Back on the field Friday, the Orioles made history the moment they stepped onto it. Not since 1915 had a team from Baltimore played a Major League game in the city of Buffalo, N.Y., before Friday’s 5-4 extra-inning loss to the Blue Jays.

In fact, the doubleheader the Baltimore Terrapins were swept in on Sept. 8, 1915, marked the last Major League game in the city until 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced the Blue Jays to make Sahlen Field their temporary home.

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So it was Friday, when they celebrated that history by dropping their third straight game in gut-wrenching fashion. After fighting back from two deficits to claw ahead on Hanser Alberto's single in the 10th, the Orioles were an out away from victory before Cole Sulser gave up Randal Grichuk’s walk-off two-run homer. Few hitters have tortured the Orioles in the recent past like Grichuk, whose homer was his fifth in four games against Baltimore this season.

“Every time I see this guy in the batter’s box, my heart feels a little weird because he’s so good against us,” said Alberto, who raised his average to .331 with a four-hit night. “Pretty much, he knows what we’re going to throw and he’s ready for the pitch. Hopefully tomorrow is a new day and we can keep him out of the damage.”

That’s something, through Grichuk’s career, Baltimore simply has not been able to do. He has now homered 17 times in 34 career games against the Orioles, hitting .346 with 33 extra-base hits in those contests. Only three players have more homers against the Orioles than Grichuk since he debuted in 2014: J.D. Martinez, Evan Longoria and Mookie Betts.

“Well, there’s a pretty good hitter behind him [in Vlad Guerrero Jr.], too,” said Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, when asked about pitching around Grichuk in the 10th. “I know Grichuk has been doing damage against us, but I liked the matchup, Sulser against him. Guerrero is swinging the bat really well against right-handed pitching this year, better than against left-handed pitching, and Sulser was throwing the ball great and just didn’t execute a pitch.”

Guerrero had already homered earlier in the game off of left-hander John Means, who, limited by pitch count restrictions, allowed little more than homers to Guerrero and Teoscar Hernández over four otherwise solid innings. The Orioles then tied the game on Ryan Mountcastle's two-run infield single in the sixth, aided by a Travis Shaw throw that past skipped by Guerrero at first. Tanner Scott’s wild pitch let Guerrero trot home for the go-ahead run in the bottom of the frame, and Renato Núñez’s seventh homer of the year tied it again for Baltimore in the eighth.

Baltimore got scoreless innings from Miguel Castro and Sulser to briefly set the stage for Alberto, whose fourth hit drove in automatic runner Rio Ruiz after Ruiz was bunted over to third by Cedric Mullins. The Blue Jays botched their leadoff bunt attempt to start the bottom of the 10th; one Grichuk swing later, it didn’t matter.

The game also marked the first time in Orioles history they played a regular-season game at a non-Major League ballpark, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

“I think they did a really nice job making this Major League quality,” Hyde said. “The surface was good and they did a good job with the clubhouse. The dugouts are a little smaller than normal, but I think they did a nice job.”