The importance of the weekend series wasn’t downplayed earlier today. The Orioles didn’t pretend that it couldn’t possibly influence their playoff push or their plans at the trade deadline.

A game in late July felt like a big deal.

So did losing a lead in the top of the eighth inning.

The Braves piled on by scoring four times in the 10th inning and holding on to defeat the Orioles 7-6 before an announced Hawaiian shirt crowd of 35,775 at Camden Yards.

They needed all of it. Christian Encarnacion-Strand followed pinch-hitter Jeremiah Jackson’s sacrifice fly with his third Orioles home run, a two-run shot off Dylan Lee with two outs.

Jackson Holliday committed a throwing error in the top of the 10th after making a diving stop on Jim Jarvis’ grounder that let the inherited runner cross the plate and put two men in scoring position. Andrew Kittredge struck out the next two batters and Matt Olson fell behind 0-2 before launching a 416-foot, three-run homer to right-center field, his 27th this season, while left-hander Grant Wolfram warmed.

Manager Craig Albernaz said he thought about walking Olson with first base open.

“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “Obviously, down 3-0 to (Drake) Baldwin, comes back and punches him out, punched out (Ozzie) Albies pretty efficiently. We were talking about it, if he fell behind, we were definitely going to put him on. The way Kitt was throwing the ball in the zone, he looked really good and he got ahead of him 1-2 and just tried to sneak a fastball up on him.”

Holliday realized that he rushed his throw unnecessarily to put Kittredge in a bind.

“I probably should’ve taken a little bit more time, maybe just thrown it over to Pete (Alonso),” he said. “But just trying to get the lead runner to give us a better chance to possibly get a double play, get out of the inning. But I made a good play and made a terrible throw. So got to finish the play and, yeah, not much other than I just got to make a better throw.”

“I do like his effort of trying to go to second,” Albernaz said. “I just think that he didn’t realize how much time he had because it was dive and stop. I think Joey Bart was at first base. He had to wait until the ball got by him. He didn’t want to run into it, so Jackson didn’t realize how much time he had to go to second.”

Trevor Rogers held the Braves to two runs over seven innings and threw 72 of 88 pitches for strikes, but Baldwin homered off Rico Garcia with one out in the eighth to knot the score. Garcia bent over with his hands on his knees and watched the ball disappear into the right field seats.

Any hope of a statement-type win also was lost.

The Orioles (50-54) almost ended it in regulation. Dylan Beavers walked on eight pitches with two outs in the ninth inning, Alonso singled and Gunnar Henderson was given an intentional walk to bring Taylor Ward to the plate. Hernández, who tossed three scoreless innings, fell behind 3-0 before Ward grounded out with the count full.  

Encarnacion-Strand lined a two-out, two-run double into the left field corner in the second inning to give the Orioles an early lead against Grant Holmes. Holliday broke a 2-2 tie in the fourth with a sacrifice fly.

Control owner David Rubenstein and president of baseball operations Mike Elias expressed their confidence in the team earlier today at Kyle Bradish’s presser. The room was filled with teammates who heard the message. The words carry weight.

“When you have two of the main leaders of the organization up there and giving their confidence to the players in our clubhouse, it means a lot,” Albernaz said. “And our players know what’s at stake, and also, they’ve done a great job of navigating this season through the ups and the downs of never wavering their confidence, how they go about their business. And ultimately, how every single one of them are such great teammates and pulling for each other.

“So yes, our record is not where we want it, but also, were still in the spot to make a push for the playoffs and that’s a credit to those guys in that room. So having Mike and David up there giving them that confidence, it should galvanize the group a little bit, and I’m just excited to just kind of see where this goes.”

CES is making a late bid for MVO. His home run improved his output to 8-for-20 with three homers and eight RBIs since the Orioles recalled him on July 16. The former highly touted Reds prospect is going to keep getting starts at third base.

Holliday singled ahead of Encarnacion-Strand’s double, and his fly ball gave the Orioles a 3-2 lead in the fourth after Ward’s leadoff single, Colton Cowser’s walk and Leody Taveras’ sacrifice bunt.

Rogers registered a 2.84 ERA with Samuel Basallo behind the plate for 12 of his 18 starts this season. Basallo is on the 10-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation, so Albernaz paired Rogers with Chadwick Tromp.

They teamed up twice last season and Rogers tossed 10 scoreless innings.

Rogers retired nine of the first 10 batters tonight. Bart doubled with one out in the third and was stranded. Twenty-eight of 33 pitches were strikes heading into the fourth.

Albies led off the fourth with a single, advanced to third base with one out on Michael Harris III’s double, and scored on Mauricio Dubón’s sacrifice fly – a 105.6 mph line drive to center field. Harris raced home on Austin Riley’s 109.5 mph ground ball into center.

The response from Rogers was a 1-2-3 fifth and stranded runners in the sixth. Riley led off the seventh with a single and the Orioles turned a 5-4-3 double play on Eli White’s grounder.

Rogers walked none and struck out six while lowering his ERA to 4.17. He’s allowed five runs in his last six starts totaling 37 2/3 innings and 11 runs in his last nine starts totaling 55 innings.

Asked about removing Rogers after 88 pitches, Albernaz said, “He did his job. Our ‘pen was fresh, ready to go, and that was the decision.”

“I think those last two hitters, I kind of gave it all I had,” Rogers said. “So that was gonna be it for me right there.”

The Orioles had runners on second and third base with one out in the fifth after Alonso’s double, but two ground balls killed the rally. Former Orioles Jorge Mateo made a nice backhand stop and threw out Ward, with Olson digging the ball out of the dirt. Another Cowser walk against left-hander Danny Young leading off the sixth and a two-out intentional walk to Encarnacion-Strand created a jam, but Dubón charged Tromp’s liner and made a sensational diving catch.

Cowser drew his third walk in the eighth inning, and a stolen base and throwing error got him to third base with two outs. Holliday popped up in foul territory, slamming his bat to the ground.

The Orioles are 3 1/2 games out of the last Wild Card.

“It’s definitely a tough one,” Albernaz said. “Rog was outstanding tonight. I mean, he threw the ball extremely well, real efficient, pounding the strike zone. He did an outstanding job for us. 1-2 count to Olson with two outs, just one more pitch, but Olson put it in the seats.”

Beavers moves atop order

Beavers hit leadoff for the first time this season and the third in his young career.

The quality of the at-bats is one reason for Beavers’ ascension, but the lineup also is shuffled due to catcher Adley Rutschman going on the injured list with left wrist inflammation. He’s hit third in 45 games and second in 11. And Basallo (right shoulder inflammation) has slotted fifth in 52 games and cleanup in 13.

“Not having those two guys, kind of have to problem solve the rest of the pieces,” Albernaz said. “And with Beavers in particular, something I always loved about Beavs, even when I got the job, digging in on him, his at-bat quality, his ability to work counts and get on base via walk, and also he has some thump in his bat, and he also has speed. So all those together kind of moved the needle for him to hit leadoff.

“Pete looked really good in the two hole and kind of like how the lineup flowed with him hitting two without Adley, and Gunnar, the results that he got in Boston hitting three, so we kind of want to see where this goes.”

Beavers ran the count full in the first inning, saw eight pitches and reached on a 106.8 mph ground ball that Mateo couldn’t backhand. He was thrown out trying to steal.

The eight-pitch walk in the ninth almost ignited a decisive rally.

Draft signing

The Orioles announced that they signed second-round draft pick Ty Head, a center fielder from North Carolina State.

MLB.com’s Jim Callis reported that Head signed for $2.43 million. The slot value was $2,181,600.

Head celebrated by being the guest splasher in the Bird Bath.