The Orioles can change their roster for the American League Championship Series if they get past the Rangers. A new set of decisions to make based on the opponent and matchups.

Time to reconsider whether to stay with only 12 pitchers.

Shintaro Fujinami sat on the Division Series bubble and it popped underneath him. His inconsistency in the strike zone, the bouts of wildness, convinced the Orioles to drop him.

Maybe there were other factors, but if the results matched the stuff, you’d think Fuji would be in the bullpen.

He appeared to have a small abrasion on his face yesterday at quick glance, and a Japanese reporter also noticed a mark on the pitcher’s hand. Of course, he asked manager Brandon Hyde about it. His beat consists of one player.

The Orioles seemed confident their late-season hitting slump would not carry into the postseason. But for one day at least, it did as the Orioles lost 3-2 to the Rangers this afternoon in Game 1 of the American League Division Series. They need a win on Sunday to even this series before it heads to Arlington.

It was a day where their starter went fewer than five innings and the Rangers pitcher that started went fewer than four. But after getting Anthony Santander’s 420-foot homer in the sixth, that pulled them within 3-2, the O’s could not score further and they dropped Game 1.

They scored two runs or fewer in three of their last four regular season games and in seven of the last 11 leading into these playoffs.

The O's held down the highest-scoring team in the league and their pitchers recorded 16 strikeouts. They held Marcus Semien and Corey Seager to one combined infield hit, but they could only get two of their own runs.

Today they hit into two double plays and chased some pitches as Texas used six pitchers to get the victory. 

The sun finally came out at Camden Yards, followed by outfielders Cedric Mullins and Austin Hays.

The crowd erupted, less than an hour before first pitch. Two players jogging out of the dugout for pregame stretching eliciting cheers. The dam bursting after playoff excitement had been contained for so long.

Then came the scoreboard countdown to introductions, men and women decked out in orange gear waving towels of the same color. Adam Jones threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Mullins and kept motioning for the place to get louder, as if the volume button had another notch.

Kyle Bradish leaped over the first base line, pounded his fist in his glove and struck out Rangers leadoff hitter Marcus Semien on three pitches. The postseason returned to Baltimore and it didn’t enter quietly.

Orioles fans filed out that way. But there’s always tomorrow.

In their first playoff game since the 2016 season and first at home since 2014, the Orioles host the Rangers this afternoon in Game 1 of the best-of-five American League Division Series. 

The Orioles have lost their past five playoff games counting four in the 2014 AL Championship Series to the Royals and they lost the one-game AL Wild Card Game at the Blue Jays in 2016.

Baltimore (101-61, .623) won the AL East this season for the first time since 2014. The Orioles ended the year two games ahead of the Rays.

Texas (90-72, .556) lost four of its final six regular season games to end the year tied with Houston atop the AL West. But they lost the tiebreaker and Houston advanced to the postseason as the AL West champs and second seed while Texas moved on as the No. 5 AL seed.

Then the Rangers, after the disappointing end to the regular season, won at The Trop against the Rays by 4-0 Tuesday and 7-1 Wednesday to advance past the Wild Card round to now play the top-seeded Orioles. For the Rangers, they snapped a six-game postseason losing streak and improved to 5-8 all-time in playoff series.

The Orioles knew in advance that they wanted to keep 14 position players and reduce their pitching staff to 12 for the American League Division Series.

They weren’t expecting John Means to be missing, his elbow soreness after Thursday’s simulated game creating an opening for reliever Bryan Baker.

Plan ahead and prepare to pivot.

Manager Brandon Hyde didn’t confirm that Means was going to start prior to the elbow issue, calling him “a candidate.” And he didn’t reveal who would take the mound for Game 3 Tuesday night in Arlington.

Dean Kremer and Kyle Gibson are locked into the rotation based on Means’ disappearance from it. One of them seemed to be headed to the bullpen.

He may have a career ERA of 7.63 in seven career games versus Baltimore batters and that includes a start this year in April in Texas when he allowed seven runs over 2 2/3 innings, but the Rangers are going with lefty Andrew Heaney (10-6, 4.15 ERA) as their Game 1 starter today.

He will oppose Orioles righty Kyle Bradish (12-7, 2.83 ERA) today at 1:03 p.m. in the opener of the American League Division Series at Camden Yards.

"We looked at a lot of things, but, number one, we looked at how well he's been throwing the ball," Texas manager Bruce Bochy said during his pregame press conference. "We had to win in Seattle. He pitched that game. He threw the ball well. He's our freshest guy. And they're a team that does a lot of platooning. And lefty or righty, they were going to match up. And we felt like he's the guy to go right now."

Heaney made the start last Saturday at Seattle and pitched 4 1/3 scoreless on five hits, throwing 85 pitches. He also threw nine scoreless innings combined over his past four games with three of them out of the bullpen.

Also, while Heaney had that poor start in April against the Orioles, on May 27 in Baltimore he allowed just one run over seven innings to the Orioles.

John Means isn’t on the Orioles roster for the American League Division Series due to elbow soreness that cropped up after Thursday’s simulated game at Camden Yards.

Manager Brandon Hyde expressed confidence that Means would be ready for the Championship Series if the Orioles advance to the next round.

“Felt like he needed a few days off,” Hyde said.

“Meansy was going to be a candidate to start one of these games and it means we got … We feel great about our starting pitching depth. And Dean (Kremer) and Kyle Gibson both threw the ball extremely well this year. We're hoping that John can take a few days off, rehab, and hopefully if we can advance that he'll be available for the next series.

Hyde said the soreness isn’t “concerning.”

Tyler Wells doesn’t remember much about it now. But he once attended a Major League Baseball playoff game. He recalls it was in 2018 and it was at Dodger Stadium. He remembered going with his dad and that “Justin Turner did something cool, but I don’t remember what it was.”

Starting today he can make some of his own memories and take part in an MLB playoff game as the Orioles host Texas this afternoon to start the American League Division Series.

After 101 regular-season wins, the Orioles are three wins from reaching the AL Championship Series, seven wins from reaching the World Series and 11 from winning it.

For Wells, it’s a wonderful and exciting time, and one that was not guaranteed even a few weeks ago. He spent nearly two months in the minors. Coming out of the All-Star break he gave up 11 runs in nine innings over three starts and soon after found himself in Double-A Bowie and later Triple-A Norfolk. He finally returned to the O's active roster Sept. 22 and has thrown five hitless and scoreless innings upon his return to the majors.

“It’s incredibly special. I think it’s just made me a little more grateful,” said Wells. “To share the field with these guys and just enjoy it. It is hard to put into words how much appreciation I have for it.

Players filtered onto the field earlier today to begin their workout leading into Saturday’s Game 1 of the American League Division Series. The batting cage set up. Ground balls hit to infielders. Pitchers throwing in the bullpen. Members of the grounds crew leaning against the dugout railing with arms folded, knowing they were in for a long day with the Rangers following the Orioles.

It seemed routine, like any other afternoon, which is what manager Brandon Hyde wanted and expected. The 163^rd game in 2023 wasn’t rattling anyone’s cage.

“We have so much inexperience and so many guys that haven't had postseason experience,” Hyde said. “Just today I got to the park, it's really loose, and that's a great sign. Their workouts have gone really well the last few days. I don't feel any tension or guys feeling nervous about the games coming up. Our clubhouse right now is pretty loud and seems very, very normal like the regular season, and that's what I was hoping was going to happen.”  

The stands were empty but a sellout crowd is coming Saturday. Playoff baseball in Baltimore for the first time since 2014.

“It's been exciting,” said catcher Adley Rutschman. “It was cool to have fans out on Wednesday for the sim game and just feel the energy of people getting excited. I think we're excited for Saturday and ready to get going.

The wait is almost over for the Orioles. A young team that went from losing 110 games in 2021 to winning 101 this year. Their first playoff game is set for 1:03 p.m. on Saturday at Oriole Park when they host the Texas Rangers to start the American League Division Series.

O’s catcher Adley Rutschman played his first big league game on May 21, 2022. Before too long, both last year and this year, other young players from the O’s farm were joining him in Baltimore. And a young team was winning and winning a lot.

“To see guys go through multiple years of development, experience that together, see them end up at this spot achieving their dream and their goals is really cool,” Rutschman said today during a pre-series press conference at Camden Yards. “You feel invested in the process and their journey. I’m just excited for these guys. To see their character and they are such good guys, you want to see them succeed. I think that is what makes our clubhouse so close – you have guys that care about each other genuinely. It makes it that much more exciting and better to show up to the ballpark each day.

“I'm super excited. This is a complete blessing to have an opportunity like this to play postseason baseball with a great group of guys in the stadium with an electric atmosphere. So, there's nothing more you can really ask for. The opportunity to do something like this is amazing, you kind of cherish it.”

There is a buzz in and around the city and region in anticipation of Saturday’s game.

Kyle Bradish walked into the auxiliary clubhouse at Camden Yards early this afternoon, sat down behind a microphone and entered a new world.

Bradish is in the playoffs for the first time, and his role as ace of the Orioles’ pitching staff is confirmed with his Game 1 start Saturday against the Rangers in the American League Division Series.

The obvious is official.

“Just the way he threw the ball this season and the improvements he made over the course of the year, and the improvements he made from last year, he's just had so many good starts for us,” said manager Brandon Hyde, who also announced that Grayson Rodriguez pitches Sunday in Game 2.

“We love his stuff. I like his make-up. He's pitched in some meaningful games down the stretch and pitched extremely well. And we have a lot of confidence with him going into Game 1.”

I first met Matt Hicks somewhere I guess it was in 1985 or 1986 maybe as we were both broadcasting high school football and teams we were covering were going to play each other in the Maryland state playoffs. It was Frederick High of Frederick County on my end against McDonough High of Charles County, the team Matt was covering. 

He was an outstanding broadcaster then and remains that many years later as a radio broadcaster in his 11^th year with the Texas Rangers. Matt has broadcast baseball play-by-play for 34 years and from 1989-1994 broadcast the games of the O’s Frederick Keys affiliate.

A Washington, D.C. native who grew up following his hometown Senators until they moved, Matt would later get his baseball fix attending games with friends and traveling to 33^rd Street watching the Orioles at Memorial Stadium. He grew up in Prince George’s County, is a graduate of Bladensburg High and is a 1983 University of Maryland grad. This Terp is back in the state where he grew up. When we see each other this weekend, neither of us is covering high school football any longer, but those were fun days too.

The Rangers and Orioles play Game 1 of the American League Division Series tomorrow afternoon. The winner of the best-of-five series advances to the AL Championship Series.

The Rangers are on what amounts to a two-week road trip. Starting Sept. 25, they ended the regular season with three games in Anaheim against the Angels and four in Seattle vs. the Mariners. When they failed to win the AL West on the final day, it was a cross-country flight to Tampa where they would beat the Tampa Bay Rays two in a row, and they landed in Baltimore Thursday afternoon.

Brandon Hyde has fielded the same question multiple times in recent days about whether he’s reached out to other managers with playoff experience leading into Saturday’s Division Series. Whether he’s picked their brains about the differences between his dugout duties during the regular season and in October and what he can expect.

Former Rays manager Joe Maddon’s name has come up, since they’re good friends. Hyde said he intended to speak with him.

Hyde also can make it much easier on himself by sitting down with or standing next to his bench coach, Fredi González, who managed the Braves from 2011 until his firing in 2016. His club played in the 2012 wild card game and won its division the following year. He's been there.

A total of five games past the regular season, with the only win against the Dodgers in the Division Series.

“We have spoken a little bit,” González said. “Just the other day he asked me how many games I have managed in the postseason. Not as many as Joe Maddon and those guys. But the experience I gained from those five games, it’s fast, and you don’t necessarily need to give a long leash to a starter because you have the off-days built in. And I think that you have to be prepared to make moves and maybe be unconventional at times. But the biggest thing for me is it’s fast and everything’s under the microscope, and if something doesn’t work out, then you get dissected until the next game – good, bad or indifferent.”

The Orioles have made the following roster move:

• RHP Jorge López has cleared outright waivers and elected free agency in lieu of accepting an assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.

When the regular season was winding down for the Orioles, they went through an eight-game stretch from Sept. 15-22 when they allowed nine runs once, seven runs twice and five runs twice. But then their pitching was really rolling in the season’s final eight games, pitching two shutouts in that span and allowing one run or less five times.

But the Baltimore offense was certainly not rolling. They hit just .138 scoring eight runs in the last four-game series versus Boston. In the last 11 games, the Orioles scored two runs or fewer seven times.

But over the long haul, the stats covering all 162 games, this just served to improve the O’s in the pitching stats. Their final team ERA of 3.89 ranks fifth best in the American League. And while their final runs scored per game dipped under 5.00 to finish at 4.98, that is still fourth best in the AL.

And while there are many different stats we could look at to evaluate their pitching and offense, ranking fifth in pitching ERA and fourth in scoring is a pretty good combination, one that led this team to 101 wins.

But should Birdland worry about an offense that scored just 32 runs while hitting only three homers in those last 11 games?

The Orioles know which team to prepare for, the opponent that dictates how their roster is constructed in the American League Division Series.

No other reasons to wait. The Rangers eliminated the Rays in the wild card round by a combined score of 11-1. The matchup is set.

The teams split six games this season, with Texas taking two of three at Camden Yards in May, including a 12-2 victory in the series opener. The Rangers were the Orioles' first road opponent and lost twice.

Jacob deGrom prevented a sweep with one earned run and 11 strikeouts in six innings, but he hasn’t pitched since April 28 and underwent Tommy John surgery two months later. Austin Voth was charged with the loss after relieving Grayson Rodriguez and allowing three runs in 1 1/3 innings, but he isn’t with the club.

Hardly worth mentioning, I suppose, but there it is.

Word began trickling to players in the dugouts during today’s workout and simulated game at Camden Yards. Their start time on Saturday. A resolution to the concert conflict.

Game 1 of the American League Division Series begins at 1 p.m. at Camden Yards, six hours before music legends Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks perform at M&T Bank Stadium.

The only way to handle huge crowds and shared parking lots.

One player wondered about Sunday’s Game 2, checking with a reporter for further information. Major League Baseball hasn’t divulged any other start times.

The Orioles don’t know whether they’re facing the Rangers or Rays, with the former winning yesterday in the best-of-three Wild Card Series.

For the Orioles Gunnar Henderson, seemingly on his way to the American League Rookie of the Year Award, a season that ended well did not start that way.

In mid-May, when he was batting .170 with a .651 OPS, some around Birdland wondered if a trip back to the minors was needed. But team management never flinched, they remained confident in the then 21-year-old talent, and that confidence was rewarded.

Henderson ended the year batting .255/.325/.489/.814 with 29 doubles, nine triples, 28 homers, 100 runs and 82 RBIs. He set an O’s rookie record with 66 extra-base hits and his OPS+ was 125. After that slow start into mid-May, his OPS was .849 his last 117 games.

On his way to winning the Most Valuable Oriole award, he led MLB rookies with 6.3 Wins Above Replacement per baseball-reference.com and also led them in home runs and extra-base hits.

Among all AL position players, just Marcus Semien (7.4) and Corey Seager (6.9) of Texas produced more bWAR although he ranked 12^th in the league in fWAR.

The Orioles are holding their first workout this evening at Camden Yards in preparation for Saturday’s Division Series opener. The opponent to be named later. Game 1 to be played in Baltimore, the first time that the city has hosted in the postseason since Oct. 11, 2014.

The Royals scored twice in the top of the ninth against Darren O’Day and Zack Britton to win 6-4 and take a 2-0 lead in the Championship Series. They swept it by posting back-to-back 2-1 victories at Kauffman Stadium. The “We Won’t Stop” Orioles were grounded.

You know what happened in 2016. The wild card game in Toronto, the Edwin Encarnación three-run, walk-off homer against Ubaldo Jiménez in the 11^th inning, Britton warmed but never used. The window for contention slamming shut and shattering.

One of the most vivid images is catcher Matt Wieters bolting from his crouch as soon as Encarnacion made contact and turning toward the visiting dugout. His own walk-off.

Anyway, that’s in the past.

It has been an interesting last 13 or 14 months for Orioles Triple-A pitcher Chayce McDermott. Last Aug. 1, he was acquired from Houston in a three-team trade that sent Trey Mancini to the Astros. Houston had drafted McDermott in 2021 in round four out of Ball State.

This season he advanced from Double-A to Triple-A in mid-July and ends his first full season in the organization named Saturday as the O’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year, winning the Jim Palmer Award.

Ranked as the club’s No. 10 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 14 via Baseball America, MLB Pipeline ranks him as the club’s top pitching prospect.

Late last season his life was uprooted by the trade, but this season ends with the Palmer award. Joining the Orioles has proven to be huge for McDermott, who turned 25 Aug. 22.

“I think people overlook sometimes that getting traded is very hard,” he said Saturday after the announcement of his award. “You get used to an organization and then you pick up and move. Meet new people, new coaches. But I feel like it was a super smooth transition, super easy. I love everyone in the Orioles organization, and they have been super helpful in my career. Now it just feels like I am part of the family.”