MINNEAPOLIS — Last year, Orioles fans hardly had a chance to revel in the moment — of experiencing the joys that can unfurl with postseason baseball. They whipped up into a nervous frenzy, were ready to explode, and then as the Texas Rangers buzzed through Baltimore, those two games at Camden Yards turned from dream into nightmare.
Baltimore’s faithful will have another shot at the hysteria.
For the second straight season, postseason baseball is coming to Baltimore. The Orioles had already clinched their place in the playoffs this week, but with a 7-2 win against the Minnesota Twins on Friday, Baltimore ensured its place as the top wild card seed, with at least two games scheduled at Camden Yards next week.
“Hopefully, we’re going to put on a show for our home fans,” Ryan O’Hearn said, “and kind of avenge how last year’s home postseason games went.”
It’s the first time the Orioles have clinched the postseason in consecutive years since 1996 and 1997, and this could serve as a sort of do-over for them and their fans. With three straight losses last year in the American League Division Series, the Orioles haven’t won a postseason game since 2014, when they swept the Detroit Tigers, with the first two games at Camden Yards.
The Orioles might welcome the Tigers again to Camden Yards. Detroit’s improbable surge down the stretch led the Tigers to their first postseason berth since that ill-fated ALDS against Baltimore.
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In the time since then, few games have been louder at Camden Yards than Game 2 of that 2014 series, when Delmon Young’s line drive to left field cleared the bases and J.J. Hardy rounded third and slid in safely for the lead.
That’s all possible again. For as lowly as the second half of this season has seemed at times — with groans more likely than cheers as the Orioles labored to a sub-.500 record in July and August, the postseason gives a clean slate. It’s possible because of the strong pitching performance from left-hander Cade Povich and the home runs from O’Hearn and Colton Cowser on Friday against the Twins.
The Twins chose Povich in the third round of the 2021 draft because of this potential, but they dealt him to the Orioles as part of a large package that landed then-closer Jorge López in 2022. In Povich’s first appearance against the organization that selected him and then traded him, the left-hander may have left the Twins regretting the deal.
“My fiancée’s from here. Being closer to family, that’s kind of what meant a lot to me,” Povich said. “And then just trying to give us an opportunity to stay in Baltimore for the wild card.”
Povich pumped gas, reaching 96 mph — his fastest pitch in the majors — as he recorded his first road win in MLB.
The splits between pitching at Camden Yards and as a visitor have been extreme, with Povich receiving the benefit of the deep left field wall at home. In nine starts in Baltimore, Povich has a 3.60 ERA. In six starts entering Friday, Povich held a 9.75 ERA on the road, with 26 runs against him in 24 innings.
His performance at Target Field — his final start of the regular season — bucked the trend.
Povich threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings with two hits, one walk and two strikeouts. He was lifted for right-hander Jacob Webb in the sixth inning after Manuel Margot’s double. The strong outing for Povich to end a strong September could be enough for him to make the postseason roster; that’s no sure thing, of course, with the need for fewer starting pitchers than relievers.
“I understand the roster; I understand me being young,” Povich said. “But just treating every start as kind of a tryout for the postseason, giving my best to hopefully get a chance in the postseason, and I’m very pleased with how this last month went.”
The Orioles missed a chance to break the game open against right-hander Pablo López, stranding the bases loaded in the sixth inning. But O’Hearn’s two-run homer in the second — his first long ball since Aug. 27 — gave them an early advantage that Cowser added to with a solo shot in the seventh.
O’Hearn said he’s been swinging “a little bit too hard” of late, which led him to work with co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte prior to the game. They discussed how swinging with all his might could be detrimental, and O’Hearn remembered the saying his former Kansas City Royals hitting coach John Mabry once told him: “You want to be a surgeon, not a butcher.”
“I think that’s very true. Kind of being smooth and catching the ball out front, making sure I hit the barrel and the ball’s going to go,” O’Hearn said.
Taking López deep was a positive sign as the postseason nears. And, against Minnesota’s bullpen, the Orioles added on. They loaded the bases in the eighth and plated four runs through RBIs from Ramón Urías, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and Anthony Santander.
For all the struggles since the All-Star break, the Orioles have put together three wins in their last four games. It’s not much in 162, but with two games remaining before that home wild card series, any upturn in form could be welcome to a fan base still waiting for a chance to explode as it did in 2014 as Hardy rounded third and slid into home.
“We’re gonna be pumped to play in front of our fans,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We know there’s gonna be a lot of energy and excitement in the ballpark, and our guys are really looking forward to that.”
