BALTIMORE — The fate of the Orioles’ season is probably already sealed. They appear to be trade deadline sellers who will instead regroup to focus on competing in 2026.

But that does not mean all is lost over the next two months. If more everyday veterans are to be dealt, the players who remain will be benefactors.

Such is the case for two of the biggest contributors to the Orioles’ 5-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday to take the three-game set. Coby Mayo’s role would expand if those in front of him are traded. And Tyler O’Neill, the club’s most expensive free agent signing who was injured for much of the first-half disaster, bears responsibility for why the team is in last place in the American League East and would surely love a chance to recover and for some of that weight to be lifted.

“There’ll be some adversity throughout the week, without a doubt,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said before Sunday’s game when asked what he thinks the next few days will bring. “I think as we lose players that we love and have helped us for a couple years win a lot of games, there’s going to be some tough hugs and some tough goodbyes.”

The ones giving those embraces will be tasked with providing reasons for optimism in the coming weeks for next season. That started Sunday with Mayo, who went 1 for 3 with a double in the second inning that put him and Cedric Mullins in scoring position. Dylan Carlson brought both of them home on a single to give the Orioles a lead they would not relinquish. In the third inning, O’Neill homered for the third consecutive game to raise his season on-base-plus-slugging percentage to .724 and make it 4-1. Tomoyuki Sugano’s six-inning, one-run, eight-strikeout outing did the rest.

Mayo is hitting .273 over his past 14 games, a stretch that’s occurred despite inconsistent playing time. The Orioles have made known they’d rather this than the alternative: playing every day in Triple-A. And Mayo is beginning to prove why.

“I’m just trying to stay on my backside a little bit longer,” he said. “Not try to jump so much at the ball sometimes. I think I get into trouble when I do that, and I think I’m seeing the ball a little bit better. Making better swing decisions. Just a little bit of that contributes a lot.”

O’Neill has taken a different path this season, but one that’s been just as mired in frustration. The outfielder has missed more games than he’s played in the first year of a deal that could keep him in Baltimore through 2027. It wasn’t the first impression he hoped to make.

Mansolino sees a lot of himself in O’Neill. The former minor leaguer, despite admitting he “wasn’t a very good one,” he joked, remembers stretches he went on akin to O’Neill’s. Only they lasted for much shorter lengths of time and were oftentimes cold streaks rather than hot ones.

“The few times I swung the bat good, I got hot, and it mattered,” Mansolino said. “Confidence is a thing. We are not robots. Human beings have confidence. It really changes the game in so many ways. As crazy as it sounds, a ball that you bloop in and you get a hit, you get a little confidence, and then you hit a ball hard, you get a little confidence, and then you feel completely differently. It’s a real thing.”

“We knew he could do it,” Gunnar Henderson added. “We knew it was only a matter of time. Just getting on the field and getting reps, and that was I feel like the biggest thing, was just getting out there.”

He’s doing his best to erase the poor introduction to Baltimore, even if the team is falling further out of the playoff race. O’Neill had a .868 OPS and six extra-base hits in 12 games in July before Sunday. His .535 slugging percentage this month entering the series finale leads the team as he looks to redefine his frustrating season.

After Sugano, Yennier Cano, Andrew Kittredge and Seranthony Domínguez were asked to go the final three innings without Félix Bautista and Gregory Soto, who completed the only save opportunity since Bautista landed on the injured list before being traded on Friday to the New York Mets. The trio tossed clean seventh, eighth and ninth frames, respectively, to seal Baltimore’s first series victory since the All-Star break.

It was no longer a save situation for Domínguez after Henderson scored from second base on a wild pitch in the eighth in a display of awareness and quickness perhaps only Henderson possesses. And in the top of the ninth, the shortstop fielded a weak grounder barehanded, turned and threw to first to help complete the win in another play that Henderson routinely makes look simple.

“Those are the types of players I want my kids to watch,” said Mansolino, who hits grounders to his two children on the Camden Yards infield before most games and joked Sunday morning he doesn’t want his boys to develop the bad, lackadaisical habits some major leaguers exhibit. “You don’t see people doing that.”

Sugano was masterful in his final start before the trade deadline. He surrendered a solo home run to Warming Bernabell in the second inning, then rebounded with four scoreless frames to lower his season ERA to 4.38. His eight strikeouts tied a season high from April 28.

The 35-year-old is one of several veteran pitchers whose contracts expire after this season and are attractive trade candidates. Charlie Morton’s recent turnaround is garnering attention. Zach Eflin is no stranger to being dealt this time of year. Domínguez, Kittredge and other relievers could be on the move.

If Sunday was Sugano’s final start in Baltimore, it offered a reminder of when he was one of the few bright spots on a floundering ballclub.

“It’s obviously my first time,” Sugano said through team interpreter Yuto Sakurai when asked about the approaching deadline. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I just look at it day by day and work on the things that are in front of me.”

By the numbers

Sunday was Mayo’s third consecutive game with an extra-base hit after homering Friday and doubling in his only at-bat in Saturday’s 18-0 beatdown. That’s the first such streak of the young infielder’s career. O’Neill hadn’t homered in three consecutive games since September 2021.

What they’re saying

Henderson and Mayo on Sugano’s outing:

“It was awesome. He was coming after guys and made pitches when he needed to. I was really happy for him.”

“I think he showed some of his best stuff today,” Mayo added.

On deck

The Orioles begin a four-game set with the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays, who entered Sunday winners of eight of their past nine games, at Camden Yards on Monday. Eflin will face right-hander Chris Bassitt (3.88 ERA) in the series opener.

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