Surviving the Monster

The Orioles may have swept the series but it could have gone either way. After a five-inning start by Chris Tillman in Game 1, the Orioles were up 4-3 at the start of the eighth inning before pulling out of reach with an 8-run inning. After an unfortunate start by Wei-Yin Chen in Game 2, the O's were down 6-3 in the eighth before some late-inning heroics provided primarily by Delmon Young gave the O's a 7-6 lead.  Finally, Zach Britton held on in the ninth for the save to get a clinching 2-1 win in Game 3. The offense certainly came through by scoring an average of seven runs per game. Tillman and Bud Norris put together two strong starting pitching performances. But in each of these games the fact that the bullpen bent but didn't break was a major factor for why the O's advanced to the ALCS.

Before this series started I wrote that the key matchup would be the Orioles bullpen versus Torii Hunter, Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and J.D. Martinez because those four players carried the Tigers offense in the regular season. As it turns out, the playoffs were no different. Here's how all of the other Tiger batters did aside from those four.

	AB	R	H	1B	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	PA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Game One	19	0	5	5	0	0	0	0	2	5	21	0.333	0.26	0.596
Game Two	20	1	2	1	0	0	1	1	0	5	20	0.1	0.25	0.35
Game Three	17	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	2	4	19	0.211	0.18	0.387
Total	56	1	9	7	1	0	1	1	4	14	60	0.215	0.23	0.445

Nick Castellanos hit a home run in Game 2 and that was the only run or RBI for the Tigers that wasn't from one of the main four hitters. The chart shows that these batters went 9 for 56 with one home run, one double, and a .161/.215/.230 line. To put that in perspective, Zach Greinke put up a .200/.262/.350 line this year. Jake Arrieta had a .179/.220/.282 line. They probably did better than the average pitcher but certainly not by much. It's hard to win with production like that from your starting cast.

The real damage came from the big four. This is what they did against the rotation.

Rotation	AB	R	H	1B	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	PA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Torii Hunter RF	7	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	8	0.25	0.143	0.393
Miguel Cabrera 1B	7	1	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	7	0.429	0.429	0.858
Victor Martinez DH	7	2	2	1	0	0	1	2	0	2	7	0.286	0.714	1
J.D. Martinez LF	7	2	2	0	0	0	2	4	0	2	7	0.286	1.142	1.428
Sum	28	6	7	3	1	0	3	6	1	8	29	0.276	0.607	0.883

They may not have done a good job getting on base but they certainly hammered the ball. They hit three home runs and scored five runs via the long ball. And it's certainly hard to complain when your top four batters hit into just twenty-one outs while scoring six runs.

But the big four also had to hit against the bullpen. And here's how they did against them.

Bullpen	AB	R	H	1B	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	PA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Torii Hunter RF	3	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	4	0.5	0.333	0.833
Miguel Cabrera 1B	4	1	2	1	0	0	1	1	1	0	5	0.4	1.25	1.65
Victor Martinez DH	5	1	2	0	2	0	0	1	0	2	5	0.4	0.8	1.2
J.D. Martinez LF	5	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	5	0.2	0.4	0.6
Total	17	3	6	2	3	0	1	3	2	4	19	0.421	0.706	1.127

Turns out they hammered the bullpen even harder than they hit the starters. Now admittedly, Andrew Miller was a monster, going 3 1/3 innings and allowing only one walk total. But Miguel Cabrera hit a home run off of Darren O'Day in Game 1. Kevin Gausman gave up a double to V-Mart in Game 2 that allowed Miguel Cabrera to score. Zach Britton allowed doubles to Victor Martinez and J.D. Martinez before saving the day in Game 3. All in all, those four guys pretty much hammered everyone.

Now it is true that the bullpen allowed just three runs and had an ERA of 2.25 compared to the rotation's ERA of 4.20. But the bullpen certainly wasn't able to stop those main four batters.

In the end, the Orioles didn't really stop the Tigers' four-headed monster. All the Orioles needed to do was simply survive them. Now it's time to savor the Orioles victory and look forward to the ALCS.