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NEW YORK – This is it.
The 162nd game will be played later this afternoon, with more first-pitch swinging if one team didn’t need the win. The Yankees are fighting for the division title, still tied with the Blue Jays. The Orioles made their travel plans and are set to scatter.
Fire the starting pistol and watch them go.
The Orioles probably need a general manager with Mike Elias’ promotion to president of baseball operations. They need to decide on a manager, which could impact the entire coaching staff. They need pitching and bats. And they need to search for silver linings in a season with 86 losses heading into today.
There must be knowledge gained from it.
The Nationals knew they needed to hit for considerably more power in 2025 to enjoy better results than they experienced in 2024. And they did manage to do it. It just took longer than expected. And still wasn’t enough in the end to produce a better won-loss record.
This final week of a difficult season, though, has shown what a difference legitimate power up and down a lineup can make. With three more blasts today during a 6-5 victory over the White Sox, the Nats have now launched 12 home runs over their last three games, bringing their season total up to 161, a 26-homer increase from a year ago.
They still rank in the bottom third of the majors, and there’s plenty of room for continued improvement in 2026. But as they look ahead, this unquestionably is a lineup capable of hitting for power with far more regularity than several previous versions were.
"Heck, yeah," said interim manager Miguel Cairo, who is still waiting to learn his fate. "It's nice to see these guys, the work they've put in every single day, and still doing it at the end of the season. It tells you what they are, and what they're going to be about. It's going to be nice to see them next year, because it's going to be a force."
Today’s blasts included yet another big hit by rookie Daylen Lile, the hottest hitter on the team and one of the hottest hitters in the sport right now. And then it included back-to-back blasts by one guy not known for power (Jacob Young) and one guy very much known for power (James Wood), flipping the game for the home team in the bottom of the seventh.
For someone who has spent more than four decades speaking for a living, Bob Carpenter found himself in a most unusual position today: Sitting back and wiping tears from his eyes as scores of others offered him praise.
On the penultimate day of his broadcasting career, Carpenter was the guest of honor for “See You Later Day,” celebrating his 20 seasons with the Nationals and 42 seasons announcing major league games. There weren’t many dry eyes in the house.
“It’s hard for me to express what I’m feeling right now,” he said.
The Nats presented Carpenter with a personalized jersey and a crystal microphone statue. Those items will go home to Tulsa with the 72-year-old. The “Bob Carpenter” sign unveiled on the façade of the home broadcast booth at Nationals Park will remain here for generations of fans to see.
In addition to in-person speeches by fellow broadcasters Kevin Frandsen and Dan Kolko, plus franchise icon (and occasional broadcaster) Ryan Zimmerman, the Nationals played a series of pre-taped messages that included such luminaries from Carpenter’s entire career as Lee Corso, Joe Buck, Ozzie Smith and Johnny Holliday.
NEW YORK – Tomoyuki Sugano’s future is up in the air with free agency approaching for the first time in the U.S.
Fewer fly balls might prolong his career, wherever he’s pitching next year.
Sugano surrendered three more home runs today and they came in the first two innings. Aaron Judge hit his 53rd, Giancarlo Stanton his 24th and third in two games, and Ryan McMahon his 20th. No one has allowed more in the American League.
The solo shots led the Yankees to a 6-1 victory over the Orioles before an announced sellout crowd of 46,085 in the penultimate game of the regular season.
The Orioles are 75-86 and assured of a last-place finish in the division. They can’t nudge the Rays out of fourth place.
There was enough action Friday night to fill an entire weekend series, but that was just one of three games scheduled between the Nationals and White Sox this weekend. Emphasis on the word “scheduled” there, because the forecast today is not good at all. Though it’s not really raining here yet, it’s supposed to start coming down at some point this afternoon and not let up through the rest of the day and evening. What does that mean for this game being played today? And if they can’t, would they actually force these two last-place teams to play a doubleheader Sunday? Stay tuned. As soon as we know anything, you’ll know it.
If and when they do play, it’ll be Jake Irvin on the mound looking for one final opportunity to end a rough season on a high note. The right-hander enters with a 5.69 ERA in 32 starts, not to mention 36 homers surrendered. That’s two shy of Josiah Gray’s single-season club record, a mark Irvin surely hopes not to match. He was better last weekend at Citi Field, though, holding the Mets to two runs over 5 1/3 innings. Perhaps he can pick up where he left off against what should be an inferior Chicago lineup.
At the plate, the Nationals will try to pick up where they left off Friday night, especially in the power department. They slugged a season-high six homers (in a losing effort, alas), with three coming off the bat of Luis Garcia Jr. alone. Today, they face former Terrapins right-hander Sean Burke, who enters with a 4.29 ERA and 1.5 homers per nine innings.
CHICAGO WHITE SOX at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Rain, 71 degrees, wind 8 mph in from center field
WHITE SOX
2B Chase Meidroth
C Kyle Teel
SS Colson Montgomery
3B Miguel Vargas
DH Edgar Quero
LF Brooks Baldwin
1B Lenyn Sosa
RF Dominic Fletcher
CF Derek Hill
NEW YORK – Dean Kremer made his final start of the season on Tuesday.
He might not be done pitching.
Interim manager Tony Mansolino said there’s a chance that Kremer is used out of the bullpen for Sunday’s finale. He’s pitched twice in relief out of 125 major league games, including seven bulk innings on June 12 against the Tigers.
“He’s been advocating to come out of the bullpen between starts from Day One, so yes, he’s advocating and we’ll see,” Mansolino said.
“There’s a day tomorrow, right? Isn’t tomorrow on turn for him? We’ll see how it goes. Depends if he’s pleasant to be around today or not.”
NEW YORK – The latest bullpen change for the Orioles came this morning with left-hander Grant Wolfram recalled from Triple-A Norfolk and left-hander Dietrich Enns going on the paternity list.
Wolfram has a 4.85 ERA and 1.769 WHIP in 20 appearances.
Ryan Mountcastle is out of the lineup again today. Coby Mayo is playing first base and Tyler O’Neill is the designated hitter.
Dylan Beavers is playing left field and Jeremiah Jackson is in right. Samuel Basallo is catching, which puts Adley Rutschman on the bench after he was behind the plate last night.
Tomoyuki Sugano makes the final start of his U.S. rookie season after posting a 4.54 ERA and 1.336 WHIP in 29 games. He avoided the injured list, which made him an exception on the 2025 Orioles.
NEW YORK – Orioles reliever Rico Garcia can inherit a mess or create his own. The outcome is the same.
The man wanders into a buzz saw and walks away without a scratch.
Garcia has kept opponents hitless in 10 at-bats this season with the bases loaded, including 0-for-1 with the Mets. It’s a neat escape act that shouldn’t be attempted by just anyone.
The Orioles beat the Red Sox 4-3 in 11 innings on Aug. 19 at Fenway Park after Garcia struck out Jarren Duran, Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida in the eighth to strand three of Kade Strowd’s runners. The Rays led 5-2 in the eighth inning Thursday at Camden Yards when Garcia replaced Strowd and allowed three consecutive singles. He struck out the next two batters, retired another on a line drive, and home runs from Coby Mayo and Dylan Beavers ignited a 6-5 walk-off win.
What’s the magic?
NEW YORK – The exit interview for Orioles left-hander Trevor Rogers won’t mimic what he heard last fall. He won’t need a new plan to get stronger physically and mentally. The conversation will be much simpler.
“I think just rub him on the back,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said earlier today, “and tell him, ‘Please do it again next year.’”
Left unspoken will be the need to avoid what happened tonight, a beating totally out of character from the 2025 version of Rogers.
The Yankees hit three home runs off Rogers in three innings, matching his entire season total, in an 8-4 victory over the Orioles before an announced crowd of 44,596. Giancarlo Stanton had a pair of two-run shots after two at-bats and Aaron Judge clubbed his 52nd.
The three homers tied Rogers’ career high. The last time it happened was May 20, 2022 against the Braves.
There was nothing at stake tonight, nor will there be all weekend, as the Nationals and White Sox wrap up equally frustrating seasons with three final games that have no bearing on the standings or any pennant race.
Tell these two last-place opponents and a boisterous crowd of 33,938 that packed into Nationals Park tonight this one meant nothing, though.
With a barrage of big home runs – three of them off the bat of Luis García Jr. alone – the Nats stormed back from seven runs down to take an improbable lead in the bottom of the eighth. Then they watched in horror as Jose A. Ferrer blew that lead in the top of the ninth and took a head-spinning, 10-9 loss to Chicago on the chin.
"That happens," García said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. "That's nothing that you can control. That's part of baseball."
After digging themselves into an 8-1 hole behind a rocky start from Cade Cavalli and some very shoddy defense behind him, the Nationals easily could’ve played out the string and accepted their 95th loss of the year. Instead, they banded together and put together one of their best rallies of the season, thanks to the kind of power display they’ve long been waiting to show everyone.
NEW YORK – The exit meetings that are held with players at this time in the year are a custom fit for each individual. The talks don’t come off the rack.
There is, however, one central message that applies to everyone, the veterans and the core that’s much shorter on experience.
Interim manager Tony Mansolino wants something specific to resonate with this group.
“That this needs to never happen again,” he said. “That we need to solve the issues that we have and we need to fix it. And it’s up to the staff and the front office to set the path forward to fix it individually and holistically for the team.”
The Orioles are two games behind the Rays for fourth place in the division, but it’s an unappetizing consolation prize. They’d like to escape the basement but won’t celebrate it, not after back-to-back playoff appearances.
There are no guarantees when it comes to prospects. Some of the best never make it to the major leagues. Some of the lesser-known names wind up enjoying long and productive careers.
The five young players who sat in the press conference room at Nationals Park this afternoon as the organization’s annual minor league award winners, though, need only look back at their predecessors from a year ago to see how significant a stepping stone it can be.
Last September, Dylan Crews, Brad Lord and Daylen Lile were among the 2024 honorees. All three now hold prominent roles on the Nats’ major league roster, with Lord and Lile in particular bursting onto the scene as full-fledged rookies this season.
“When you look at who was in that (press conference) room last year and who is now in that clubhouse, it’s something for them to build off of,” said Eddie Longosz, the Nationals’ assistant general manager for player development. “Everyone wants to get into that clubhouse. They feed off each other, and they know what it takes to get in there.”
This year’s award winners included three prospects who finished the season at Triple-A Rochester (outfielder/infielder Phillip Glasser, outfielder Andrew Pinckney, right-hander Riley Cornelio), which makes each a potential candidate for promotion in 2026.
NEW YORK – Jackson Holliday and Samuel Basallo return to the lineup tonight, as the Orioles begin their final 2025 series against the Yankees.
Basallo is serving as designated hitter after being hit on the right wrist by a fastball over the weekend. Holliday, leading off as usual, has been nursing a sore knee.
Dylan Beavers is in left field and Tyler O’Neill is in right. Coby Mayo is the first baseman.
Adley Rutschman has a .421 career on-base percentage against the Yankees, second-highest in club history with a minimum 150 plate appearances, per STATS.
Gunnar Henderson needs one more stolen base to become the youngest Oriole to swipe 30 bags in a season.
It’s been a long, often frustrating, season. And at times, it probably felt like the end couldn’t come soon enough. Well, it has come at last. Tonight the Nationals open their final series of 2025. And from a pure baseball standpoint, there’s hardly anything at stake. The fates of the Nats and White Sox have long since been determined.
But there’s still meaning to these games on an individual level, and that certainly applies to Cade Cavalli. The rookie right-hander makes his 10th and final start of the season tonight, hoping to end this already successful mini-campaign on a positive note. Cavalli is coming off a strong outing at Citi Field, shutting out the Mets over five innings. If he can hold the White Sox to zero or one run over five more innings tonight, he’ll get his ERA under 4.00, which would be a nice outcome for him and the organization.
We’ll also see if James Wood can end his roller coaster season on a high note after a really nice couple of games in Atlanta. When last we spoke Sunday, Wood seemed to have a much better chance of finishing with 223 strikeouts than he did of finishing with 30 homers. Well, he hit three bombs at Truist Park and got to 30 with three games to spare. And he didn’t strike out once, which means he’s still eight shy of Mark Reynolds’ major league record with only three games left to play. You sure hope he doesn’t threaten that mark any more.
CHICAGO WHITE SOX at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 78 degrees, wind 5 mph in from left field
WHITE SOX
2B Chase Meidroth
DH Kyle Teel
SS Colson Montgomery
3B Miguel Vargas
C Edgar Quero
CF Brooks Baldwin
1B Lenyn Sosa
LF Will Robertson
RF Dominic Fletcher
The Orioles are happy with their internal options for the starting rotation and also know that upgrades are important. They will check the various markets, see whether trade partners and free agents provide any solutions.
Trey Gibson will be a phone call away. He’s easy to reach.
Gibson, 23, went from High-A Aberdeen to Double-A Chesapeake and Triple-A Norfolk this season and was chosen as the organization’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year, achieving the honor as an undrafted free agent in 2023.
How close is he to making his major league debut?
“I think pretty close,” he said yesterday while meeting with the media outside the Orioles’ clubhouse.
“I thought that tied it!”
My grandfather, with a chuckle, quickly realized from the reactions around him that Dylan Beavers had just won the game for the Orioles in the bottom of the ninth, and had not, in fact, just tied things up.
Baltimore came roaring back in the eighth, highlighted by Coby Mayo’s two-run home run, but complimented by the less highlight-worthy Ryan Mountcastle run scored on a wild pitch. With things knotted in the ninth, Beavers only needed one pitch to send Orioles fans home happy.
That feeling of elation, shared by my Pop and O’s fans that had come to Camden Yards to put a bow on the 2025 season, was one that they hadn’t felt as often as they would’ve liked at their favorite ballpark. The victory improved Baltimore’s home record to 39-42, even if some walkoffs felt as if they should count as an extra crooked number in the win column.
But among the 81, No. 81 itself carries a different weight.
The intent wasn’t to create a baseball game show, with Orioles catchers spinning like a wheel through the season. It just happened over time.
They used seven in 2025 to set the franchise record. The 2022 Pirates are the last with eight.
David Bañuelos, an Orioles taxi squad catcher for what feels like the entire season, got into one game as the designated hitter. He doesn’t count.
Samuel Basallo was drilled on the right wrist by Pete Fairbanks’ 96.6 mph fastball leading off the ninth inning Wednesday night. Bañuelos might have gotten a shot. Or the Orioles could have brought back someone else. But X-rays were negative for a fracture and Basallo, who had the wrist taped yesterday, is expected to play this weekend in the Bronx.
Trevor Rogers was my first contestant this week in trying to name the seven catchers and how many he pitched to this season. I could have made it easier on myself by writing the names on an index card, but I worked from memory with Basallo, Adley Rutschman, Gary Sánchez, Alex Jackson, Maverick Handley, Jacob Stallings and Chadwick Tromp.
The Orioles turned on the power at closing time.
Fans stood and cheered Orioles left-hander Cade Povich this afternoon as he walked off the mound for the last time in 2025. The game didn’t turn out as he wanted. The effort and ability to make 20 starts, along with two relief appearances, seemed to be appreciated. A kind gesture from the crowd.
The place erupted on Coby Mayo’s game-tying two-run homer in the eighth, and again in the ninth when Dylan Beavers demolished Kevin Kelly's first-pitch cutter and reached the flag court. Both appreciated and celebrated with gusto. The ballpark came alive, absolutely electric, with placement in the division standings irrelevant.
Beavers' walk-off homer gave the Orioles a 6-5 win over the Rays before an announced crowd of 16,777 at Camden Yards, which brought the season total to 1,803,655. The ball left his bat at 107.7 mph, he took a few steps toward first base and flipped the lumber so high he could have brought rain.
A teammate tossed him a Ravens helmet before he touched home plate. Beavers scored the game-winner and didn't fumble his opportunity.
The Orioles have made the following roster moves:
- Claimed RHP Carson Ragsdale off waivers from the Atlanta Braves and optioned him to the Spring Training Complex.
- Designated RHP Dom Hamel for assignment.
The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 40 players.
The 96.6 mph fastball that slammed into catcher Samuel Basallo’s right wrist last night in the ninth inning didn’t cause a fracture and might not keep the rookie from playing this weekend in New York.
Basallo had the wrist wrapped this morning after being hit by Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks and leaving the game in obvious pain.
“I tried to react but I didn’t have enough time to do so,” he said via interpreter Brandon Quinones. “Hand's feeling much better today. Couldn’t really feel it yesterday. Thankfully today I’m feeling better.”
Asked about appearing in the final series, Basallo said, “Yes, I think it’s going to be something day-to-day right now. They’re giving me a day to see how I feel and hopefully I’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
“I think he’ll be in there tomorrow,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino.
