The biggest thing on Jackson Holliday’s mind in his last at-bat of the night was simply to avoid civic embarrassment.

The Orioles were an out away from getting no-hit on a night that was supposed to be a celebration. It was just the third sellout crowd of a disappointing season, with some of the franchise’s greatest living legends in attendance — including the man of the hour, Cal Ripken Jr., who just so happens to be one of the team’s minority owners.

No pressure, Jackson. Only Baltimore’s pride resting on your shoulders.

“Going into the eighth inning, that’s what I was thinking about ‘Oh man, it’s going to come down to me,’” he said. “So I was definitely thinking about it and kind of nervous because it’s kind of a big thing.”

Real miracles are rarely big, sweeping gestures — they are often found in the margins. Perhaps only an inch of clearance gave Holliday’s 362-foot blast on a cutter the distance to be a home run. It glanced just off the top of the right-field wall to give the Orioles the tiniest crease to make magic happen in a jaw-dropping 4-3 comeback victory Saturday night.

Maybe it was the spirit of Sept. 6 itself, the 30th anniversary of Ripken’s record-breaking consecutive game, or the 29th anniversary of Eddie Murray’s 500th career home run. Maybe it’s the calendar itself that conspires in Baltimore’s favor. It felt a little supernatural somehow.

Like any self-respecting columnist, I had another version of this story almost fully in the can late in the ninth inning. But if the Orioles can rip up the script in emphatic fashion, well, so can I.

From being dominated by Yoshinobu Yamamoto through 8 2/3 innings to getting their second walk-off win against the powerhouse L.A. Dodgers in as many nights thanks to a two-run single by Emmanuel Rivera, the Orioles are showing a resolve they’ve been lacking all season.

One term for this is “Orioles Magic.” Another might just be “fight” — something we haven’t seen nearly enough of from a young group that expects to contend again in 2026. It has taken until September in a lost season to find it, but every second has been fun — unless you’re Tanner Scott.

It took until August for the team to win its first walk-off game of the season, the last club in Major League Baseball to get one. Now the Orioles have notched back-to-back walk-offs against the reigning World Series champions, getting a spark from one of their 21-year-old stars hitting a homer each night.

On Friday, Samuel Basallo won it on one swing. On Saturday, Holliday’s homer merely spared the club from a no-hit nightmare after Yamamoto dominated all night.

But, after the no-hitter got broken up, the Dodgers decided it was over for Yamamoto, who had piled up 112 pitches. Setup man Blake Treinen subbed in — and immediately gave up a double to Jeremiah Jackson, one of the Orioles’ late-season revelations.

With only one out to spare, the Orioles did what we’ve seen in previous, happier seasons — they worked him. Henderson was hit by a pitch, then Ryan Mountcastle and Colton Cowser walked. The bases were loaded. Baltimore was now far from a long shot. It seemed as if the momentum had slammed back in their favor.

When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent former Oriole Scott to the mound to face Rivera, it must have felt like bayonets were at his back. Just 24 hours removed from Basallo cracking him all the way to the center-field bleachers, Scott had to have felt that trauma in his system.

Rivera knocked another drive toward center but didn’t have to take it nearly as far.

In the words of Trevor Rogers, who narrowly avoided eating the loss in a strong start of his own: “What the hell did I just watch?”

He was far from the only one. A still pretty full Camden Yards erupted in shock and surprise when pinch runner Jorge Mateo cleanly slid into home. Just minutes before, they had been muttering to themselves: Are the Orioles really going to be no-hit tonight of all nights?

They’ve given their fans plenty of reason not to believe this season, but lately the grind has been showing up in the results. Everyone knows their bullpen is running on spare parts. Everyone knows their veteran bats mostly got traded away.

But the young core that is expected to power a bounce-back campaign next season has shown up in the last week to romp against the titans of the NL West. It’s reassuring for a franchise fretting if a strong offseason can be enough to right the course.

“You’ve got a lot of guys getting their first opportunities in the big leagues, and they’re fighting for their career,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “I think, when you get that, it does create a little bit of a different vibe.”

The new vibe is welcome — and on a big celebratory night, it was a little reminiscent of the old vibe of the Orioles’ competitive teams. Every young group needs to find its resolve in tight games, and against the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, these Orioles have held their own.

Never giving up until the bitter end offers just enough room, occasionally, for the baseball gods to smile upon you. And, though the rains swept through Baltimore before and after Saturday night’s game, the enthralling finale felt like a long-awaited ray of hope.