Fans brimming with optimism and effervescent anticipation filed into Oriole Park by the tens of hundreds this weekend.
They left with anxious disappointment, clinging to shreds of hope.
These Orioles — those who’ve enraptured Baltimore all yr lengthy with dazzling victories and easy comebacks, forming some of the shocking turnarounds in latest baseball historical past — all of a sudden discover themselves with their backs towards the wall.
The Orioles misplaced, 11-8, to the Texas Rangers on Sunday, their pitching betraying them a day after their bats did, and are actually gazing a 2-0 deficit within the best-of-five American League Division Series. The greater than 46,000 followers who attended sold-out Camden Yards on each Saturday and Sunday, cheering so loudly that Orioles pitcher Kyle Bradish mentioned he may really feel the sector shaking, are left hoping that they received’t have to attend one other yr, at a minimal, to witness postseason baseball once more.
Baltimore might want to pull off three straight wins, together with two in Texas, to proceed the magical season. That will probably be a job. When a house workforce loses the primary two video games of a best-of-five sequence underneath the present format, they’ve gone on to advance solely twice in 16 such situations.
It’s doable, Orioles fan Matt Hartman, of Annapolis, mentioned. But it’s “a hell of a tall order.”
“You win 100 games, you kind of expect a better performance,” Hartman mentioned at Camden Yards because the Orioles trailed by a number of 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 night, the place the sport was broadcast on an enormous display screen in Broadway Square as a brass band performed. Matt Strzegowski shucked oysters on Thames Street in the course of the recreation. “Shucking doesn’t really help. I’ve still been freaking out,” he mentioned.
“The fan base is hanging on,” Tim Heffner, of Mays Chapel, mentioned 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 doable Orioles restoration is the truth that Baltimore had the very best street document within the AL this yr. Besides, if there’s any workforce that might pull off an inconceivable comeback, it is likely to be these Orioles, who, with individuals all around the metropolis behind them, have made a behavior of the surprising.
“I have hope,” Nico Reyes, of Baltimore, mentioned in the course of the sixth inning whereas 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 started final yr and carried over to an unforgettable 2023 reached its crescendo — up to now, at the least — forward of Saturday’s recreation, Baltimore’s first time witnessing playoff baseball since 2014.
A police officer wished Danny Coulombe good luck when he noticed the Orioles pitcher strolling alongside the Inner Harbor final week. An Orioles chant broke out on the sunshine rail as followers headed to the ballpark Sunday. Orange poured out from each nook of the town all week.
When Adley Rutschman approached the dais to talk with media members earlier than the video games, he surveyed a room stuffed with reporters. “A lot of people,” he noticed.
Indeed, within the span of a few years, the Orioles had gone from a woeful membership whose rebuilding undertaking had proven promise to the very best workforce within the AL. Baltimore and the baseball world couldn’t assist however flip their consideration to the Orioles.
By Saturday at 8:30 a.m., the devoted donning orange headed for bars outdoors Camden Yards regardless of overcast skies. Multiple followers 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!” at the same time as a tarp sat on the sector.
So excited, Richie Travers awoke at 5 a.m.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” mentioned 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 anticipated. Gov. Wes Moore, full with an Orioles jersey, signed autographs and posed for photographs earlier than the sport. The crowd, synchronized by a postseason thirst, fiercely waved orange towels in unison. Former Oriole Adam Jones threw out the primary pitch and legendary Orioles fan Joan Jett sang the nationwide anthem, accompanied by a deafening “O” cry.
The Orioles, in the end, have been taking part in postseason baseball with a workforce that has captured Baltimore’s creativeness and its satisfaction.
“The energy was unbelievable,” mentioned fan Stephen Napp, who wore an orange wig, alongside along with his 13-year-old son, Parker, Sunday.
But the fervor and the extraordinary adoration couldn’t will the Orioles to victory Saturday as a packed home waited for a second to blow up that by no means arrived. Sunday introduced extra of the identical agony as seemingly contagious poor pitching unraveled the Orioles early.
As Baltimore scraped collectively runs within the fourth inning after which once more with a fifth-inning Gunnar Henderson residence run, the concourses inside Camden Yards briefly got here to life. In the ninth, the ballpark erupted as Aaron Hicks hit a three-run homer to trim the deficit, however the Orioles had dug themselves an excessive amount of of a gap.
Earlier within the day, one fan known as the Orioles’ postseason video games coinciding with a Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks live performance at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday and the Ravens taking part in in Pittsburgh a “miracle weekend.” But with the Orioles’ and Ravens’ dispiriting losses, it shortly was a nightmare.
Attention now shifts to Texas because the Orioles, who haven’t been swept in 91 straight sequence, search to keep away from one on the most inopportune time.
Regardless of the result, the 2023 Orioles season has been one which’s uplifted Baltimore and restored the town’s enthrallment with the baseball workforce. With professional issues ailing the world — together with a number of shootings at close by universities simply previously week — the Orioles have supplied a shiny spot for a lot of.
“It’s just great to have this energy and spirit,” mentioned Orioles fan Joyce Jones, of Federal Hill, who entered the ballpark along with her 12-year-old daughter, Johanna Stolbach, 2 1/2 hours earlier than the primary pitch.
Rocker Jett, a so-called “Orioles freak” since she watched Jim Palmer throw a no-hitter in 1969, attended Sunday’s recreation, too, after singing Saturday’s nationwide anthem.
“It’s really exciting to see the city so excited about the team,” she advised 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, because it has been so usually, however not out, because the Orioles have proved again and again in 2023. Fans are hoping that, as soon as extra, the Orioles can do the surprising — and produce extra playoff baseball to Baltimore this yr.
Baltimore Sun reporter Dillon Mullan contributed to this text.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com