NEW YORK _ These Orioles never have made anything easy for themselves, so it was fitting that their chase for a playoff berth came down to their final game of the regular season Sunday at Yankee Stadium.
Even more fitting was that catcher Matt Wieters _ one of the team's longest-tenured players, someone who could be playing in his final games in an Orioles uniform _ was the hero of their 5-2 win over the New York Yankees, putting the Orioles into the postseason for the third time in the past five seasons.
The switch-hitting Wieters hit two-run homers in back-to-back at-bats, becoming the first Orioles player to homer from both sides of the plate since Roberto Alomar on July 25, 1996.
The win gave the Orioles a spot in the American League wild-card game, scheduled for Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. The Orioles traditionally struggle in Canada, but won consecutive games in Toronto last week.
The Orioles (89-73) finished the regular season with wins in seven of their final nine games, including four on the road, and they needed every one of them.
They pinned their wild-card hopes Sunday on right-hander Kevin Gausman, who's had great success against the Yankees and in the Bronx, and he delivered. Gausman held the Yankees to two run on seven hits over eight innings, ending the season with a 1.10 ERA in six starts _ all of them quality starts _ against the Yankees this season.
The aggressiveness these Orioles showed at the plate _ at times leading to frustrating offensive slumps _ paid off. Wieters' first homer came on a 3-0 pitch, as he turned on a 95-mph fastball from Yankees right-hander starter Luis Cessa, sending it into the right field second deck with two outs in the fourth inning to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead.
In his next at-bat, Wieters, who was hitting from the right side of the plate against left-hander Tommy Layne, drove a 1-2 sinker inside the left-field foul pole, his 17th homer this season.
Shortstop J.J. Hardy drove in the game's first run on a sacrifice fly to left field in the third inning, capitalizing on second baseman Jonathan Schoop's leadoff double.
Catcher Brian McCann's leadoff homer in the fourth, his 20th of the season, put the Yankees on the board against Gausman, who won six of his final nine starts to end the season.
Gausman's spectacular finish to the season was one of the reasons the Orioles were in the position to make the postseason. Over his last eight starts, Gausman posted a 2.39 ERA and the Orioles were 5-3.
Despite not earning a save _ he entered the game with the Orioles up 5-1 _ closer Zach Britton recorded the final five outs of the game. He allowed one inherited run to score in the eighth on Didi Gregorius' RBI single, but retired the Yankees in order in the ninth, prompting a celebration inside the visiting clubhouse of Yankee Stadium.
