The Orioles are for real again. They won 101 games last year. After losing 110 games and being 40 games behind the Yankees in 2021, the Orioles are 19 games behind the Yankees in 2023.
This was one of baseball’s most endearing stories in years, until the Orioles ran into a runaway train of the Texas Rangers in October and lost three straight games in the American League Division Series, bringing a quiet end to a tumultuous year at Orioles Park at Camden Yards.
The Orioles are doing even better this year, with a 47-24 record and a pace of 107 wins. They’re tied with the Yankees in losses, but that seems like a misprint given how dominant the Yankees were through the first two and a half months of the season, a dominance that was notably punctuated by the Orioles winning three of four games in Baltimore from April 29 to May 2, limiting a fearsome Yankee offense to just six runs in those four games.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Aaron Judge, who was the top vote-getter in all of major league baseball on Monday afternoon. “It’s another great team, and I can’t wait to see them play in the Bronx. It’s going to be a fun series and the fans are going to be excited.”
It should be. There’s something to be said for Yankees fans about the team’s near-certain wins over most of the opponents they’ve faced this year, despite an unexpected shutout win Saturday and Sunday weekend in Boston.
In the past, most people would set their clocks on the Yankees. In another era, with another powerful Yankee team, team owner Colonel Jacob Ruppert famously said, “What’s a perfect afternoon at Yankee Stadium? When the Yankees score eight runs in the first inning and then slowly build up their lead.”
The Yankees came very close to honoring that no-brainer order on many nights, and there is a time and place for timely home games against the Twins, Tigers and White Sox.
But there’s something to be said about three games like this that get us all on the threshold of summer, three games against the only team in the AL hell-bent on keeping the Yankees in the fall every day of the summer. It seems inevitable that there will be an October clash between these teams, and if that’s the only memory they have, so be it.
That was the cardinal rule against the Red Sox every year in this ancestral rivalry, back when the Red Sox were the Alydar and Affirmed of the American League. October was the most dramatic, but the Red Sox-Yankees games in April, June and August of that year were just as entertaining and just as shadow-boxy.
“They’re a really good team,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after Sunday’s 9-3 loss at Fenway Park. “They’re very accomplished. They’ve had some injuries in their starting rotation, but their depth has worked well. Their starting pitchers continue to be good. They can close out games. And they have a versatile, dynamic offense. They can beat you with power, they can beat you with speed and they can go toe-to-toe with you.”
While Boone was talking about the Orioles, he could have easily been describing his own team throughout the first 74 games of the season, which is what makes this series so intriguing.
The Orioles can play the Yankees and the Yankees can play the Orioles, which means days and nights, weeks in fact, when the Yankees look at the other team’s scoreboard and see the Orioles are winning again, and the Orioles look the other way and see the Yankees leading 7-2 against an inferior team. Again.
Right now, in the American League, it’s Yankees vs Orioles and Orioles vs Yankees. The Guardians are one game behind in the losing streak, but we’ve already seen plenty of AL Central action. We all know the Yankees are 17-2 against the AL Central JV, and the Orioles are doing just fine at 11-2. And is anyone really scared of the Mariners doing so well in the West?
No, unless proven otherwise, the Yankees and Orioles will be in one place and the other team will be in another, which is why watching a baseball game where they play each other in the same place for the next three games should be a blast.
“I think it’ll be a good game,” Yankees catcher Jose Trevino said. “It’ll be fun to come back to the Bronx after being on the road and play a good team.”
He’s right on that point. See you later.
