Orioles understand importance of division title

BOSTON – Ryan O’Hearn wouldn’t get lured out of his baseball comfort zone. The dangling carrot was swatted like a pesky fly. Or a grooved fastball that wraps around the Pesky Pole.

Asked about the significance of the Orioles winning the division and leaving wild card aspirations in the dust, O’Hearn was willing to confirm that the American League East title is “very important.” But don’t press it.

“To me, the No. 1 goal is to make the playoffs, but you’re not going to get me to predict the future or get too far ahead of ourselves,” he said, smiling.

“We focus on every day, same thing we’ve been saying. One game at a time, trying to win a ballgame, and that’s it. If we do that, that’ll take us where we want to go.”

Trust the process, a slogan the Orioles can carry from rebuild to contender. It doesn’t get stale.

“Have to,” O’Hearn said. “In my opinion that’s the only way to go about it.”

Sig Mejdal’s background at NASA might make him the only person qualified to explain the magic number calculations. Major League Baseball emails daily updates, which are influenced by factors beyond an Orioles victory.

Austin Hays caught a fly ball to secure Saturday night’s 13-12 win and the magic number was six, but it dropped to five before the Orioles returned to the ballpark in the morning.

Yesterday’s results apparently kept it at five.

The Orioles haven’t done the latter since 2014, when they created a new Baltimore holiday on Sept. 16 known as “Clinchmas.” Players drenched in champagne, beer and glory moved the celebration from the clubhouse onto the field. Adam Jones ran around the warning track hoisting an AL East championship flag. He pied fans.

A sweet memory.

The Orioles made the playoffs two years later as a wild card and lost in Toronto. The last hurrah before a hard collapse.

The magic number to claim the division holds at 17. A first-round bye is a tantalizing perk for the two teams with the best record.

No one in the American League has a better mark than the Orioles.

“We want to win the division. There’s no doubt,” said reliever Danny Coulombe.

“It is the toughest division in baseball, so to win it, I think it would be a statement to our World Series chances. Ultimately, we want to get there. Not having to play the first round would be really helpful, so I think we definitely want to win the division and we have the team to do it.”

Rookie Gunnar Henderson understands how the importance of being AL East kings, a crowning achievement, stretches beyond the clubhouse and the organization.

The kid knows his history.

“That would definitely be really good for our fans, as well, because the last time was ’14 that they had a home playoff game, so that will be a really electric atmosphere,” he said. “And then also, being able to get a couple off-days, especially at this point in the season, would be awesome as well.”

Outfielder Aaron Hicks doesn’t want the Orioles confined to a shortened series. He gets playoff claustrophobia.

“I 100 percent know that (winning the division) is very important to us,” said Hicks, who began the season with the Yankees. “Going into a wild card game, it’s rough. All the wild cards I’ve played in were one and done. You either win that game or you don’t. That’s a tough one.

“This year it’s three games, but in the big leagues anybody can win three games. It’s extremely important to be able to have that seven-game series and have that week off, because you get time to recover and line up your lineup the way you want to and line up your pitchers the way you want to. It’s extremely important going into the playoffs.”

Goals can change over time.

The Orioles pushed through their rebuild hoping to touch .500. They were thrilled to finish above it last season. The 2023 target was set below first place but within the wild card cluster.

Baseball greed is good. They want to stay in first. They want the bye and their two initial games in Baltimore.

“Very important,” Coulombe said. “Camden is rocking, so it would be fun to get more games there. It’s different than anywhere I’ve played. Dodger Stadium’s pretty good, but I tell everybody it’s one of the best atmosphere’s that I’ve played at.”

“Being able to have home field advantage is extremely important,” Hicks said.

The Orioles can get much closer to it by claiming the four-game series against second-place Tampa Bay that starts Thursday night. They need one victory to clinch the season series and the tiebreaker.

The Rays moved to within three games of first place yesterday, refusing to let the Orioles relax.

“They have a really good lineup, and they obviously do a lot of stuff over there pitching wise,” Coulombe said. “It’s pretty impressive, so it doesn’t surprise me. The way they’ve found ways to win is kind of like how we’ve found ways to win. Win ugly sometimes. That’s just part of it.”

They are accustomed to contention, small budgets unable to create insurmountable obstacles. Their hands always are on a division that’s up for grabs.

The Orioles didn’t figure to have the same reach.

“I felt like we knew what we could do coming into the season,” Henderson said, “and then we came out here and we’re playing our butt off and we’re going to continue to do that and hopefully make a run at the World Series.”

How’s that for heightened expectations?

“I’m going to focus on today, try to win today,” O’Hearn said. “Have four or five good at-bats, and we’ll go from there.”