Another O’s blowout and a Yankees walkoff loss vaulted the Birds back into the driver’s seat in the AL East. You love to see it.
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
What an evening of baseball it was at Camden Yards last night. The Orioles, for the second straight night, tallied a decisive beatdown of the worst team in modern MLB history. Rookie lefty Cade “Slim” Povich pitched the game of his life, working into the eighth inning for the first time in his career, including the minors. The Birds’ bats came to life immediately with a first-inning rally and kept cooking all night long. The White Sox did very White Sox things. A good time was had by all…except, obviously, the White Sox. Stacey recapped the Orioles’ glorious win, which finally gave the O’s their first three-game winning streak of the second half.
And the night only got better from there. A couple hours later, the Yankees blew a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the ninth in Texas, with closer Clay Holmes suffering his 11th blown save by coughing up a walkoff grand slam to Wyatt Langford. That brutal loss allowed the Orioles to jump a half game ahead of the Yanks, reclaiming the top spot in the AL East for the first time since Aug. 20. Thank you, Rangers! Really did us a solid, there.
The O’s control their own destiny from here on out, but with nearly a month left to play — including a three-game showdown at Yankee Stadium during the season’s final week — this race is going to come down to the wire. The Orioles are at least inching closer to a postseason spot one way or another. They’re currently 10.5 games ahead of both the BoSox and Tigers, the first non-playoff teams, meaning the Orioles’ magic number to clinch a playoff berth is down to 13.
The O’s just need to keep stacking wins, especially against lowly opponents. Tonight they’ll for a three-game sweep against the White Sox — which would complete a seven-game season sweep of Chicago — and send the Pale Hose to their 13th straight loss and their 110th (!) loss in 141 games this year.
I certainly hope the Orioles do so, but I also hope the White Sox start winning some games after they leave Baltimore, because no fan base should have to endure the kind of misery that theirs has. I remember how miserable I was when the Orioles blundered through multiple 100-loss seasons in a row. And even those weren’t as bad as what the White Sox are going through. No baseball fan or player alive has experienced this level of ineptitude before.
But no matter the poor level of competition, it’s nice to see the Orioles getting into a groove of late. Their offense is clicking. Their pitching has stabilized. They’ve started September with a 3-0 record after consecutive losing months in July and August, and it’s vaulted them back to first place. If the Orioles can somehow bottle what they’ve been doing against the White Sox and unleash it on their remaining opponents, we’ll be feeling pretty good about their chances in October.
Links
Orioles, Cade Povich dominate mistake-filled White Sox, 9-0 – The Baltimore Sun
It turns out it’s a little easier to pitch to the White Sox than to the Dodgers or Astros. Who knew?
Brandon Hyde’s take on Rutschman’s struggles, plus Jimenez’s White Sox reunion – Steve Melewski
In explaining Adley’s months-long struggles, Hyde uses a lot of words that somehow aren’t, “yeah, he’s actually been injured this whole time.”
This, that and the other – School of Roch
After Coby Mayo returned to the majors against the Rockies on Sunday, we haven’t seen him since. If the O’s can’t even use him as a late-game replacement in 10-run and 9-run wins over the White Sox, it’s fair to wonder when he’ll actually get to play.
Orioles’ Kremer pushing to make next scheduled start: ‘He’s being incredibly tough’ – BaltimoreBaseball.com
Dean Kremer might actually pitch five days after taking a 103-mph line drive off his arm. Incredible. If I stub my toe, I don’t leave my couch for a month.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Four ex-Orioles were born on this day: catcher Mark Kolozsvary (29) — whose O’s career consisted of just a half-inning last season — and infielder Luis López (54), right-hander Doyle Alexander (74), and the late first baseman Eddie Waitkus (b. 1919, d. 1972).
On this date in 1969, the Orioles used some last at-bat magic to pull off a stunning victory at Tiger Stadium. Trailing 4-1 entering the ninth, the O’s began the inning with back-to-back-to-back home runs by Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, and Brooks Robinson off Tigers starter Earl Wilson, who had shut down the Birds for the first eight innings. After Wilson was replaced by reliever Tom Timmermann, Davey Johnson doubled and later scored on a groundout, giving the O’s a 5-4 lead and eventual win.
Exactly a year later, Brooks Robinson played another crucial role in an Orioles win. Brooks went 5-for-5 with a pair of home runs — including a go-ahead, three-run dinger in the seventh — to help the Birds beat the Red Sox at Fenway Park, 8-6.
And on this day in 2012, the Orioles pulled even with the Yankees atop the AL East standings, marking the latest in a season they had been in first place since 1997. The Birds did it in decisive fashion with a 12-0 blowout of the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, pounding out 18 hits, including three apiece by Nick Markakis, Chris Davis, Mark Reynolds, and Manny Machado. Zack Britton, still a starting pitcher back then (and still known as “Zach”), tossed one of the most dominant outings of his career with seven scoreless innings.
That game, by the way, was interrupted by a rain delay…in a stadium that has a retractable roof. The Jays inexplicably opened the roof during a passing shower and then couldn’t get it to close, leading to an easily avoidable delay. Oh, Blue Jays.