9 October 2023
Fans brimming with optimism and bubbling anticipation filed into Oriole Park by the tens of thousands this weekend.
They left with anxious disappointment, clinging to shreds of hope.
These Orioles — the ones who have enraptured Baltimore all year long with dazzling victories and effortless comebacks, forming one of the most surprising turnarounds in recent baseball history — suddenly find themselves with their backs against the wall.
The Orioles lost, 11-8, to the Texas Rangers on Sunday, their pitching betraying them a day after their bats did, and are now staring at a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-five American League Division Series. The more than 46,000 fans who attended sold-out Camden Yards on both Saturday and Sunday, cheering so loudly that Orioles pitcher Kyle Bradish said he could feel the field shaking, are left hoping that they won’t have to wait another year, at a minimum, to witness postseason baseball again.
Baltimore will need to pull off three straight wins, including two in Texas, to continue the magical season. That will be a task. When a home team loses the first two games of a best-of-five series under the current format, they have gone on to advance only twice in 16 such scenarios.
It’s possible, Orioles fan Matt Hartman, of Annapolis, said. But it’s “a hell of a tall order.”
“You win 100 games, you kind of expect a better performance,” Hartman said at Camden Yards as the Orioles trailed by several runs Sunday. In unison, he and his father, Ken Hartman, added: “But that’s baseball.”
The ghost of Saturday’s loss hung over the Fells Point Fun Festival on Sunday evening, where the game was broadcast on a big screen in Broadway Square as a brass band played. Matt Strzegowski shucked oysters on Thames Street during the game. “Shucking doesn’t really help. I’ve still been freaking out,” he said.
“The fan base is hanging on,” Tim Heffner, of Mays Chapel, said Sunday. “I’ve been a lifelong Orioles fan. This is exciting, and it’s not over until it’s over. Three more games.”
Lending credence to a possible Orioles recovery is the fact that Baltimore had the best road record in the AL this year. Besides, if there’s any team that could pull off an improbable comeback, it might be these Orioles, who, with people all over the city behind them, have made a habit of the unexpected.
“I have hope,” Nico Reyes, of Baltimore, said during the sixth inning while barhopping in Fells Point. “It’s the Orioles. Orioles magic. That’s what keeps me optimistic. Every year, we say, ‘This is the year,’ and this still might be the year.”
The Baltimore baseball buzz that began last year and carried over to an unforgettable 2023 reached its climax — thus far, at least — ahead of Saturday’s game, Baltimore’s first time witnessing playoff baseball since 2014.
A police officer wished Danny Coulombe good luck when he saw the Orioles pitcher walking along the Inner Harbor last week. An Orioles chant broke out on the light rail as fans headed to the ballpark Sunday. Orange poured out from every corner of the city all week.
When Adley Rutschman approached the dais to speak with media members before the games, he surveyed a room full of reporters. “A lot of people,” he observed.
Indeed, in the span of a couple of years, the Orioles had gone from a woeful club whose rebuilding project had shown promise to the best team in the AL. Baltimore and the baseball world couldn’t help but turn their attention to the Orioles.
By Saturday at 8:30 a.m., the dedicated donning orange headed for bars outside Camden Yards despite overcast skies. Multiple fans described it as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” and a spirited throng — unperturbed by rain and propelled by the long-awaited arrival of the postseason — chanted “Let’s Go, O’s!” even as a tarp sat on the field.
So excited, Richie Travers awoke at 5 a.m. that morning.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” said Travers, of Baltimore, who wore orange and black overalls. “I feel like a little kid waiting on Christmas. I couldn’t sleep this whole week, thinking about the O’s.”
Saturday was a spectacle, as expected. Gov. Wes Moore, complete with an Orioles jersey, signed autographs and posed for photos before the game. The crowd, synchronized by a postseason thirst, fiercely waved orange towels in unison. Former Oriole Adam Jones threw out the first pitch and legendary Orioles fan Joan Jett sang the national anthem, accompanied by a deafening “O” cry.
The Orioles, at long last, were playing postseason baseball with a team that has captured Baltimore’s imagination and its pride.
“The energy was unbelievable,” said fan Stephen Napp, who wore an orange wig, along with his 13-year-old son, Parker, Sunday.
But the fervor and the intense adoration couldn’t will the Orioles to victory Saturday as a packed house waited for a moment to explode that never arrived. Sunday brought more of the same agony as seemingly contagious poor pitching unraveled the Orioles early.
As Baltimore scraped together runs in the fourth inning and then again with a fifth-inning Gunnar Henderson home run, the concourses within Camden Yards briefly came to life. In the sixth, with their star catcher at the plate, the masses chanted “Adley Rutschman,” but the Orioles had dug themselves too much of a hole.
Earlier in the day, one fan called the Orioles’ postseason games coinciding with a Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks concert at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday and the Ravens playing in Pittsburgh a “miracle weekend.” But with the Orioles’ and Steelers’ dispiriting losses, it quickly turned into a nightmare.
Attention now shifts to Texas as the Orioles, who have not been swept in 91 straight series, seek to avoid one at the most inopportune time.
Regardless of the outcome, the 2023 Orioles season has been one that’s uplifted Baltimore and restored the city’s enthrallment with the baseball team. With legitimate problems ailing the area — including multiple shootings at nearby universities just in the past week — the Orioles have provided a bright spot for many.
“It’s just great to have this energy and spirit,” said Orioles fan Joyce Jones, of Federal Hill, who entered the ballpark with her 12-year-old daughter, Johanna Stolbach, 12 2 1/2 hours before first pitch.
Rocker Jett, a so-called “Orioles freak” since she watched Jim Palmer throw a no-hitter in 1969, attended Sunday’s game, too, after singing Saturday’s national anthem.
“It’s really exciting to see the city so excited about the team,” she told The Baltimore Sun. “I’m sure it’s just the beginning of a long stretch of winning baseball. I’m excited for them, because they deserve it — the team and the city.”
Baltimore is down, as it has been so often, but not out, as the Orioles have proved time and again in 2023. Fans are hoping that, once more, the Orioles can do the unexpected — and bring more playoff baseball to Baltimore this year.
Baltimore Sun reporter Dillon Mullan contributed to this article.
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