CHICAGO – What seemed inevitable is on the verge of becoming official. The numbers can’t be manipulated. Optimism can’t be manufactured.
The 2025 Orioles are close to elimination from the playoff chase.
Tonight’s 8-7 victory over the White Sox at Rate Field probably won't prolong their bid for a miracle run at the final Wild Card. The Mariners won and the Astros have a late lead against the Rangers, and those teams hold the Orioles' fate in their hands.
Finishing above .500 remains a possibility if the Orioles (71-80) win their last 11 games. Their most recent non-winning season was in 2021, when they lost 110.
They shocked the industry in ’22 by posting 83 victories and signaling an end to the rebuild, and they went 101-61 the following year to claim the division.
Earning the top Wild Card in 2024 was a step backward, but at least the Orioles kept playing into October. They’ll scatter after a Sept. 28 game in New York, with nothing else to do except go home.
Their response to being swept in Toronto was to claim the series against the White Sox, with the finale set for Wednesday afternoon. An 8-2 lead in the eighth inning became 8-7 after Andrew Benintendi greeted Rico Garcia with a first-pitch two-run homer, but Keegan Akin notched his sixth save.
Chayce McDermott was charged with four of the runs in his first Orioles appearance since May 20. He struck out two but also allowed two hits, threw two wild pitches and committed a balk. Lenyn Sosa delivered a two-run single, Garcia entered, and Colton Cowser came within inches of a leaping catch to rob Benintendi.
Cowser sat on the track with his back against the fence while everyone waited to find out whether he had the ball.
The fireworks provided the answer.
Samuel Basallo hit his third major league home run in the fourth inning, a two-run shot on a two-strike curveball to break a tie. The ball traveled 420 feet down the right field line and was clocked at 108.3 mph.
Coby Mayo singled for the second time before Basallo stepped to the plate. Mayo also doubled for his first three-hit game since July 28.
Jeremiah Jackson doubled twice and drove in a run. Gunnar Henderson, who was 6-for-41 this month, delivered a pair of RBI singles and had his first three-hit game since July 29. Dylan Beavers gave the Orioles a 6-2 lead in the fifth inning with his first career triple to score Henderson, and he hit a two-run homer off Wikelman González in the seventh.
Jordan Westburg returned to the lineup and drew a leadoff walk in the second inning. Mayo singled with two outs and Basallo lined a changeup to second baseman Chase Meidroth at 106.6 mph.
White Sox rookie starter Shane Smith, a Rule 5 pick, wasn’t as fortunate in the third.
Dylan Carlson doubled on a ground ball deflected by Meidroth and he scored with one out on Jackson’s double to left field. Henderson’s single to left-center tied the game.
Henderson lined into a double play with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth to bail out reliever Fraser Ellard.
Dean Kremer, starting for the first time in 11 days, allowed two runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings. He threw 22 pitches in the first and second innings before settling down.
Catcher Kyle Teel hit a two-run homer in the first, a 406-foot shot to right-center after Meidroth’s leadoff single. Sosa led off the second with a single and moved up on Kremer’s second wild pitch. Edgar Quero walked with one out and Brooks Baldwin grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
Kremer retired nine in a row after Teel’s single in the third inning. He went strikeout, walk, strikeout and walk in the sixth, and Yaramil Hiraldo replaced him after 97 pitches. Hiraldo struck out Sosa.
A six-man rotation leaves Kremer with one more start, bringing his total to 29. He also was used once in bulk relief.