Manny Machado was 5.
The last time the Baltimore Orioles had a winning season, Machado wasn’t even in elementary school.
On Thursday, he clinched the club’s first non-losing season in 15 years with a walk-off single in the 14th inning, lifting the Orioles to a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Win No. 81 guarantees Baltimore a .500 record, at worst. The last time the club finished .500 or better in a season was in 1997, the year of the Orioles’ last playoff appearance.
Less than a day after making a stellar defensive play to put the team in position for him to score the winning run, Machado came up big again. The 20-year-old hit a sinking liner to left to score Adam Jones for the win.
The single improved the Orioles to 27-7 in one-run games. It also pushed them to their 13th straight extra-inning victory.
Most important, the win clinched a sweep of the Rays and a 5-2 homestand, and it kept the Orioles in a tie for first place in the AL East with the New York Yankees.
The sweep of Tampa Bay — which has been nipping at Baltimore’s heels for the past month — coupled with a four-game split against the Yankees the series before, shows that the Orioles aren’t ready to settle for a wild-card spot.
In spring training, a .500 record would have been considered enough for Orioles fans. Now, a suddenly engaged fan base is eager for more.