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The Orioles walked another late-inning tightrope on Sunday before emerging with a 4-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox and a split of the four-game series at Oriole Park that could have had far more significance than it ultimately produced.
Following a victory in the opener on Thursday, the O’s seemed well positioned to win the series and deliver a major body blow to their division rival’s midseason climb into wild-card contention. Instead, they arrived at the ballpark Sunday with a chance to lose three out of four and give a nice boost to the Red Sox’ playoff hopes.
But if that was a big topic of discussion in the Orioles’ clubhouse, no one was openly expressing great relief after they held off an eighth-inning threat to push the Sox right back to where they were in the standings before they arrived in Baltimore.
“At this point in the year, you’re just playing the games,” said veteran catcher James McCann. “It’s natural to start to watch the standings, but so much can still happen. What do we have, 40 games to go (37)? It’s human nature to scoreboard watch and see what other teams are doing, but at the end of the day if you spend too much time worrying about what other people are doing, you forget about what’s the most important thing and that’s what you’re doing as an individual and what you’re doing as a team.
“We really try to preach taking care of our business and if we take care of our business, then things are going to turn out the way they’re supposed to.”
They did that on Sunday, even though the offense struggled mightily for the second straight game. If not for another in a series of heroic efforts by veteran right-hander Albert Suárez, you would be reading quite a different story night now.
The Orioles managed just three hits and the bullpen added to a weekend of late-inning suspense, but home runs by Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson provided enough cushion to get out of town with a 3-3 homestand at a time when the Yankees and many of the other top MLB teams have also been unable to gain much ground in the standings.
Make no mistake. Even if a single loss would not have made a significant dent in the Orioles’ playoff prospects, this is not what they want to be worrying about as they navigate the final quarter of the regular season.
“I think especially with last night’s loss and the 12-10, it would have really been discouraging to come out here and lose this series and have a losing homestand,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “But I give the guys a lot of credit. We only got three hits, but Albert came out and really set the tone, and I feel this was a win we really wanted today. The guys in the dugout … everybody was really positive. Every game’s important, but you definitely don’t want to lose series.”
So the O’s boarded a train to New York for a three-game series against the Mets feeling a lot better, though they still have a lot to figure out going forward. They got another encouraging performance from new closer Seranthony Dominguez, but Hyde has to find a way to get his middle-relief guys lined up in a way that they aren’t facing a nightly firing squad.
They’ll also have to have fewer games that feature just four baserunners and get back to acting like one of the best teams in baseball hitting with runners in scoring position.
Getting Rutschman back on track and getting four home runs from Henderson over the past five games is a nice way to start.