After a week of working to stay sharp, the Orioles begin their postseason with the ALDS against the Rangers tomorrow. Mark previews the series with the AL West runner-up with a focus on how the two teams fit into a recent postseason trend: It's better to score first and it's better to hit more homers than the other team. Based on the regular season, Texas is more likely to do both of these things. Maybe the Orioles can join the trend or maybe they can win in their own way, like they've been doing all year.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At least until Saturday, there's nothing that Orioles fans need to worry about, and that feels pretty good. Mark offers some thoughts on the wild card games that were played on Tuesday, with the Rays falling on their faces and the Twins finally getting a monkey off their back. Also in this episode, a look at the kind of elite hitters the O's offense lack but could find for the rest of the month if one or two guys get on one of their signature hot streaks.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unlike so many recent seasons, the end of the regular season doesn't mean the Orioles are done for the year. They get the week off to rest thanks to their 101 wins. Their last regular season game offered enough to worry about if you want to be a worrier, but Mark is going to try really hard not to worry and instead focus on all the exciting possibilities. No team should want to face these Orioles, which doesn't mean the O's will win it all. They could, though, and that's pretty cool.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it sound like when a normally pessimistic Orioles podcaster records an episode right after his favorite baseball team wins its 100th game and clinches a division title and first season bye? It sounds like this. Mark goes from top to bottom to try to say something nice about every player who has appeared for the 2023 O's.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can be said about a legend like Brooks Robinson about whom everything has already been said? Mark shares his own brief encounter with Brooks, the nicest guy there ever was. The Orioles, fittingly, won a 1-0 game with a Gunner Henderson home run in the game after we found out about Brooks. The win lowered the AL East magic number to 2, setting up a possible Wednesday clinch. Mark looks at who's pitching in Baltimore and in Boston. In the mailbag, thoughts on Brandon Hyde's possible path to an above-.500 record as O's manager.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After Friday's walkoff loss, it seemed like the Orioles might be on the ropes for holding on to their AL East lead, but as they've done so many times this year, they bounced back in a big way. Mark runs through some of the recent developments that have gotten the magic number down to three, with John Means and Kyle Gibson coming through in the clutch over the weekend. Are you ready for the tension of postseason games? In the mailbag, some thoughts on trade deadline what-ifs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Orioles bullpen has gotten heavy use lately and that showed in Thursday's loss to the Guardians. Mark looks at some of what's gotten the team to the point it's at with its relievers and what their options are to try to do something about it in the short-term. With a lot of chatter among baseball websites lately about how "lucky" the Orioles have been, Mark offers his own thoughts about where the good fortune has been for the O's this year and why they're still great even if they are lucky.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the way to Tuesday's Orioles win over the Astros, MASN's broadcast asked rhetorically, "Can't you just be normal?" It seems to Mark that they can't, but this is working out for the O's so far. They clinched at least WC1 on Tuesday. In this episode, Mark runs through another game where the O's were simultaneously dominant and nerve-wracking, runs through the math of what's left, and in the mailbag, takes a look at Wins Probability Added and how some recent Orioles games have looked through that context-heavy stat.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The nearly-unthinkable has happened with 13 games still to play. The 2023 Orioles are going to the postseason. It's only a wild card clincher for now, but with a two-game lead plus the tiebreaker over the Rays, they have a pretty good chance to get the bye. Mark is riding a wave of exuberance about all of this, and in this episode talks about some of what got the Orioles here both this year and through the recent dark years, and how he was wrong to brush off the idea of the O's celebrating "only" a wild card berth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The failure by the Orioles to win at least one of the final two games against the Cardinals really hurts in the aftermath of Thursday's loss to the Rays. Mark's feeling pretty bummed about a game that the O's kept close despite generating almost no offense, so the few mistakes and missed opportunities loom quite large. Also bummed: Jack Flaherty's pitching tonight. Mark also goes through the possible outcomes from this crucial series, celebrates the arrival of Heston Kjerstad, and in the mailbag, fields a question about how many other teams usually get as good a reliever as 2023 Félix Bautista.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices