NEW YORK – The Orioles have reached the final road game of the 2022 season.

A win would make the Orioles 38-43 away from home. But the forecast today is brutal. The Yankees will make every attempt to play with a sellout crowd hoping to witness Aaron Judge’s 62^nd home run.

Kyle Stowers is the designated hitter today. Terrin Vavra is playing second base.

Rookie Kyle Bradish is making his final start of the season. He’s registered a 5.11 ERA and 1.393 WHIP in 22 games.

Bradish tossed 8 2/3 scoreless innings with only two hits allowed, no walks and 10 strikeouts against the Astros on Sept. 22, but he lasted only 2 1/3 innings in Boston and was charged with seven runs.

BOSTON – The wild card race remains the primary obsession within the Orioles clubhouse. Until an elimination becomes official, until the magic number makes their aspirations disappear, it will remain their No. 1 goal and why they push so hard through the fatigue and aches and pains.

Of course, there’s also the joy of finishing with a record that isn’t below .500. It hasn’t been done since 2016. And it matters.

The Orioles were denied again the chance to form the handshake line as winners for the 81^st time this season. They shuffled back inside the clubhouse today, with bags packed, having lost to the Red Sox 5-3 at Fenway Park.

Kyle Stowers hit a game-tying home run in the seventh inning, but J.D. Martinez cleared the Green Monster with a two-run shot off Dillon Tate in the eighth.

With the conclusion of the penultimate road series of 2022, the Orioles head to New York, where Aaron Judge is waiting, and return home for three games against the Blue Jays that gets them to 162.

BOSTON – The Orioles play their final game at Fenway Park today with Gunnar Henderson at third base and Kyle Stowers in left field.

Ryan Mountcastle, who struck out four times last night as the designated hitter, is playing first base.

Cedric Mullins is in center field and Austin Hays is in right. Anthony Santander is the designated hitter.

Terrin Vavra goes to the bench, with Rougned Odor playing second base.

Mike Baumann stays in the rotation and makes his third major league start. He went four innings and threw 58 pitches while allowing two runs against the Astros.

Before rookie Kyle Stowers could step inside the famed Green Monster yesterday, he first had to stand in front of it and try to track fly balls.

He did it in batting practice Monday afternoon and later during the game, the grass soaked beneath his feet from a storm that sent the teams indoors after the second inning.

Stowers got his first experience playing left field in Boston, where legends have roamed and others have been flummoxed. The distance from home plate, the narrow strip of dirt that constitutes foul territory, and the areas on the wall that create unusual caroms.

Spring training was the closest that Stowers came to simulating the Boston experience, but he played right field at JetBlue Park, also known as “Fenway South.” Doesn't count except for what he saw.

“I never played left in any of the mock ballparks,” he said. “The closest thing I can say that I’ve done is in Durham. I don’t think it’s quite as high, but same style of wall. There’s definitely a little more strategy with how you play defensively. I was just trying to get as comfortable as I could in warmups, and felt like there were some moments I did a good job of playing left, and some moments that probably could have been a little better.”

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has seen his club bounce back from hard losses to keep its season moving forward. The next challenge comes this afternoon.

It won’t be easy following last night’s 11-10 loss to the Astros, who are trying to salvage a split of the four-game series.

The defeat pushed the Orioles four games behind the Mariners for the last wild card. The tie-breaker belongs to Seattle, which scored in the ninth inning last night to beat the Royals.

Eleven games remain and the Orioles still need two wins to assure a no-losing season.

The left-handed lineup turns with Gunnar Henderson, Kyle Stowers and Terrin Vavra. Adley Rutschman is catching.

Fresh off their 8-1 win Wednesday night over the Detroit Tigers, the Orioles host the Houston Astros tonight at Oriole Park. In late August, the O’s won two of three at Houston, in what may have been one of their most impressive series wins of the year.

Houston (99-51) has already clinched the American League West and comes to Baltimore as a team on a roll. They just swept three in a row from Tampa Bay, pitching two shutouts in that series. Overall they have won four in a row by a combined 25-4 score. Houston has won 10 of 11 and 18 of its last 22 games. They are 49-28 on the road, winning seven straight and 11 of 12 on the road.

But at Minute Maid Park recently, the O’s won the first two games by 2-0 and 3-1 scores, before losing the series finale by 3-1. Their series win was so impressive as Houston entered that series with a 42-18 home record on the year, with seven straight wins at home at the time and with a 27-8 record in their previous 35 at home.

The O’s got incredible pitching that weekend in Houston allowing 14 hits and four runs in three games. Their three starters – Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer and Austin Voth – combined to pitch 21 2/3 innings allowing seven hits and two runs.

The Orioles (77-71) ended that series just 1.5 games behind the final AL wild card. Now, with 14 games left, they are four games behind Seattle for the final spot and they are 4.5 back of Tampa Bay and 6.5 behind Toronto. The Rays and Blue Jays begin a four-game series tonight in Florida.

The Orioles stay outside of their division tonight as a new opponent arrives in Baltimore, but the Astros are sitting on 99 wins while owning the best record in the American League.

The teams will play four games. Houston has won four in a row, 10 of 11 and 12 of 14.

Manager Brandon Hyde hit big with last night’s lineup, and he’s keeping Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Kyle Stowers and Terrin Vavra in it tonight.

In this arrangement, outfielder Austin Hays and infielder Ramón Urías join the other reserves.

Henderson is playing third base and Rougned Odor has resurfaced at second. Vavra is in left field and Stowers is in right, with Anthony Santander serving as the designated hitter. He’s also the cleanup hitter.

Akil Baddoo raced back to the left field wall tonight, jumped and brought down Ryan Mountcastle’s fly ball to end the first inning. Mountcastle rounded the bag and stared at Badoo in disbelief. Denied a home run on a 393-foot drive with a man on base, a souvenir in any other ballpark.

Mountcastle shook his head and tossed his batting helmet to first base coach Anthony Sanders. This couldn’t be happening again.

The next fly ball from Mountcastle in the third inning produced a sacrifice fly and expanded the lead to three runs, more than enough for Jordan Lyles. Finally, the Orioles felt in control. They wouldn’t get handled again by the Tigers.

Lyles tossed his second career complete game, Kyle Stowers hit his second major league home run and had three RBIs, Gunnar Henderson singled twice, and the Orioles avoided the sweep with an 8-1 victory at Camden Yards.

The Tigers had won nine games in a row against the Orioles dating back to August 2021, tying the longest streak since 1954.

When the 2023 season begins we’ll be checking on the usual things. Such as if some individual players get off to good starts and more importantly, how is the team doing?

But we will also be tracking the time of games. After MLB games averaged three hours and 10 minutes last year and are at 3:04 this year, MLB announced rule changes recently including the use of a pitch clock next year to improve pace of play.

Pitchers will have 15 seconds to pitch with no one on base and up to 20 seconds with a runner or runners on.

This definitely has worked to improve pace of play and lower game times on the farm this season. In Triple-A, the average time of game is two hours and 43 minutes, while it is 2:40 in Double-A, 2:34 in high-A and 2:36 in low-A.

“The overall time of the game (should improve) for sure,” O’s outfielder Kyle Stowers told me after seeing the clock at work this year on the farm. “So I think games will be getting done a little bit quicker. I would say in Norfolk the longer game tended to be around the three hour mark or 3:10 mark where most of the games were hovering around 2:45. Definitely helped the pace of play. It will be an adjustment though. I think it will take guys time to get used to.

It sounds a little strange to say this about an Orioles team that won just 52 games last year, but they have avoided any letdown this weekend against an Oakland team with the worst record in the American League at 49-85.

The Orioles beat the Athletics 5-2 Friday and 8-1 last night behind five home runs. 

This series followed the strong road trip where Baltimore went 4-2 at Houston and Cleveland against two first-place teams, and precedes a huge series against Toronto that starts tomorrow afternoon. It was positioned where if the O's had taken their foot off the gas pedal, we may have seen different results. 

O’s center fielder Cedric Mullins said his team has taken care of business so far this weekend.

“At the end of the day they are still a major league team to be taken seriously,” said Mullins, who hit his 13^th homer last night. “No matter what their record shows or how they are playing recently. If I’m not mistaken, they gave the Yankees a hard time not too long ago (they did, splitting a four-game series). That shows that. So, to come out and take the series and have a chance to get a sweep, that just shows where our mentality is to come out and play so hard every game.”

This is kind of a special night for the Orioles’ No. 1 rated farm system. For the first time ever, the top three Baltimore draft picks from the 2019 draft – Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Kyle Stowers – will all be in the starting lineup together for the parent club.

The trio were the first three picks by Mike Elias after he took over as the Orioles' executive vice president and general manager in the fall of 2018. The club took Rutschman with the overall No. 1 pick in June 2019, with Henderson at No. 42 and Stowers at No. 71.

At the end of last season, Rutschman and Stowers shared the Brooks Robinson Award as the Orioles' Minor League co-Players of the Year, and Henderson seems highly likely to win the honor this year.

“It’s really special,” Stowers said this afternoon in the O’s clubhouse. “Coming in together, we were the first three picks of the new front office. The coolest part to see is not only how we have grown so much as baseball players, but we all have become so close. It’s like rooting for your best friends. The fact we get to share the field together, be on a team together and chase after something so special as a playoff race, can’t beat it.”

In a clubhouse where the Orioles seem to be such a close-knit team, these three are the same way, but their friendship had origins in Sarasota, Bowie and Norfolk.

DL Hall sat at his locker yesterday and couldn’t draw a crowd. He wasn’t asking for one, but the solitude seemed a bit unusual considering that his major league debut came at Tropicana Field before the Orioles optioned him, and he returned to the majors this week while they were in Cleveland.

Hall hadn’t been inside the home clubhouse until yesterday. He came to the ballpark to sign his contract after the Orioles selected him in the first round of the 2017 draft, and he returned for an event inside the warehouse. That’s it.

The fuss over him sort of fizzling because the media was staking out Gunnar Henderson’s locker across the room. Baseball’s No. 1 prospect arriving in town after homering against the Guardians Wednesday for his first major league hit and singling twice in the series.

Henderson finally walked through the door and spent about six minutes fielding questions, the media arc thickened by multiple layers. Hall eventually got up and left the clubhouse, waiting to take a seat in the bullpen with the other relievers.

“It’s definitely a little bit different feeling than being on the road,” he said. “Being here in front of our home crowd, it’s going to be an unreal experience, something that, ever since I came here to sign my contract, it’s been my dream to get to play on this field, so I’m excited.

The Orioles wanted veteran starter Jordan Lyles to be durable and dependable. To make each start, push past the middle innings and give his club a chance to win. They sought his leadership on an inexperienced staff.

And they were willing to sign him for $7 million guaranteed with a $11 club option for 2023.

How’s it working out?

“I think he’s exceeded our expectations and what he’s done for us in every way,” says manager Brandon Hyde.

Hyde has gone on record with that opinion multiple times this season, most recently before Thursday’s game.

HOUSTON – Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias is on this road trip with the Orioles and told reporters today in the Orioles dugout that no decision has been made yet as to whether Gunnar Henderson, ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the sport by Baseball America, will be called up to the Orioles.

“We are watching everything he is doing carefully,” Elias said. “And having ongoing conversations about when and how he might factor into that in 2022, but no decisions have been made. But it’s obviously something we are monitoring and very pleased where he is at as a 21-year-old that started the year in Double-A.

“We do (see rosters) expand on Sept. 1. We are, obviously, going to be adding one position player and one pitcher. I don’t know who those are. Everything changes day to day in baseball. Somebody could get hurt. We’re just going to have to see. He’s put himself in a spot to be considered but he’s still having ups and downs in Triple-A on a nightly basis, and we’re watching that too.”

Henderson, in 108 games between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk, has batted .292/.415/.531/.946 with 19 homers and 75 RBIs.

Elias was asked what Henderson still needs to show to get his shot with the Orioles.

The transaction date was Aug. 5, 2021 and it probably didn’t register big around Birdland at that time. But the Orioles had claimed a one-time top 100 prospect, infielder Jorge Mateo on waivers from San Diego. He had a lot of speed but the promise he once showed had not materialized yet at the big-league level.

Of course, he had never gotten an extended chance really to show what he can do, getting just 121 plate appearances in 79 games with San Diego. He was already 25 when he broke in there during the 2020 season.

But now the player that once was ranked as high as No. 26 by Baseball America in its 2016 top 100 is thriving finally on the Orioles watch. He made a good first impression late last season, batting .280 with a .748 OPS in 32 games and that meant he might get a real chance this year.

He has and he’s run with it.

In the first half it was solid and steady defense at short that he showed along with that blinding speed. But in the second half, his bat has come to life. And while his overall numbers heading into last night’s game with a .233 average and .690 OPS, are below big-league average, it’s his recent hitting that now has him ranked among the top shortstops in the American League per FanGraphs.com Wins Above Replacement.

A clubhouse that’s started to check the standings while it’s in the thick of a wild card race – likely a majority of players, if not universally – knew exactly where it stood tonight before the first pitch.

The Rays won. The Mariners won. Two teams gaining ground ahead of the Orioles.

The outcomes don’t really matter if the Orioles can’t take care of their own business, which is why they glance at the scores and lock in on their opponent.

Jordan Lyles surrendered a first-pitch home run tonight and cruised into the seventh, where the White Sox tied the game on two soft hits and a throwing error. They scored a run in the eighth against Dillon Tate, again doing damage within the bullpen, and came within a strike of winning in regulation. Of retiring the last 13 batters.

Down 0-2 against closer Liam Hendriks, Kyle Stowers hit his first major league home run with a shot to center field that tied the score. A rookie in his seventh major league game, with three hits in 23 at-bats and none in his last 13, handling some of the business.

If the Orioles decide soon to make the call to bring top prospect Gunnar Henderson to the major leagues for the first time, they’ll be getting a player who has impressed both prospects analysts and his own teammates.

Outfielder Kyle Stowers, who got his own call to rejoin the Orioles on Friday, has been a teammate of Henderson much of this year at Triple-A Norfolk.

He provided a ringing endorsement of the talents and more that Henderson would bring to the Orioles.

“He is a special individual,” Stowers said before Sunday’s game in Williamsport, Pa. “Obviously, his athletic ability is impressive. But also, how strong he is. You know he is a special talent. What I’ve been impressed with and I’ve been around him since 2019 is every time there is a gap when I see him, he comes back leaps and bounds better than he was before. The rate at which he has progressed has been incredible.

“The first time I was actually on a team with him in affiliate ball (was this year) but just so impressed with the talent and even more so how he handles things. Even though they are not as frequent, when he would have a tough game, he is the same guy. Consistently getting himself ready and his prep work is the same every day. He is always in good spirits, and I think it is things like that that make me believe the sky is the limit for him. He is just a guy you want to root for. Such a good kid and so mature for his age.”

Left-hander DL Hall didn’t make it out of the bullpen yesterday at Triple-A Norfolk, if that’s where he sits when he isn’t scheduled to pitch.

He wasn’t on the lineup card. And he didn’t pitch.

The Orioles want Hall back in the majors as a power arm coming out of the bullpen. They’re shortening his outings and intend to do the same with his rest periods.

But not yet, apparently.

The minors shut down on Mondays except for the Florida Complex League, which went dark yesterday. Hall could get a few innings Tuesday night in Jacksonville.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Orioles officially have a home game tonight versus Boston although they have traveled north to Williamsport, Pa. to play in the Little League Classic.

After a 15-10 Orioles win on Friday night and 4-3 loss on Saturday, the teams play the third and deciding game of this series tonight at historic Bowman Field, home of the Williamsport Crosscutters of the MLB Draft League.

It's the fifth annual Little League Classic.

The O’s trailed 3-0 in the last of the seventh yesterday and scored twice to pull within 3-2 that inning on a Kyle Stowers' RBI groundout and a wild pitch that scored Jorge Mateo. Boston would take a 4-2 lead in the top of the ninth before the O’s pulled back within a run on another Stowers grounder. But that was as close as they got.

The Orioles (62-58) have lost three straight one-run games and are 17-21 in one-run decisions for the season. Overall, Baltimore has lost three of four and five of the last eight games.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – After their visit earlier today to the Little League World Series site, including Lamade Stadium and interactions with numerous Little Leaguers, the Orioles have moved over to Bowman Field where they are scheduled to play the Red Sox tonight to wrap up a three-game series.

There has been heavy rain in the area this afternoon with steady rain still falling after 4 p.m. today. The clubs are hopeful they will get this one in. For the Orioles, it is a chance to show a national audience on ESPN how much their team has improved this year.

“We haven’t been on the national stage very often, if at all," Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. "And to be able to have our guys be seen across the country, the only game that is going, I think it’s a big deal for a lot of our players. Lot of those guys have not been in postseason or on Sunday Night Baseball before. To be able to showcase and to be able to have friends and family watch on national TV, our guys will take a lot out of that."

Hyde said center fielder Cedric Mullins, who didn’t play Saturday after fouling a ball off his shin Friday, will be in tonight’s lineup. And he’s leading off in center.

“He’s going to get some treatment here and his foot feels better,” Hyde said.