Baseball is funny because the script never actually sticks to the plan. If you had asked anyone in Sarasota during Spring Training how the Orioles vs Yankees 2025 season series would play out, they would’ve told you it was a heavyweight fight for the ages. Two titans, one division, no mercy.
Except it didn't really happen like that. Not even close.
While the Yankees spent their summer chasing the Toronto Blue Jays for the AL East crown, the Orioles were living a nightmare. Injuries. A mid-season managerial firing. A massive July sell-off. By the time September rolled around, these two teams were moving in completely opposite directions. The Yankees were fine-tuning their roster for a deep October run, and the O's were basically just trying to see which of their prospects could survive a big-league fastball.
Honestly, the 2025 season was a reality check for Birdland. It was the first time since 2021 that the team finished with a losing record, ending the year at 75-87. That’s a far cry from the triple-digit win expectations people had in March.
The Game That Ended the Orioles' Hope
The season finale on September 28 at Yankee Stadium sort of perfectly summed up the entire year. It was a 3-2 Yankees win that felt a lot wider than the one-run gap suggests.
Ben Rice. Remember that name. He was the absolute "Oriole Killer" in 2025. In that final game, he launched two solo home runs—his 25th and 26th of the season—to single-handedly dismantle Baltimore's pitching.
Kyle Bradish was on the mound for the O's, and he actually looked great. He struck out eight guys in just four innings. He was the silver lining in a rotation that spent half the year on the trainer’s table. But the bullpen, which had been a disaster for months, couldn't hold the line. Ricardo Garcia gave up the deciding blast to Rice in the 8th, and David Bednar slammed the door in the 9th to secure the Yankees' 94th win of the year.
The Yankees finished tied with Toronto at the top of the division, eventually losing the tiebreaker but securing a Wild Card spot to host the Red Sox. For Baltimore, the game ended with Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson watching the Bronx celebration from the dugout.
Why the Yankees Owned the Season Series
It wasn't just one game. The Yankees bullied the Orioles for most of the summer. Look at the series in Baltimore back in late September—the Yankees took three out of four at Camden Yards.
The most embarrassing part?
A 7-1 drubbing in 10 innings where Ben Rice (again!) hit a grand slam to put the game out of reach. The Yankees' offense in 2025 was a juggernaut. Aaron Judge was doing Aaron Judge things, finishing the year with 52 home runs, but it was the "depth" pieces like Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Austin Wells who really broke the Orioles' backs.
Chisholm, in particular, was a thorn in Baltimore's side. On June 22, he hit a two-run double in the 8th inning to secure a 4-2 win. The Yankees had been 1-22 when trailing after seven innings prior to that. They basically used the Orioles as a "get right" team all year long.
The Pitching Gap
You can't talk about Orioles vs Yankees 2025 without mentioning the arms. The Yankees' staff, led by guys like Max Fried (who had 18 wins!) and Gerrit Cole, was consistent. In a mid-September matchup, Fried absolutely carved the O's, striking out 13 batters and allowing only three hits in seven shutout innings.
On the other side, the Orioles were a mess. Brandon Hyde was fired on May 17 after a 15-28 start. Tony Mansolino took over as interim manager, and while he played .500 ball (60-59), the damage was done. The team dealt nine big-league players at the July deadline. You aren't winning many series against a 94-win Yankees team when your roster looks like a Triple-A All-Star game.
The Henderson and Westburg Bright Spots
If there is a reason to stay optimistic if you're an O's fan, it’s the left side of the infield. Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg were basically the only ones consistently fighting back.
In that final September 28 game, they hit back-to-back homers off Luis Gil in the 4th inning. It was a brief glimpse of what this team should have been. Henderson finished the year in the 97th percentile of offensive talent, even with a depleted lineup around him. Westburg, meanwhile, became the vocal leader of a team that desperately needed one.
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But individual brilliance doesn't win division titles. The Yankees' collective OPS was significantly higher than Baltimore's throughout the 2025 campaign. The Yankees led the league in walks and home runs per game, while the Orioles hovered near the bottom of the league in almost every meaningful pitching category, including a 4.61 team ERA.
Breaking Down the Stat Sheet
The numbers tell a story of two teams in different tiers:
- Yankees Win-Loss: 94-68
- Orioles Win-Loss: 75-87
- Season Series Edge: New York won the majority of the 13 matchups, including key sweeps in June and September.
- Key Performer (NYY): Ben Rice (Multiple multi-HR games vs. BAL).
- Key Performer (BAL): Gunnar Henderson (30+ HR, 30+ SB).
It’s easy to blame it all on injuries, but the Yankees had their fair share of guys on the IL too. The difference was the Yankees' ability to plug and play prospects or veterans like Paul Goldschmidt (who had a huge RBI single in a 7-0 blowout of the O's in September) while Baltimore's depth just wasn't there yet.
What This Means for 2026
The rivalry isn't dead, but it’s definitely changed. The "Baby Birds" aren't babies anymore, and the 2025 season was a painful growing pain.
For the Yankees, the window is wide open. They proved they could handle the pressure of a tight AL East race and dominate the teams they were supposed to beat. For the Orioles, the 2025 season was a failure, plain and simple. Mansolino said it himself after the final loss: "It still feels like a failure deep down inside, knowing the Yankees are going on to play and we're not."
If you’re looking ahead, keep an eye on the Orioles' rotation health. If Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez can stay on the mound for 30+ starts, 2026 might look a lot more like 2023. But for now, the Bronx remains the king of this particular hill.
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To get the most out of the next season's matchups, you should keep a close eye on the Orioles' offseason pitching acquisitions and whether the Yankees can retain their core free agents. Tracking the early-season head-to-head record in 2026 will be the quickest way to see if the power dynamic in the AL East has actually shifted back toward Baltimore.