Good morning, Camden Chatters.
Both the ALCS and NLCS are underway, and we’re one step closer to an all-Central division World Series as both the Milwaukee Brewers and Cleveland Guardians were winners yesterday. The Brewers’ 7-4 win over the Dodgers gave them a 2-0 series lead as the teams travel to Los Angeles today. It’s a delightful outcome for the majority of baseball fans, who are exhausted by the idea of a Dodgers World Series three-peat. The 103-win Brewers are showing why they were the best
team in baseball this season, and they’re halfway toward getting revenge on L.A. for last year’s NLCS sweep.
The more surprising result came in the ALCS opener, where the Guardians (85-77 in the regular season) stole a win on the road from the heavily favored Rays (98-64). Things seemed to be going as planned for the Rays when they pounced for two runs in the first and handed the lead to their ace, Drew Rasmussen, who tossed five scoreless innings. But the Guardians turned the tables and stunned the Tropicana Field crowd by scoring seven times in the final four innings, including a pair of solo homers off Rasmussen to tie the game and a five-run explosion against the bullpen.
It was a particularly rough night for two former Orioles relievers, Tyler Wells and Cole Sulser, who combined to cough up five runs in the Rays defeat. Wells, making his first appearance of the postseason — and his first in exactly a month, after he missed much of September with forearm tightness — was tagged for a single and a double in a tie game in the eighth. Both runs scored after he left the game, saddling him with the loss. Later, Sulser, trying to keep it a one-run deficit in the ninth, instead let the Guardians put the game out of reach with a three-run rally in which he gave up two singles, a walk, a wild pitch, and a balk.
Wells and Sulser struggled, but you could question manager Kevin Cash’s choices to bring them into the game at all. Was it wise for Wells, who’d had a month-long layoff from the mound, to make his return in as high-pressure a situation as a tied playoff game in the eighth? And why use Sulser, who had a -0.3 WAR in the regular season, instead of All-Star closer Bryan Baker (another former Oriole) in the ninth? Yes, the Rays were losing, but it was only a one-run game. If Baker had shut down Cleveland in the top of the ninth, Tampa Bay might’ve had a real chance to tie the score in the bottom half. I guess now we’ll never know. But in happier former Oriole news, Cedric Mullins smashed a left-on-left homer in the eighth that kept the Rays close, at least for a little while.
The Rays will look to even the series tonight, with Freddy Peralta taking the mound against Guardians ace Parker Messick. Will there be more bullpen shenanigans this time around?
Links
Do you think Albernaz should have publicly criticized Oriole players? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
Purely my speculation, but I don’t think the Orioles’ beat crew are the biggest fans of Albernaz. Rich Dubroff states that it was “not a good look” for Albernaz to air out his criticisms of players in the media.
Vance Honeycutt and other O’s prospects are off to good starts in the AFL – Steve Melewski
Honeycutt is continuing to rake in the AFL, and he credits his turnaround to consulting with a private hitting instructor in Gaithersburg. Not exactly a rousing endorsement for the Orioles’ development staff.
Jon Meoli: The Orioles’ prospect contingent in the Arizona Fall League is more consequential than ever – The Baltimore Banner
The performances of some of the Orioles’ AFL players might decide whether they join the 40-man roster or get left out in the cold, writes Meoli. No pressure!
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Two former Orioles were born on this day: right-hander Hayden Penn (42) and the late lefty Ron Moeller (b. 1938, d. 2009).
The O’s have played five postseason games on this date in history:
- In 1970, the Orioles took an insurmountable three-games-to-none lead in the World Series against the Reds, winning a 9-3 rout in Game 3 in front of a crowd of 51,773 at Memorial Stadium. Orioles starter Dave McNally truly did it all. Not only did he pitch a complete game victory, but he also hit a game-breaking grand slam in the bottom of the sixth. McNally was the second (and final) pitcher in postseason history to hit a grand slam (and the other one was done by his Orioles teammate, Mike Cuellar, 10 days earlier in the ALCS). Former Reds superstar Frank Robinson burned his former team with a dinger of his own.
- In 1971, the Orioles and Pirates played the first nighttime World Series game in history. The O’s lost, so we don’t need to discuss it further.
- In 1979, the Orioles took a 3-1 series lead over the Pirates in the World Series with a 9-6 win in Pittsburgh. Trailing 6-3 in the eighth, the O’s erupted for a six-run inning. Pinch-hitter John Lowenstein drove in two runs with a bases-loaded double, and two batters later, pinch-hitter Terry Crowley did the same. Even relief pitcher Tim Stoddard joined in on the fun with an RBI single, and Stoddard also finished the game with three scoreless innings on the mound.
- In 1996, the Orioles lost the ALCS to the Yankees with a 6-4 defeat in Game 5. Bleh.
- And in 1997, the O’s stayed alive in the ALCS with a 4-2 victory in Game 5 in Cleveland. Geronimo Berroa’s two-run single in the third provided the game’s only runs for the first eight innings, and Eric Davis added some much-needed insurance with a home run in the ninth. Orioles pitchers Scott Kamieniecki and Jimmy Key held Cleveland’s powerful offense scoreless for eight innings before closer Randy Myers survived a two-run scare in the ninth.
