CHICAGO – What seemed inevitable has become official. The numbers can’t be manipulated. Optimism can’t be manufactured.

The 2025 Orioles are eliminated from the playoff chase.

Tonight’s 8-7 victory over the White Sox at Rate Field won't prolong their bid for a miracle run at the final Wild Card. The Mariners and Astros won, and those teams held 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.

"We've talked about it with these guys. They're not happy," said interim manager Tony Mansolino. "You go through like the core group in there, they are miserable right now. This has been a complete failure in a lot of ways that we're at this point, that we are being eliminated from the playoffs, and there is a lot of motivation going forward. I promise you that.”

The Orioles are showing some fight by going 10-4 in September.

“We got rid of half the team (at) the trade deadline and we played one of the toughest schedules in baseball since, and we’ve probably played close to .500 baseball with a lot of guys that were in Norfolk for most of the year," Mansolino said. "So I think that, in and of itself, speaks plenty of volumes for what we're doing.”

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.

"Very weird, very weird season," said Gunnar Henderson. "Yeah, just the start of the year got us behind the 8 ball. We had a good little winning streak there for a little bit and just couldn’t get on another one to get us back in the hunt and yeah, just kind of got ourselves in a deep hole we couldn’t get out of at the beginning of the year.

"If you look at our record after that pretty terrible start, I feel like we played pretty good ball. It’s just a matter of, I guess, limiting those bad stretches and getting back to what do we do, and I feel like we kind of found our identity out here and just the way we play, the way we scratch runs across and just playing good defense. I feel like that’s something that we need to appreciate and take into next year." 

Chayce McDermott was charged with four runs in his first Orioles appearance since May 20, and his first since converting to relief in the minors. 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.

"We’re up by six runs, we have a bullpen that’s taxed in a lot of ways and everybody needs to pitch right now," Mansolino said. "So he (McDermott) is very fresh and very available. Up six runs, we need him to go out there. He did get the third out. Unfortunately, it got past Sammy (Basallo). He hung in there. I thought the stuff was good, I thought the misses were big. So the stuff was good, the misses were big."

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. 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.

"I felt OK," he said. "Forearm feels great, maybe a little bit rusty, but kind of grinding with what I had and kind of went with what I had.”

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.

"Probably about the third inning I felt like he kind of got the split going and I felt like he kind of took off at that point," Mansolino said. "A couple good hitters put good swings on the ball and threw up a two-spot right away. It is what it is. But then from there Dean kind of settled down and he got us through 5 2/3, almost through sixth. Threw the ball great. But the split was kind of the key tonight. Once the split got going, everything kind of fell into place.”

A six-man rotation leaves Kremer with one more start, bringing his total to 29. He also was used once in bulk relief.

“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this year as a collective squad," he said. "I’ve learned a lot about myself again this year, like I have every year, and trying to put a positive ending to the rest of this year.”