With the new MLB scheduling model, every team plays one another. That makes for some unexpected rivalries.
Look no further than the Orioles’ series this week against the New York Mets. Both teams entered in the thick of the playoff race in their respective leagues, with Baltimore battling for first place in the American League East with the New York Yankees and Mets jostling for a wild-card spot in the National League.
Those stakes ramped up the intensity, and it carried over to social media.
Things started innocently enough in the fourth inning Tuesday night, with the Orioles’ X account poking fun at the Mets for leaving home plate undefended after Ramón Urías hit a slow ground ball to first base, allowing Colton Cowser to score all the way from second.
The lights are on but nobody's home. pic.twitter.com/1cOvRYLSji
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) August 21, 2024
Later in the inning, backup catcher James McCann hit a two-run homer to left field to give the Orioles a 6-1 lead. The Orioles went with the caption “The Masked Dinger” in reference to the protective face mask the veteran wears after being hit by a 95 mph fastball late last month, but they could have easily poked fun at the Mets for trading McCann to the Orioles in December 2022 and paying most of his salary. That includes $8 million this season, according to The Associated Press.
But the trash talk really intensified in the ninth inning. After cutting the Orioles’ six-run lead to 7-5, the Mets had a chance to deliver another walk-off win following Francisco Alvarez’s game-winning homer off Seranthony Domínguez on Monday — if they could pitch a clean inning. But a fly ball to left field off the bat of Gunnar Henderson turned into a fiasco for New York, which had four players touch the ball on the “Bad News Bears”-esque play as both Cedric Mullins and Ryan Mountcastle came around to score and Henderson hustled into third base.
The Orioles’ ensuing dig at their opponent was simple but effective: New York Mess.
New York Mess pic.twitter.com/Uv0ODUxMTP
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) August 21, 2024
But that eventual 9-5 win — and the ensuing “Slay Queens” final score post in reference to Citi Field’s location in the Queens borough of New York City — would be Baltimore’s last laugh. In another back-and-forth game Wednesday afternoon, in which Mets starter Sean Manaea took a perfect game bid into the sixth inning before Orioles leadoff hitter Austin Slater tied the game with a two-run homer, New York once again stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with a chance to win. Jesse Winker did not wait long, sending a 98.5 mph fastball from Domínguez a projected 417 feet over the left field wall for the Mets’ second walk-off win of the series, 4-3.
The blast kicked off a wild celebration at Citi Field, and the Mets had a simple response to Tuesday’s jokes: baLtimore orioLes.
That wasn’t all. On the huge scoreboard in center field and television screens around the stadium, the Mets co-opted a meme from HBO’s “The Wire,” the beloved David Simon drama set in Baltimore. There was Russell “Stringer” Bell, played by Idris Elba, wearing a Mets cap above the caption: “I need you to put the word out there that we back up.”
The scoreboard at Citi Field: pic.twitter.com/QF69cPDm1h
— Matt Weyrich (@ByMattWeyrich) August 21, 2024
Unless the teams meet in the World Series later this fall, the Orioles won’t have another opportunity for revenge until July 8-10 at Camden Yards. Here’s hoping that series will be just as dramatic.