NEW YORK — A win could not be celebrated. Not fully, at least.
Beating the Yankees, as gratifying as that is, was just one piece of the clinching puzzle for the Orioles. After their 5-3 win Tuesday, the players filed inside to gather under the four television screens in the center of the Yankee Stadium visiting clubhouse to watch the final three outs of the Marlins-Twins game.
A Twins loss would secure a playoff berth for the Orioles. A win would mean they had to come back Wednesday and try again.
The room — including the televisions — was covered in plastic, making the screens barely visible. They didn’t care; they could squint.
When Miami got one out, they let out a holler. With two outs, they started passing out “October Ready” T-shirts. At the final out, the players started screaming and hugging as the buckets of champagne and beer and various other alcoholic beverages were brought in.
But still they had to wait. Manager Brandon Hyde was outside, talking to the media and unaware of the situation. Eventually, a public relations person stopped him midsentence.
“Your team just made the playoffs,” she said. He sprinted inside without a second thought, quickly donning his shirt, grabbing a bottle of champagne and heading to the center of the clubhouse, where the team was waiting for him.
“I’m so proud of this group,” Hyde said. “We have dealt with so much crap the past three months, and you guys continued to fight. We got in, so let’s get it on. We’ve got five more games to improve, then it’s the playoffs. Let’s go!”
Finally, they could celebrate. The players popped their bottles and started chugging — everyone, that is, except for Jackson Holliday, who at age 20 isn’t legally old enough to drink alcohol.
“Don’t drink this!” Heston Kjerstad yelled as he drenched his younger teammate.
The Orioles were prepared for this moment. Sitting in the corner was a bird bath, complete with a miniature Holliday jersey, a baby bottle, two empty champagne bottles labeled “Baby Bird Bath Water” and a stuffed Oriole Bird, which Holliday plans to give to his dog.
He just shrugged when asked who set that up. “It’s pretty funny,” he noted as he took a swig of his “bath water.”
Last season the Orioles got to party on two occasions, when they clinched their spot and when they won the division.
This year has been a different story. Baltimore has played poorly for most of the second half, and barring an improbable collapse by New York, the American League East title will go to the Yankees.
But on Tuesday the Orioles moved forward with a celebration, even if it was not as robust as in 2023 when they broke their playoff drought. They are still in, and that’s worthy of more than just a polite round of applause.
“This is like a stepping stone for us,” catcher Adley Rutschman said. Then he paused. “Oh God, when it gets in your eyes it’s so bad.” He didn’t learn from last year about the importance of wearing goggles, it seemed.
Colton Cowser had a feeling they would get in on Tuesday, so he had DoorDash deliver a waterproof camera to his hotel. It was harder to use than he envisioned — the beer being poured on it probably didn’t help — but he got the hang of it. He wanted a selfie with everyone and everything, hinting at plans to bring back his Instagram account dedicated to his photography.
The homer hydration station, like the homer hose a year ago, was a central part of the festivities. But the four-pronged device, already hanging on by a thread after 157 games of wear and tear, kept falling apart. It didn’t matter. They continued to use it, despite the hoses falling off constantly, with everyone, including members of the ownership group, taking a swig — only it wasn’t water going in the funnel.
The party raged on, with the veterans lining the outskirts of the clubhouse. Zach Eflin, who earlier in the night brought in a shirt full of beers from the showers to sate his teammates when supplies ran low, was on cleanup duty, picking up empty bottles and tossing them in the trash cans. James McCann, who doesn’t drink except for a few turns at the hydration station, smoked a cigar in peace in the corner.
Soon, the coolers inside and outside the clubhouse ran empty and the floor became a mix of champagne, beer and hard seltzer. A group of the Latin American players — including Yennier Cano, Albert Suárez, Emmanuel Rivera and Cionel Pérez, along with translator Brandon Quinones — took over the music and started to dance, sharing a moment to themselves.
As the festivities wound down, Cowser went out to the field with his camera. He wasn’t there when the Orioles clinched last year, but he was in Norfolk when the Tides won the International League title. He gathered who he could from that team and re-created that “vibe.”
Already, they were thinking about future celebrations if they moved past the wild card round, divisional round and championship series to capture the World Series.
“One down, four to go,” they called out as they ran back into the clubhouse.
