On September 7, the Baltimore Orioles suffered a disappointing 8-6 defeat at the hands of the New York Yankees. That Labor Day setback at Yankee Stadium dropped the Birds to 65-72 and was their 15th loss in 18 games.

For all intents and purposes, Baltimore's hopes of getting to the playoffs for the third time in four years were dashed. It's been a good run. See you in spring training.

At least that's what some of us thought.

Since that game, the Orioles have been playing some good baseball and they have been winning. A lot. Just ask the Washington Nationals who were the victims of a three-game Baltimore sweep.

The Birds have been victorious in 11 of their last 15 contests and are back to a .500 record. Heading into this weekend's three-game series against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway, the Orioles are sporting a 76-76 mark and have moved to within 3.5 games of the second American League Wild Card spot.

Only 10 regular season games remain and the chances of the Orioles getting to the playoffs are still slim. But their recent run of success has given them at least a glimmer of hope.

After the Red Sox, the Birds return to Camden Yards for four games with the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays and then will face the probably playoff-bound Yankees for three more.

Two teams are ahead of the Orioles (Twins and Angels) in their quest to catch the fading Houston Astros for the second wild-card berth.

The Twins, who swept seven games from the Orioles this season, have three games at Detroit, four at Cleveland and will finish their schedule with three at home against K.C. The Twins, like the Angles, are 1.5 games behind Houston.

The Angels will host Seattle for three games and then follow that with three more at home against Oakland. They close out their regular season with four games on the road against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers.

Houston will host the Rangers for three games and then hit the road for three each against Seattle and Arizona.

Obviously, the Orioles are going to need some help if they want to play bonus baseball in 2015. Of course, they also need to keep winning.

To their credit, they have made scoreboard watching relevant again in the closing stages of this interesting Major League Baseball season.