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Jeremy WillisESPN.com
The Baltimore Orioles are dead last in the AL East. They are 55 games under .500. They aren’t sniffing the expanded air of the 2021 MLB playoffs. However, three other teams in the division — the New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox, along with the Seattle Mariners, are battling for the wild-card spot.
The Orioles just came off a series with the Red Sox and will close the season with three games in Toronto. The O’s are bad. They will be home Monday no matter what. But that doesn’t mean you can’t absolutely trash the playoff hopes of two rivals.
And absolutely revel in every bit of their role as agent of chaos.
Spoiler szn has begun 😎 pic.twitter.com/oWF2bG35Ub
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 11, 2021
They also know they have a lot of baseball fans around the country taking brief rides on the Orioles bandwagon. After beating the Red Sox on Tuesday, the Orioles’ Twitter feed was hyped and seeking alliances with its counterparts elsewhere.
The mentions tn pic.twitter.com/twbJYR7qCA
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 29, 2021
Absolutely, we do 😏 https://t.co/jRSDAkIoWL
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 28, 2021
Baltimore lost Wednesday’s game but bounced back to hand Boston a 6-2 loss on Thursday. As a result, the Red Sox lost the series and are now tied with the Mariners for the second wild-card spot. Either the Red Sox, Mariners, or the Blue Jays, who are one game back of the final wild-card spot, will likely face the Yankees in a one-game playoff.
The Orioles-as-season wrecker machine is online and self-aware.
Your friendly neighborhood spoiler men. pic.twitter.com/ju5XGuH4Fr
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) October 1, 2021
DIEHARD BALTIMORE ORIOLES FAN CLUB RISE UP! pic.twitter.com/kX6nlCFsrH
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) October 1, 2021
In one final poke at the Red Sox, following Thursday’s win, the Orioles changed their Twitter avatar to a headshot of former Orioles infielder Robert Andino. Why change the social media face of your organization to a player with 18 career home runs who last played for the club in 2012?
The Curse of the Andino, of course.
In September of 2011, Andino and the Orioles were at the center of one of the wildest nights in recent MLB history. In 2011, with the Red Sox trying to clinch a wild-card spot, Andino had an amazing week. On September 28, after two huge hits in earlier wins that kept the Red Sox from grabbing a postseason slot, Andino had a two-out, game-winning single off Jonathan Papelbon to give Baltimore a come-from-behind 4-3 win over Boston. That Orioles win, combined with the Tampa Bay Rays overcoming a 7-0 deficit and beating the Yankees on a walk-off home run, eliminated the Red Sox from the postseason that year.
So, maybe, another Red Sox-crushing curse is alive and well in Baltimore.