ARLINGTON, Texas — The best teams to be around are the ones who catch you by surprise, the groups who captivate a city and worm their way into even the most irresolute fan’s heart.
It’s June and you’re just glad they’re still fun to watch. It’s July and you’re braving the humidity just to get a closer look at the Homer Hose and the Splash Zone, as the stadium is buzzing again. It’s August and they’re on summer vacation with you, by radio or television, “Let’s check the Orioles score, real quick.” It’s September, a time historically when Baltimore has long flipped to football, and the O’s are on every television in the bar. As the regular season wanes, almost everywhere manager Brandon Hyde goes people are stopping and thanking him for this season, as his team locks up the American League East title and first 100-win season in more than 40 years.
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The 2023 Orioles brought baseball back to Baltimore, where local businesses hung Orioles signs in their windows and fans yelled until the stadium vibrated and the players — many in their first year — looked at each other wide-eyed and thought, is this what the big leagues is always like?
This group was special. It’s what made this season so great. It’s what made the last four days so painful. No one in the visiting clubhouse at Globe Life Field wanted to stop playing baseball, which was the end result after being clobbered 7-1 by the Texas Rangers in a Division Series sweep on Tuesday night.
“No matter how you lose it hurts,” said pitcher Kyle Gibson, a pending free agent who was one of the few Orioles with prior playoff experience. “This is a really good group of guys and I think that adds to the sting of it too, because we knew we had something special. You want to try to capitalize on that whenever you can.”
It was less than two weeks ago that Hyde, tears welling in his eyes, stood with a bottle of champagne like a proud papa and proclaimed that no one outside of the clubhouse had given this group a chance. On the backs of some soon-to-be-superstars, a team that had the second-fewest injuries in baseball and an incredible 30-16 record in one-run games, the Orioles emerged as the AL’s top team. They seemed destined for a wild ride. Instead, they led the Division Series for one inning, and were left watching from the visiting dugout as the Rangers celebrated.
“We are definitely going to take this into the offseason,” said rookie Gunnar Henderson, “and use it as fuel to make a World Series push.”
Pick your narrative, they were young, inexperienced. The starting pitching staff was tired, the offense missing for two-thirds of the series. But there’s no mistaking the Orioles were beat in every aspect of the game, every button Rangers manager Bruce Bochy pushed — hitting Mitch Garver third in Game 2, sticking with reliever Dane Dunning on gut in Game 1 — panned out. And a highly-flying Orioles team that had not been swept in the regular season since last May exited the playoffs with a whimper.
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“There’s no other way to put it: they kicked our ass,” outfielder Austin Hays said of a Rangers team that has opened the playoffs by winning five straight. “It sucks. Just couldn’t really get anything going, couldn’t get any momentum on our side to get things going. It hurts. It really hurts.”
Austin Hays strikes out in the fourth inning. (Jerome Miron / USA Today)Hays sat in his chair with a Corona in his hand, next to Cedric Mullins and Adley Rutschman. Anthony Santander did the same. A good majority of the Orioles, when the clubhouse was open to the media, sat in front of their lockers with a mix of emotions: shock, sadness, disbelief. More than once, a player choked up during their interview. Hugs were exchanged, the final night of a special season still cherished. Over and over they said it: This was the most fun any of them had ever had playing baseball.
“This feeling sucks, but on the bright side, this is our first taste of the postseason,” said Tuesday’s starter Dean Kremer, who gave up six earned runs over 1 2/3 innings. “Pretty much everybody in this clubhouse is coming back, so a lot of good years to look forward to.”
Kremer echoed the sentiments of all his teammates: 2023 was a rousing success, even if it stung on Tuesday. Even if they wanted more. Even if, like Hyde said in a postgame talk to his team, experiencing ups and downs like this is part of it.
Everyone in that clubhouse believes the Orioles will be back. And if they’re lucky, it won’t ever end like this again.
“This hurts, and it’s OK to hurt. It’s OK to have this kind of fuel your fire in the offseason,” Hyde said. “It’s going to take a while for us to get over this a little bit. But I think our guys will come in hunting and hungry in spring training. The guys coming back, especially the young guys, know what this feels like, knowing what it tastes like, and it sucks. If they did soak it in a little bit, they’re going to be better for it down the road.”
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The biggest concern moving forward remains the rotation, as the Orioles started three pitchers who had a combined zero playoff starts with only Kyle Bradish coming close to matching his Rangers counterpart. In the series, Orioles starters went eight innings and allowed 12 earned runs on 20 hits and six walks (14.63 ERA). If you take out Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez and Kremer combined for just 10 outs in Games 2 and 3, pitching to a 29.70 ERA. The offense, while lackluster during the Division Series, was constantly working out of big deficits in the final two games of the series.
Gibson, who signed a one-year deal to be the veteran of the rotation, is a pending free agent; as are Adam Frazier, Jorge Lopez, Aaron Hicks and trade deadline acquisitions Jack Flaherty and Shintaro Fujinami. Mostly, though, this group will be back.
While it will never be 2023 again, the Orioles believe there are better days ahead.
“It feels like we are taking those baby steps, kinda sucks going that way,” Mullins admitted, hoping, like many teammates, that they’d be the last team standing. “Last year, we just missed the playoffs. This year we get in there, don’t have a lot of opportunities. Next year, something better.”
These are the seasons you don’t want to end. The Orioles will take one more night together before flying back to Baltimore on Wednesday and going their separate ways. Spring training is just four months away. There is unfinished business in Baltimore, a rejuvenated fanbase and a team eager to rewrite this ending.
“This team going forward, heads up,” Hyde said. “It’s going to be a really good club.”
(Top photo of Gunnar Henderson: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)
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