NEW YORK — The wait is over.

After grinding through months of injury blows and inconsistent performance, the Baltimore Orioles clinched a playoff spot Tuesday with a 5-3 win over the Yankees and, minutes later, the Minnesota Twins’ 4-1 loss to the Miami Marlins. Dean Kremer, who started each of the Orioles’ two clinches in 2023, tossed five innings of one-run baseball against the club’s American League East division foes to put Baltimore in position to celebrate its second consecutive trip to the postseason on its rival’s home field.

Colton Cowser caught Alex Verdugo’s fly-ball to left field to secure the final out and drop the Orioles’ magic number to one, and it fell to zero 10 minutes later with the Twins losing. The Orioles entered the day needing a win in New York coupled with a loss by either the Twins or Kansas City Royals to ensure they would be returning to the playoffs, and they held up their end behind Kremer’s strong effort, some manufactured runs and a pair of homers to seal the victory.

Kremer got an early lead in the second inning when Jordan Westburg, playing his second game since returning from the injured list, reached on a single to left field, motored around to third base on an automatic double by Ryan O’Hearn and scored on Heston Kjerstad’s RBI groundout.

He took full advantage, relying on weak contact to scatter three hits and two walks over five innings. The lone blemish against him was a solo home run by Aaron Judge, who crushed his MLB-leading 56th long ball of the season 407 feet to center field in the fourth. But Kremer never let the Yankees take the lead, working out of multiple jams to limit New York to one run.

The outing was the latest start of what has shaped up to be an impressive finish to the 2024 season for Kremer. Over his past eight starts, he has posted a 2.98 ERA while striking out 42 batters and walking just 15. The right-hander has made a strong case to join Corbin Burnes and Zach Eflin for the Orioles’ playoff rotation, especially with Grayson Rodriguez still in the early stages of working back from a shoulder injury.

Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt couldn’t match Kremer’s performance, allowing another run on an RBI single by O’Hearn in the fourth before Anthony Santander chased him from the game by lining a home run off the right field foul pole in the sixth. The blast, Santander’s 44th of the season, was his 100th RBI as he became the first Orioles outfielder to hit the century mark since Mark Trumbo drove in 108 in 2016.

Baltimore tacked on another in the seventh when Ramón Urías took Yankees reliever Tim Mayza deep to right-center for a solo shot. Urías joined Westburg in returning from the IL on Sunday, helping the Orioles reassemble their starting lineup after missing several starting position players over the past two months. The final missing piece was also activated Tuesday as Ryan Mountcastle entered the game as a pinch hitter in the sixth. He lined a single up the middle and finished the game at first base.

The Yankees kept it close in the late innings, forcing the Orioles to use six relievers to get through the final four frames. Keegan Akin and Jacob Webb combined for a scoreless sixth, working around a four-pitch walk to Judge. Cionel Pérez and Yennier Cano couldn’t do the same in the seventh and it took a lucky break for them not to give up the lead.

Pérez put runners on the corners with two outs, which prompted manager Brandon Hyde to bring Cano in to face the right-handed Gleyber Torres. The second baseman hit a ball down the left field line that bounced into the stands for an automatic double, scoring one run and bringing up Juan Soto with two runners in scoring position. Soto drove in one on a single to right but Torres got caught in a rundown between third and home to end the frame.

Cowser then helped the Orioles get one of those runs back in the eighth, demolishing a 432-foot home run to right field. The homer, which would’ve left the yard in all 30 ballparks, left Cowser’s bat at 113.6 mph — tied for the hardest-hit ball of his young career.

Baltimore’s bullpen stifled New York from there. Cano stayed in for the top of the eighth and induced a flyout by Judge before ceding the ball to Gregory Soto. The left-hander retired both hitters he faced to end the inning and came back out for the ninth. Seranthony Domínguez then took over for the final two outs and secured his 10th save since being acquired by the Orioles at the trade deadline.

While New York still holds a comfortable five-game lead in the AL East, able to clinch the division with any Yankees win or Orioles loss over the final week, Baltimore won the day and ensured that the final chapter of the back-and-forth series between the two division rivals will be written in October.

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