks and five strikeouts.

With the minor league season ending Sunday, there’s nowhere left for Gray to pitch, unless the Nats believe he’s ready to be activated off the 60-day injured list and pitch for them during next weekend’s final series against the White Sox. The club has not yet made that decision, according to interim manager Miguel Cairo.

“We’re seeing what we’re going to do,” Cairo said this afternoon. “We’ll wait to see. And as soon as I know, I will let you know.”

The Nationals don’t believe a big league start is necessary for Gray before he heads into the offseason, eventually building his arm back up for spring training. But they remained open to the idea if they believed it was worthwhile and wanted to wait until after he made his final rehab start to make that decision.

NEW YORK – Game one of this weekend series didn’t go so well for the Nationals, who took an early 4-1 lead over the Mets but ultimately lost 12-6 behind poor pitching and poor defense. New York, in the process, maintained its two-game lead over the victorious Reds for the final wild card berth in the National League with eight games to go.

They’ll be back at it this afternoon, with another matchup of rookie pitchers on the mound.

Cade Cavalli makes his ninth start, his first against the Mets. The right-hander has allowed three or fewer in six of his first eight outings, an encouraging development overall. Because he’s been held to five innings for the most part, though, Cavalli’s ERA is a bit inflated at 4.76. He also has struck out only three total batters over his last two starts, low by his standards. We’ll see how he fares in this one against a Mets lineup that ranks second in the NL in homers and eighth in strikeouts.

Nolan McLean is yet another New York rookie who has burst onto the scene over the last month, opening his career 4-1 with a 1.19 ERA. The 2023 draft pick has reached the sixth inning in each of his previous six starts, averaging nearly seven strikeouts per outing. He has a deep arsenal that features a mid-90s sinker and a mid-80s sweeper. The Nats did a nice job Friday night of figuring out fellow rookie Brandon Sproat as the game progressed. Perhaps they can do the same against McLean.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK METS
Where: Citi Field
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 75 degrees, wind 8 mph in from right field

The Orioles won’t have much of a presence in the voting for the four major awards, which is part of the fallout from being in last place and underachieving to such a large degree. The shows will go on without them.

There’s always 2026.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America is adding a reliever award next year, but it wouldn’t have mattered this summer. Félix Bautista was the only hope and he hasn’t pitched since July 20, before his surgery to repair his labrum and rotator cuff. And he might not return until 2027.

None of the Orioles are expected to sneak onto the 10-man ballot for Most Valuable Player after Gunnar Henderson finished eighth and fourth in his first two seasons. Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh and Bobby Witt Jr. can battle it out for first place.

The rookie ballot is expanding from three to five players, but the Orioles probably will be shut out again unless Tomoyuki Sugano gets some backend support. We can talk about Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers next season.  

Trevor Rogers sprinted from the dugout to the mound tonight after Jackson Holliday made the last out in the bottom of the fifth inning. Yankees players hadn’t started to come off the field and Rogers wanted to begin warming. He might have set a land speed record.

Rogers exudes confidence, always in control, always giving the Orioles a chance, whether he’s working in a five- or six-man rotation.

Ryan Mountcastle moved down from leadoff to cleanup tonight and gave them an early lead with the loudest home run of his career, and he expanded it with a sacrifice fly.

Reduced to playing the role of spoiler, the Orioles slowed the Yankees’ pursuit of first place in the division with a 4-2 victory before an announced crowd of 26,269 at Camden Yards.

Rogers tossed five no-hit innings before Austin Wells led off the sixth with a groundball single. Dylan Beavers made two outstanding catches on consecutive plays to ensure that Rogers would keep the Yankees scoreless under his watch, and the Orioles improved to 73-81 while preserving their slim hopes of a .500 season. They’ve got to run the table.

NEW YORK – A Nationals roster loaded with rookies and a bunch of others with only slightly more experience stepped into the cauldron that is Citi Field on a Friday night in late September, recognizing it was going to require both productive and clean baseball to take down a Mets team fighting for its postseason life right now.

They actually got the productive baseball part down, scoring six runs by the fifth inning and watching rookie Andrew Alvarez induce a bunch of ground balls out of the most imposing lineup he’s faced so far in the majors.

They didn’t come close to getting the clean baseball part down, and that’s ultimately was cost them during a 12-6 loss to New York in which they very much looked the part of a 92-loss team crawling toward the finish line nine days from now.

Committing three errors to go along with several other sloppy plays in the field, the Nationals helped make life a whole lot easier for the Mets, who needed this win to maintain a two-game lead over the Reds (who beat the Cubs tonight) for the final Wild Card berth in the National League. (The Diamondbacks also can remain within two games if they beat the Phillies later tonight.)

Whether this one ballgame before a boisterous crowd of 39,484 proves these Nats aren’t yet ready for this kind of spotlight is debatable. Either way, they didn’t come close to putting their best foot forward on a night that demanded a much better brand of baseball for them to emerge victorious.

The Nationals are moving Mitchell Parker to the bullpen for the remainder of the season, a reflection both of the left-hander’s year-long struggles and the recent emergence of rookie Andrew Alvarez in the rotation.

Parker, whose 16 losses and 5.85 ERA both rank last in the majors, was informed of the switch earlier this week and said he understands the club’s rationale, even though he’s never pitched in relief before.

“Obviously, this year hasn’t been ideal,” he said. “And really, it is what it is. Roles change, goals stay the same. Still got to pitch, still got to get guys out, still trying to win ballgames.”

In spite of his struggles, Parker had held onto his starting job for months, with no viable alternatives knocking on the door in the Nats’ farm system. But when MacKenzie Gore landed on the 15-day injured list in late-August with a minor shoulder issue, the club promoted Alvarez from Triple-A Rochester and then watched the left-hander deliver a 1.15 ERA over his first three big league starts.

Gore’s return to the active roster last week left the Nationals with six healthy starters, but they stuck with the extra man knowing they’d need him to get through Tuesday’s day-night doubleheader against the Braves. Now that they’ve reached the season’s final stretch, with nine remaining games over the next 10 days, they decided there was no need to use a six-man rotation.

Interim manager Tony Mansolino received the news of his bump from third base coach after a May 16 loss to the Nationals at Camden Yards, and his immediate thought turned to the rest of the staff. The uncertainty for everyone moving forward.

He could relate and sympathize.

Mansolino witnessed it through his childhood. He’s dealing with it now, unsure whether he’s returning in 2026. What's here today can be gone tomorrow.

“Listen, I grew up, and I can use my history as a kid, I watched my dad (Doug) be on one-year contracts for most of his career,” Mansolino said. “I watched my dad get fired, get sent home, have to look for a job, and just saw how that affected our family. I lived it, so I’m very sensitive to it and understand it. And in this situation here, I think once this all happened in May, my first reaction was the room, the staff. Because usually what happens in these scenarios is, things change quite a bit.

“Now, I’m hoping that our coaches are recognized for the job that they’ve done here over the last four months. I was just informed that, I guess we’re about to set a record for players used. I had no idea. But if we use that many players and we’ve traded everybody and done the whole deal, and our guys have played the way they have, I hope that reflects upon that coaching room in there. I really hope it does. And they deserve it.

Trevor Rogers makes his 17^th start tonight as the Orioles try to even their series with the Yankees following last night’s 7-0 loss, their 15^th shutout of the season.

Rogers is 8-2 with a 1.43 ERA and 0.894 WHIP in 100 2/3 innings. He’s allowed two runs or fewer in 15 starts.

His ERA is the lowest by any major league pitcher through the first 16 starts of a season since Nolan Ryan’s 1.29 in 1981, per STATS. And it’s the fourth-lowest in a minimum 15 starts since 1920, after Satchel Paige (1.01 in 1944), Jacob deGrom (1.08 in 2021) and Bob Gibson (1.12 in 1968). Dwight Gooden is behind Rogers with a 1.53 ERA in 1985.

Opponents have a .408 OPS against Rogers through six home starts. Per STATS, he’s the first American League pitcher with that mark or lower through his first six home starts, with a minimum 150 batters faced, since Ryan in 1979.

Tonight marks Rogers’ first game against the Yankees in 2025. He’s faced them twice and allowed two runs in 6 2/3 innings.

NEW YORK – Hello from Citi Field, where tonight the Nationals open their final road trip of the season with the opener of a big weekend series against the Mets. Big for the Mets, that is. New York is clinging to a two-game lead over the Diamondbacks and Reds for the final Wild Card berth in the National League. These games mean a lot to the locals. The Nats, who just got swept by a Braves team playing for nothing, perhaps will be inspired playing in front of a big crowd and a team fighting for its postseason life.

We’ve got a matchup of rookie pitchers tonight. And not just rookies, but extremely inexperienced rookies. Andrew Alvarez makes his fourth career start for the Nationals. Brandon Sproat makes his third career start for the Mets.

Alvarez (1-0, 1.15 ERA) has been outstanding so far, but the left-hander faces probably his toughest challenge yet in Juan Soto, Pete Alonso and the rest of the Mets. Alvarez has managed to surrender only seven hits in 15 2/3 innings to date, and only two of those hits have gone for extra bases (one double, one homer). Can he somehow keep that going tonight?

Sproat, a second-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft out of Florida, was OK in his major league debut against the Reds (three runs in six innings), then great in his next start against the Rangers (six scoreless innings). The right-hander throws a 95-96 mph fastball, but has a deep repertoire of five pitches that he has already thrown at least 12 percent of the time each, so the Nats' hitters need to be ready for anything.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK METS
Where: Citi Field
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 80 degrees, wind 6 mph in from left field

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Recalled RHP Jose Espada from Triple-A Norfolk. He will wear No. 72.
• Placed RHP Chayce McDermott on the Bereavement/Family Medical Emergency List.
• RHP Scott Blewett (right elbow discomfort) was returned from his rehab assignment, reinstated from the 60-day Injured List, and designated for assignment.
• INF Emmanuel Rivera cleared outright waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 39 players.

Some leftovers are more appetizing than others. For instance, the container of Chinese food that I ordered before flying to Chicago has no business being in my refrigerator. The plastic lid is corroding.

However, the mailbag questions that weren’t used earlier this week remain fresh – except for the one asking whether Hanser Alberto has a future in Baltimore. Don’t know how I missed that one. Must have gotten pushed to the back like my beef lo mein.

Here are some extras that didn’t make the first cut.

Do the Orioles expect Grayson Rodriguez to be ready for spring training?
Absolutely. He underwent a procedure on his right elbow to remove a bone spur on Aug. 11. That's plenty of recovery time. There's a reason why he did it last month. And it was a bone spur. We're not talking reconstructive surgery here. The question is whether he remains a starter and can he make it through an entire season healthy. He hasn't pitched in a major league game since July 31, 2024. Counting on him to work near or at the top of the rotation and getting nothing from him is one reason why the season went south.

Will Jackson Holliday get reps in center field next spring, Maybe Coby Mayo in right field some? It sure would help if we have as many extra-inning games next year as this one.
Plans for players in camp will reveal themselves later, but the Orioles seem committed to keeping Holliday and Mayo on the right side of the infield. They didn’t give Mayo reps in right field last spring and have settled on first base as his permanent home. He isn’t working out at third anymore. Holliday stands a better chance of becoming a plus defender at second if he isn’t experimenting with the outfield. Any changes with these players would be a surprise.

With five of their final six series coming against sub-.500 clubs, the Nationals haven’t really had a chance to play any meaningful baseball down the stretch of the season. With one exception: This weekend’s series in New York.

The Mets are the only opponent on the Nats’ late-September schedule that both owns a winning record and is still fighting for a postseason berth. New York enters the day holding a slim, 2-game lead over the Diamondbacks and Reds (and possibly the Giants, pending the outcome of their game late Thursday night against the Dodgers) with nine to play.

Which means the Nationals have a real opportunity to make a difference this weekend, whether hurting or helping the Mets’ chances.

Given how poorly they played earlier this week against a fourth-place Braves team, there’s little reason to think they’re going to flip the switch and perform better against a much better opponent now. But in a strange twist to this most frustrating 2025 season, some of their best performances actually have come against better competition.

The Nats have a winning head-to-head record this year against seven opposing teams. And four of them are playoff contenders: the Tigers, Mariners, Diamondbacks and Reds. They’ve also won individual series along the way against the Dodgers, Mets, Cubs and Giants.

The quest for a .500 season just got a little harder.

A 7-0 loss to the Yankees tonight, played before an announced crowd of 25,253 at Camden Yards, left the Orioles at 72-81 with only nine games remaining in the season. They need to run the table to post a non-losing record.

The schedule includes six more games with the Yankees, including the final series in the Bronx, and three versus the Rays at home. 

Cade Povich allowed three runs and five hits with four walks and five strikeouts in five innings and carries a 5.06 ERA into his final start, assuming that the six-man rotation remains untouched. He couldn’t keep up with Yankees left-hander Max Fried, who tossed seven scoreless innings and tied his career high with 13 strikeouts.

Coby Mayo had the only hit off Fried, a one-out single in the second, until Ryan Mountcastle’s single with one out in the sixth. Twelve Orioles in a row were retired.