The Orioles invited three members of the 1966 team to Camden Yards on Friday night to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first World Series championship. Eddie Muray was honored yesterday on the 30th anniversary of his historic 500th career home run.

Murray’s ball landed in the right field seats around 12 a.m.

Has the clock struck midnight on the 2026 Orioles?

A four-game sweep by the Red Sox extended the Orioles’ losing streak to six since Colton Cowser’s remarkable leaping catch to prevent a walk-off home run in Colorado. They’re four back for the last Wild Card. They’ve scored one run in their last 27 innings, and they struck out a season-high 17 times yesterday.

A beautiful day for baseball was ruined. The cloud cover is thickening over this team.

“Of all the blows we’ve taken this year,” manager Craig Albernaz said after a 3-1 loss, “this is by far the biggest.”

Albernaz, like anyone else in his position, is playing the hand that he’s dealt in September. Rosters grow to 28 players. A few key components remain on the injured list, including duel closers Ryan Helsley and Félix Bautista, who still haven’t sat in the same bullpen.

Bautista made his fifth appearance on his injury rehab assignment Saturday night at Triple-A Norfolk. Helsley is trying to return from a second elbow injury that’s limited him to 17 appearances, but his progression hasn’t reached live batting practice sessions.

Maybe soon.

Albernaz said a few days ago that BP will “be next,” followed by a rehab assignment. The schedule is down to 18 games, so Helsley will need to hustle.

By then, his appearances in the majors could be nothing more than a reward for his hard work.

The Orioles would need to clear another spot for Helsley after plugging in Bautista before him. The days of emptying the 40-man roster into the clubhouse, if teams chose excess, are long gone.

Temporary lockers used to be set up in the middle of the room, making it impossible to stand at one end and see players on the other side. Furniture was rearranged. Breathing room was reduced.

A manager’s job also changed. Having that many players made it much easier to navigate nine innings or beyond. Bullpens didn’t run dry. Lineup and pinch-hitting options were plentiful. But strategy went out the window.

For every left-handed bat on the bench, there were a half-dozen lefty relievers available to counter it. Bring in a shutdown southpaw and he’d have to deal with multiple right-handers in reserve.

Some teams only called up a few players while others went for the maximum, making for uneven rosters and another glitch in the system. The sport became almost unrecognizable, like settling extra-inning game by thumb-wrestling.

“I would imagine that it’s like  a whole different season,” Albernaz said.

“If you have 40 guys up there, everyone’s team would look completely different. You can have as many guys as you want in the ‘pen and endless amounts of options on the bench in-game. I think right now, I like it, just having one extra pitcher and one extra player.

“If you can call up all 40 guys, there are some teams that won’t do it and some teams that will, so it’s not just a blanket rule. But for right now, I like having an extra player. I like using all of our guys. Everyone does something special. But to have all of them, I think that would be a lot. A lot.”

The better compromise would be to increase rosters to 30 and give a manager two more relievers for the stretch run, when so many ‘pens are running on fumes, and especially for a team like that Orioles in the midst of playing 16 days in a row without a break.

Albernaz trusted Chris Bassitt to get out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the sixth inning Saturday night, which led to a brief mound visit and return to the dugout without his starting pitcher. But part of the motivation also was an attempt to delay the baton passing among relievers.

Eli White broke a tie with his 69.1 mph two-run single, and an inherited runner scored against Rico Garcia in a 5-0 loss.

“Bassitt, throwing a shutout in the sixth, throwing the ball well, pitch count was low,” Albernaz said afterward. “Bullpen is taxed still. Not saying that Rico couldn’t come in and get the outs, but in that situation, we trusted Bassitt. We decided to trust Bassitt to get that out.

“He made a good pitch, but those are the decisions that keep you up at night, and you can’t dwell on it.”

Same goes for roster construction. You get 28. That’s one extra pitcher, usually a reliever except for any team wanting a six-man rotation. The bullpen was nails recently, posting a 0.98 ERA, lowest in the majors, in an 11-game span heading into Tuesday. The unit allowed nine earned runs and 11 total within five games before tossing five scoreless innings yesterday.

Albert Suárez allowed one run and three hits over two innings on Aug. 20 and was designated for assignment a fourth time. He signed another minor league contract and allowed three runs and four hits in four innings over two appearances in the Red Sox series, with Roman Anthony’s solo homer in the ninth giving Boston a 6-3 lead before Aroldis Chapman surrendered a two-run shot to Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the bottom half.

The Orioles DFA’d Suárez again yesterday and in a separate transaction recalled Anthony Nunez, who threw two scoreless innings.

A rule allowing for more additional pitching in September might have kept left-hander Cade Povich on the roster for long relief. Nunez returned last week for one day, his presence on the taxi squad related to Grant Wolfram’s elbow tightness. Wolfram pitched that night, was fine, and Albernaz sat next to Nunez at the reliever’s locker afterward to pass along the decision to send him back to the minors. Nunez packed his bag and was gone, but only for a brief spell.

Trey Gibson made eight appearances with the Orioles, including seven starts, but he hasn’t pitched for them since permitting eight runs and walking six batters in 2 2/3 innings against the White Sox on June 30.

The waiver claim of Luis Robert Jr. was celebrated as a stud steal, and he made an immediate impact with a two-run double and solo home run in his first two games. He went 0-for-3 with a walk on Friday, wasn’t in yesterday’s lineup against left-hander Payton Tolle and landed on the 10-day injured list with a hamstring strain that Albernaz described as “low grade.”

The Orioles recalled another right-handed hitting outfielder, Rece Hinds, who doubled for one of their five hits. Dylan Beavers was sent up to the plate as a pinch-hitter against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth inning and struck out in a left-on-left matchup that Albernaz found more desirable than Leody Taveras batting from the right side.

The only right-handed option on the bench was third catcher Yohel Pozo, who hasn’t gotten into the lineup since Aug. 16. He went nine days without appearing in a game before entering in the eighth inning on Aug. 29 in Sacramento.

Perhaps that roster spot could be put to better use, but also, the Orioles could use extra position players even more so now that Robert is down. And Taveras’ average has fallen to .216 with a 290 on-base percentage and .636 OPS after striking out in both at-bats yesterday. He’s hitting .179 in the second half.

The offense must shoulder most of the blame for a most untimely skid, and it doesn’t get any easier against the Guardians, who are starting left-hander Joey Cantillo, right-hander Tanner Bibee and left-hander Foster Griffin.

“When you look up, there’s still games to play,” Albernaz said. “There’s not many, but there is more than a handful, so our guys need to show up tomorrow ready to go. It’s a day game, a quick turnaround tomorrow. We can’t look back and say, ‘We should’ve done this, we could’ve done that.’ We have to move on and get ready for Cleveland coming in, because they’re ahead of us and it’s a big series.

“From here on out, it’s big series all the time.”

“We’ve got to win tomorrow, win the day after that and win the day after that,” said Kyle Bradish, who lasted only four innings yesterday. “We’ve got Cleveland and Toronto coming up. Those are kind of the two teams ahead of us. So if we take care of business, we should be back to where we want to be. But yeah, this was definitely a big letdown this weekend.”

“The past couple games hadn’t been very characteristic of us,” said Gunnar Henderson, whose error in the second inning preceded White’s three-run homer. “I feel like we just need to take a breath right now.”

That’s much harder to do from the deep hole that they’ve fallen into.

They’ve got 18 games, and whatever collection of players inhabit the clubhouse, to figure it out.