Orioles fall to Yankees, 6-3, to suffer 2nd straight losing season

Jacob Calvin Meyer, The Baltimore Sun on Sep 26, 2026

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — The Orioles’ game Friday night might have been their last of the season.

A nor’easter will soon pummel New York City and make it difficult for the Orioles and Yankees to play their regular season finale Sunday. The storm is so bad that the teams made the rare move to have a Friday doubleheader, featuring a 10-2 Orioles win in Game 1.

If Game 2 was the last one for the 2026 Orioles, the 6-3 loss was a fitting way to go out.

Brandon Young delivered a solid start, but the rest of the team fell short. The bats couldn’t come through in the clutch, going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and leaving 13 men on base. The defense was shaky as Rece Hinds — a right-handed-hitting platoon outfielder who got the start against a left-handed pitcher — made two miscues in right field.

The Orioles had won their previous four games, sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays to end the final homestand at Camden Yards on a high note, then pummeling New York in Game 1 behind two Pete Alonso long balls, a Dylan Beavers grand slam, and a Jeremiah Jackson inside-the-park homer.

But when Baltimore fans remember the 2026 Orioles, it will be more for performances like Game 2 than Game 1.

The defeat was the Orioles’ 82nd this season, securing a second straight losing season. President of baseball operations Mike Elias has been at the helm for eight seasons, and five of them have ended with losing records. The first three were during the rebuild before the club broke through the glass ceiling in 2022 to begin a three-year stretch as one of the top teams in the American League. That stretch featured two playoff berths, one AL East title and zero playoff wins.

But the Orioles crashed back down to Earth early last season with a disastrous start that led to the firing of manager Brandon Hyde en route to an 87-loss campaign. Elias and owner David Rubenstein hired Craig Albernaz as the next manager, signed Alonso, and traded for Shane Baz — along with several other impactful moves — hoping for a bounce back.

They got only four more wins and an inauthentic wild-card race, thanks to a mediocre Junior Circuit.

In a meaningless game between an Orioles team that was eliminated Thursday and a Yankees team locked into the AL’s No. 4 seed, Young pitched the way he has all season. He delivered five innings of one-run ball, allowing only a run on a Ryan McMahon double in the fifth, to end his breakout sophomore season with a 3.56 ERA. The right-hander struggled mightily last season (aside from his near-perfect game) and opened this season as Baltimore’s No. 8 starting pitcher.

Now, he’s part of the future.

But Baltimore’s bats couldn’t score off pitchers Ryan Yarbrough and Will Warren through the first six innings. Their lone run before the ninth came on a Leody Taveras sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Relievers Josh Walker and Anthony Nunez struggled behind Young, allowing seven base runners and five runs. In the sixth, a Spencer Jones RBI single that put the Yankees up 2-0 was bobbled by Hinds, allowing two runners to take an extra base. Anthony Volpe then hit a fly ball to the warning track in right field, but it knocked off Hinds’ glove and was ruled an automatic double, bringing home two more runs. Singles from Heliot Ramos and Luis García Jr. extended New York’s lead in the seventh.

The Orioles’ offense showed some life in the ninth inning against Yankees reliever Alexander Cornielle, who was making his MLB debut. Beavers led off the frame with a solo homer, and Taveras’ RBI double put the Orioles down three runs with the tying run at the plate. But Hinds and Christian Franklin struck out to end the game and cue the dulcet tones of Frank Sinatra singing “Theme From New York, New York” at least one last time before the Yankees host the Boston Red Sox in the AL wild-card series.

The Orioles didn’t play well enough this season to earn any games past this weekend. Whether they get one more depends on Mother Nature.

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