The Orioles Clinched A Playoff Berth For The First Time Since 1997 So Of Course There Was A Fire On The Team Flight

The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox 6-3 Sunday afternoon before beginning a season-ending series with the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday. They hoped to clinch a playoff spot in front of their fans at Camden Yards while watching game one of a day-night double header between the Angels and Rangers but the Angels came back to win the first game. The Orioles ran out of time to hang around and had to pack up and hop a flight to Tampa Bay. On the flight down, however, they ran into an unexpected development.

There were no reported injuries, but there was a hairy moment or two while the plane negotiated the emergency landing.

CBSSports.com added another MASNsports.com note from Ned Rice, a member of the team's baseball operations department.

Rice posted on the MASN site that there was a "small fire on our team flight to Tampa Bay. They came to us and told us we needed to make an emergency landing and then we were nearly free falling for a few minutes as they raced to get us on the ground as fast as possible."

The organization at least got some good news during their grounding in Jacksonville. Texas beat the Angels in the doubleheader's night cap, assuring the O's of their first playoff spot since 1997—almost as unexpected as a plane fire.

Small fire forces O's plane to make emergency landing [CSN Baltimore]