Baseball is at it's most beautiful when nobody is talking about exit velocity, spin rate, or xwOBA. Instead, it's moments like Monday night that can't be replicated in a computer model, no matter how many times you run the simulation, that make you believe that the impossible is possible -- even for a team like the Baltimore Orioles. With two outs and a runner on base in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, Orioles centerfielder Colton Cowser made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Jake McCarthy of a would-be walk-off home run to preserve a 2-1 Baltimore victory.
The Orioles' fourth consecutive win helped them maintain a slim half-game deficit to the Cleveland Guardians for the third and final AL Wild Card spot, after they seemingly waved the white flag on this season at the MLB trade deadline. With less than a month remaining, though, the Orioles are very much still in the battle. Baltimore's upcoming schedule will provide no doubt as to whether the O's belong in the postseason.
They face Cleveland and the Toronto Blue Jays, both of whom they're competing with for the last wild card berth, as well as the Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, all seemingly playoff locks. The projections likely say they can't do it. That's too daunting a gauntlet for a squad that was nine games under .500 as recently as July 8.
Fortunately for the Orioles, there's a difference between what's supposed to happen and what actually happens. Cowser wasn't supposed to come down with that ball on Monday. The Orioles aren't supposed to still be in the playoff hunt.
Yet there Cowser was, stunned, on the warning track in Denver, and here the Orioles are, amazingly, still creating moments. More MLB: Commentator Facing Backlash After Controversial Criticism of Rival Star
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