The Baltimore Orioles have secured a winning year for the first time since 2016, with their 82 wins being their highest total since the same year.
The final series for the Orioles, fittingly, will be against the Toronto Blue Jays. Yes, the same team that pretty much ended the postseason hopes of the Birds by winning five of seven games against Baltimore over a two-week stretch.
What makes the final series so perfect is that the season series with the Blue Jays is knotted up at 8-8. If there ever was a chance for poetic justice, this series was aligned by the Baseball Gods with a chance to truly see who has the better team this year.
The Orioles will go into the offseason showing signs of growth and the ability to compete in the AL East, as shown by their 36-41 record in the division.
As the Blue Jays ready themselves for the playoffs, they will send José Berríos and Mitch White to the mound for the first two games. They have yet to name a starter for Wednesday’s season finale.
The Orioles will send Dean Kremer, who has officially announced that he will be pitching for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and Mike Baumann to the bump for the first two games, with game three left as TBD, presumably Jordan Lyles.
❌️-FACTOR:
The Baltimore Battery has had a great season in pin-pointing specific ❌-FACTORs that would be crucial to each series. For the final series of the season, The Baltimore Battery is going to put the ❌-FACTOR spotlight on Orioles rookies.
Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Kyle Stowers and Terrin Vavra get to show off one more time to the home crowd. All have had an impact on this year’s team, but maybe none more so than Rutschman, who was announced today as the 2022 Most Valuable Oriole.
With strong performances, the Baby Birds will send Birdland into the offseason with a strong hope and excitement for next year.
As strong as all of the rookies have been, they will have one more chance, against a division rival, to show that the Orioles are back and are not backing down from a fight.
GAME 1 STARTING LINEUP:
Game one is tonight at 7:05 p.m. EST from Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Come out to the ballpark, or tune into MASN or your local Orioles Radio Network station.
How do you see the final series of the season playing out? Let us know in the comments below! And make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook and Twitter, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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