The Orioles are still on the verge of having things slip away if they can’t consistently score some runs.
Hello, friends.
The Orioles…? Although it seemed as though Seranthony Domínguez was determined to make it otherwise, the team managed to beat the Tigers on Saturday evening. Corbin Burnes was dominant over seven innings, the O’s finally had a mini-offensive explosion, and they were able to hold on for a 4-2 win. Check out John Beers’s recap for more of the lovely but also kind of nerve-wracking totals.
Let’s get the postseason math out of the way. Last night’s win was a big one for the Orioles moving towards securing any wild card spot, as beating the closest non-wild card competition slashed the clinch anything magic number (Orioles wins + Tigers losses) from 8 down to 6. That’s it. If the Orioles win six of their final 13 games, they make the postseason no matter what else happens. Probably no one is terribly confident of the Orioles winning six of their last 13 right now, and if they don’t win at least that many, no one will be terribly confident of their advancing in the postseason.
The win was also important because the Royals won earlier on Saturday, so the Orioles preserve a two-game lead for the top wild card round. They have the tiebreaker for head-to-head record against KC as well. If the O’s lost on Saturday and this lead was slashed to one game, that would have been a grim marker. It’s still not great that it’s down to two games. The magic number to clinch the home wild card at worst (Orioles wins + Royals losses) is 11. It will be sad if all the 13-game plan holders about to get a postseason ticket purchase opportunity over the next two days don’t get one home playoff game this year.
Combined with the Yankees losing their game to the Red Sox, the Orioles returned to a two-game deficit in the AL East. I think we can probably kiss those hopes good-bye at this point, but the door isn’t shut yet. New York has their own problems that they have been dealing with only marginally better than the Orioles over the last couple of months. Three head-to-head games remain between these teams next week. All that the Orioles have to do is start hitting again and they could do it. It shouldn’t be too much to ask, and yet.
As the Orioles try to do their part to win and reduce all of these assorted numbers on Sunday afternoon, they will turn to rookie starting pitcher Cade Povich in the 12:10 series finale. This is not a good Tigers lineup overall and Povich has pitched some good games. He’s also had some real stinkers. In a first for Detroit in this series, they will be using an actual starting pitcher as their starting pitcher, turning to rookie Keider Montero, who brings a 4.88 ERA into the contest.
Your other scoreboard-watching start times for today: Reds at Twins starts at 1:05, with Royals at Pirates and Red Sox at Yankees both set to begin at 1:35. The Orioles game will be well under way before any of these others even begin. Yes, I’m just as shocked as you that Yankees-Red Sox in September wasn’t picked for Sunday Night Baseball. That’s going to be Dodgers-Braves, which obviously has no relevance to the Orioles postseason picture.
Around the blogO’sphere
Webb possibly rejoining Orioles bullpen today (Orioles.com)
The Orioles are finally on the verge of getting a player back from the injured list, although it’s probably not the name that would excite you the most of the guys we’re hoping to see back in September. I’m guessing Heston Kjerstad will be next, hopefully as soon as Tuesday.
On the other hand, manager Brandon Hyde revealed after last night’s game that Yennier Cano has been dealing with unspecified soreness for a few days. That’s why he didn’t pitch last night and may have been connected to his only throwing two pitches in his most recent outing.
Hyde gives Holliday ‘a mental break’ in sitting for Saturday’s game (Baltimore Baseball)
I have to say that I hoped that Jackson Holliday would have started to launch by now, and that has just not happened yet.
The (highly-improbable) worst-case scenarios facing the Orioles (The Baltimore Banner)
With last night’s win in the bag, the scenarios where the Orioles miss the postseason are even more improbable now. But not impossible, so win some more dang games already.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1977, the Orioles forfeited a game against the Blue Jays, with Earl Weaver refusing to put the team back on the field in the fifth inning due to a tarp being held down by bricks on the bullpen mound.
In 1990, both Cal and Billy Ripken hit a home run in the same inning during an Orioles loss to the Blue Jays. The Ripken brothers hit their homers off future Orioles teammate David Wells. They lost the game to the Jays, 4-3.
There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1984 pitcher John Pacella, and 1976 pitcher Dave Pagan. Today is Pagan’s 75th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: explorer Marco Polo (1254), writer James Fenimore Cooper (1789), 27th president William Howard Taft (1857), automobile manufacturer Ettore Bugatti (1881), novelist Agatha Christie (1890), baseball Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry (1938), actor Tommy Lee Jones (1946), and actor Tom Hardy (1977).
On this day in history…
In 1812, Napoleon’s Grande Armée took the Kremlin in Moscow. Staying around did not turn out to be a good plan.
In 1830, a railway between Liverpool and Manchester was inaugurated, with then-prime minister the Duke of Wellington riding on one of the initial trains. A British Member of Parliament was struck and killed by the locomotive as he tried to socialize with the Duke in his private car.
In 1940, over 1,700 aircraft were in the skies over England for the largest-scale fighting in the Battle of Britain. The British RAF inflicted aircraft losses at about a 2:1 ratio and had a 10:1 advantage in crew casualties.
In 1963, four KKK members bombed a Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls. No one was prosecuted for the crime until 1977, with further convictions in 2001 and 2002.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on September 15. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!