The three-city, 10-game road trip is over and it didn’t flatten the Orioles like an ACME anvil. The cartoonish American League is presenting a very real opportunity for them to make the playoffs.

Thirty-six games are left in the 2026 regular season after last night’s 3-1 loss to the Yankees. The Rays also are coming to Camden Yards for three games before the Orioles travel to St. Louis, Sacramento and Denver, which carries them into September.

They also might be lifted above .500, which hasn’t happened since they were 9-8 on April 14. They fell four below last night, and a half-game out of the Wild Card.

How have they stayed alive in the race beyond the league’s many weaknesses? Here are a few reasons.

*Pete Alonso was slow to adjust to his new team after signing a five-year, $155 million contract, the second-most lucrative deal in franchise history. He hit .198/.306/.362 with four home runs in his first 31 games through April. A year earlier, his last with the Mets, he slashed .343/.475/.657 with seven homers in the same amount of games.

This was the worst start of his career and it came at the worst time.

Alonso’s return to doing the usual destruction at the plate has put him atop the vast majority of offensive categories among current players on the team – hits, doubles, home runs, RBIs, average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and walks. He plays every day, with his consecutive-games streak reaching 542 last night.

His 28 home runs were tied for fourth in the American League yesterday, his 81 RBIs were third and his .857 OPS was seventh. He was chosen Player of the Week, and there are times when he’s put an entire team on his shoulders.

Before last night, Alonso was 18-for-34 with two doubles, five home runs, 10 RBIs, six walks and nine runs scored during a nine-game hitting streak. He was batting .382/.460/.691 with two doubles, five homers, 12 RBIs and seven walks this month.

A single last night in the fifth inning extended his streak to a season-high tying 10 games. He lined to right field at 107 mph to strand two runners in the seventh, another ball scalded the opposite way but with nothing to show for it.

The latest clutch hits came Sunday afternoon with a tie-breaking, two-run double in the top of the fifth inning at Tropicana Field, and Monday night with a game-tying homer in the fifth inning. He served as designated hitter again to take some of the strain off a sore calf muscle.

The unexpected contribution has come in the field, with Alonso’s below-average mitt numbers and reputation dissolving in the dirt. After posting minus-3 Defensive Runs Saved in 2024 and minus-9 in 2025, and minus-8 Outs Above Average in 2024 and minus-9 in 2025, Alonso began yesterday at plus-1 in DRS and plus-2 in OAA. He’s making every play imaginable for a first baseman and saving teammates from errors with more scoops than a baseball insider.

Weave in his leadership in the clubhouse and during games, and you’ve got the frontrunner for Most Valuable Oriole.

*The rotation looked a heck of a lot better than the starters that the Orioles faced prior to the Yankees series. Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Shane Baz and Brandon Young give the team a legitimate chance to win, and Chris Bassitt returned from the injured list Friday and held the Rays to two runs in 5 1/3 innings.

Young wasn’t expected to be in this conversation. He didn’t break camp with the team and didn’t establish himself last season in 12 starts despite coming within four outs of a perfect game in Houston.

The Orioles are 16-5 with Young on the mound after failing to hold a late lead Monday night. He has 10 quality starts. The lowest ERA in the rotation still belongs to Young after it rose from 3.33 to 3.52. He became the rock while the team lost Zach Eflin to season-ending elbow surgery after one appearance, Bassitt to lower-back surgery and Dean Kremer to a strained quadriceps and then a trade.  

If Alonso isn’t MVO, then the award might belong to Young. But he’s got to push through whatever fatigue might be building, and he told the media Monday that he’s dealing with some finger pain on his throwing hand.

*The Orioles acquired reliever Cam Sanders from the Pirates for cash considerations on July 13. The sound you heard was an entire fanbase yawning.

That’s no longer the reaction.

Sanders retired all six batters Monday and would have earned the win if Yennier Cano hadn’t been charged with three runs in the seventh inning. He’s made seven appearances since the trade and posted a 2.16 ERA and 0.840 WHIP, with two runs allowed and nine strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings. He has a win and three saves.

The cheering would be a lot louder except that he hasn’t pitched at Camden Yards. His work has been done in Houston before the Orioles optioned him, Minnesota and St. Petersburg.

Sanders registered an 8.44 ERA and 2.063 WHIP in 15 games with the Pirates over parts of two seasons. He’s now a high-leverage reliever filling the void left with Tyler Wells’ trade to the Rays.

*The Orioles acquired third baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand from the Reds for cash considerations on April 13. The interest level was a smidge higher than Sanders because of his previous standing as a prospect.

Encarnacion-Strand was recalled on July 16 to replace injured utility player Blaze Alexander, and what he’s done exceeds expectations by a mile.

Another home run on Monday was his third in six games and his sixth in 24, to go with his four doubles, 22 RBIs and .853 OPS. He was slashing .333/.394/.767 against left-handers before last night.

Alexander is expected to be reinstated by early September. Encarnacion-Strand isn’t a placeholder. He isn’t keeping a position warm. He’s got to stay.

*The Orioles have hit on a nice arrangement, especially against southpaws, while Samuel Basallo remains on the injured list and is on a rehab assignment.

They can play Encarnacion-Strand at third base, where he’s been a solid defender, and either use Coby Mayo as the designated hitter or put him at first base to take some strain off Alonso’s calf.

Mayo began last night batting .289/.351/.702 with 12 home runs against left-handers this season. Walking him wouldn’t be the worst idea. He hit No. 17 overall and his 13th against a southpaw last night by depositing Carlos Rodón’s slider into the left field seats.

His 468-foot home run Monday was the fifth longest by an Oriole during the Statcast era after Jonathan Schoop (484 feet) in 2015 in Kansas City, Keon Broxton (474) in 2019 in Colorado,  Ryan Mountcastle (472) in 2023 against the Astros, and Manny Machado (470) in 2017 at Yankee Stadium.

The advancement in Mayo’s development and how he’s tapping into that obscene power will keep him in the majors and in the lineup.

*The Tyler O’Neill signing to a three-year, $49.5 million contract hasn’t produced the desired results, but he began yesterday slashing .353/.411/.882 (18-for-51) with three doubles, eight home runs and 12 RBIs against left-handers since June 26. No one else in the majors had more homers off southpaws in that span, with Shohei Ohtani next at seven.

O’Neill is among five players with at least three pinch-hit homers this season, and he’s tied for the franchise record in a single season.

After batting .195/.291/.351 in 59 games in the first half, O’Neill was slashing .288/.356/.500 in 22 post-break games heading into last night. He was 12-for-41 (.293) with three homers this month.

Put the contract aside. That’s an important contribution.