Orioles blast Guardians, 9-5, to take series, move three games back of playoffs

Jacob Calvin Meyer, The Baltimore Sun on Sep 9, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BALTIMORE — After Tuesday’s loss, Gunnar Henderson repeated a similar sentiment to the one said by many Orioles players over the past few months.

“It’s right there in front of us,” Henderson said. “We win ballgames, we’re going to put ourselves right in it.”

In one way, that is true. While the Orioles don’t control their own fate, if they win every game the rest of the season, they will almost certainly make the playoffs. But in reality, it isn’t all in front of the Orioles. To make the playoffs, the Orioles won’t just need to play outstanding baseball to end the season, but also get significant help from their competitors.

Their 9-5 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday achieved both goals. While Baltimore badly needed a sweep, it got the next best thing by taking two of three from the ballclub that sits in the American League’s third and final wild-card spot.

The Orioles (71-76) are now three games back of Cleveland with only 15 games remaining, but the Guardians (74-73) own the tiebreaker after winning Tuesday. That means Baltimore will need to win one more game than the Guardians to make the playoffs. FanGraphs projects that win total to be 83, meaning the Orioles must go at least 12-3 the rest of the way.

If the offense can capture what it did in Wednesday’s third inning, that Herculean task might be a bit more realistic. After starting pitcher Shane Baz allowed a two-run homer to Chase DeLauter in the first inning, Baltimore’s bats continued to find open grass against Guardians left-hander Foster Griffin.

Leody Taveras and Carlos Narváez — the Orioles’ Nos. 8 and 9 hitters who’ve struggled mightily in recent weeks — led off the frame with singles. Dylan Beavers then drove them both home with a bloop double that tied the game. The next four batters then reached base to put Baltimore up 4-2 after a Christian Encarnacion-Strand hit by pitch and a Jackson Holliday opposite-field single. Rece Hinds’ sacrifice fly — a potential home run ball that was robbed by Camden Yards’ big left field — was the first out of the frame. Jeremiah Jackson, who was recalled Wednesday afternoon to replace the injured Blaze Alexander, then smacked an RBI single up the middle, and Taveras singled again for his second knock of the frame. Beavers did the same, this time a ground-ball single, capped off the eight-run frame that matched Baltimore’s season high.

Baz, whose eight runs of support were more than his previous four starts combined, was excellent until the sixth inning when he gave up three runs — two on a homer from Nathaniel Lowe and one from a Patrick Bailey double. Left-hander Josh Walker relieved Baz with two outs in the frame and stranded both inherited runners to maintain Baltimore’s comfortable lead.

That grew by one in the bottom half of the frame when Coby Mayo clobbered a solo homer against righty reliever Franco Aleman. The long ball is Mayo’s 22nd of the season, tied with Gunnar Henderson for second on the team and behind only Alonso’s 34. Henderson was out of the lineup Wednesday for only the third time this season after his knee injury Tuesday.

Walker, Yennier Cano and Rico Garcia came out of the bullpen and combined to secure the victory without allowing a run across 3 2/3 innings.

Baltimore will head to Toronto on Thursday, enjoy a day off and then take on the Toronto Blue Jays for a three-game series that will likely determine whether the Orioles have any playoff hopes at all.

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