ALDS Game Four: Orioles 2, Yankees 1

Elimination game. Joe Saunders on the mound. The Orioles had the Yankees right where they wanted them.

The Good:

• Joe Saunders did it again, pitching around just enough guys to not have it come back to bite him while inducing a couple double plays (including one on a long flyball that Nate McLouth made a great catch on and was able to double off a runner). Can't complain at all about 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 5 K. The best part was probably Saunders striking out Derek Jeter after a lengthy at bat, and then following up by K'ing Ichiro and Mark Teixeira.
• The bullpen came through. Tommy Hunter blew 97 mph fastballs by A-Rod. Troy Patton got Curtis Granderson. Luis Ayala managed to strand some inherited runners. Brian Matusz got Robbie Cano. Darren O'Day is the best (2.2 scoreless, K'ing A-Rod again - third time in the series). Pedro Strop showed that he was not only still alive, but why he was counted as one of the team's better relievers early in the season with 2 scoreless of his own (with 2 K's). And Jim Johnson closed it out.
• If you knew that the Orioles had given an outfielder almost $90 M this year, based on this series you'd have sworn that it was to Nate McLouth and not Adam Jones. Beyond the defense, McLouth homered, doubled, and walked at the plate. You could argue that he's been the best position player on either team so far. Nate McLouth!
• Manny Machado - all of 20 years old - not some of the best at bats on the team. He worked a walk early, and then lead off the 13th with a double before scoring the winning run on JJ Hardy's own two-bagger.

The Bad:

• The offense is still almost entirely a black hole. Chris Davis struck out 3 times and looks not very much like he did during his hot streak to end the season. Adam Jones looks completely lost. Matt Wieters might be close to doing something, but is just off enough to keep popping out (or popping one down the third-base line for a hit). Jim Thome getting benched for Lew Ford might be the right call at this point, as Thome can't seem to actually hit anymore and some of the ball/strike calls are making his plate discipline not so useful. Hard to say if Mark Reynolds is slumping or not, because him taking an 0-fer and K'ing twice isn't exactly "new" - hope he runs into one at some point though.

The Final:

Extra-innings again, and this time the Orioles held strong, eventually scraping one run out and making it stand up. This series has been unbelievably close, with either team easily having been able to sweep in three games if a break had gone their way in each game.

And so it comes down to Game Five. Jason Hammel (3.43 ERA, 3.29 FIP, 3.46 xFIP) going up against CC Sabathia (3.38 ERA, 3.33 FIP, 3.20 xFIP). Can the Orioles continue the Magic?

ALDS Game Three: Orioles 2, Yankees 3

It all comes down to three games in New York, where the Orioles went 6-3 this year. That bring should bring some confidence, but it's still the Yankees at home in the play-offs. A Hiroki Kuroda vs. Miguel Gonalez match-up could go pretty much any which way, but Gonzalez's season high in strike-outs of 9 came in New York against the Yankees. And his second highest was 8 in... New York, against the Yankees. So there is that.

The Good:

• Miguel Gonzalez continued his almost inexplicable domination of the Yankees; 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 8 K. Just a fanastic start, hitting his spots and throwing the fastball by people. This is the same guy who had a 6.17 ERA in Double-A last year. Amazing.
• Darren O'Day pitched. Given his recent performance, I don't really need to elaborate. But I will, because the strike-out he go in his perfect inning was of Derek Jeter.
• Nate McLouth had two hits and stole a couple bases. Well, he stole one base after being "caught" the previous time, when he got in to second safely but was "helped" over-sliding the bag by Derek Jeter's tag (and, perhaps, foot).
• The one person to bet on Ryan Flaherty being the first Oriole to hit a home run this post-season - maybe is mother? - can collect their infinity dollars. Ryan Flaherty!
• Slightly less surprising but still really awesome was Manny Machado going deep as well (and his wasn't one of those cheap Yankee Stadium homers like Flaherty's was). 20 years old, hitting a home run against the Yankees in New York in the play-offs. Just a tiny bit more impressive that what I was doing at 20. 

All of the above was written before the 9th inning. Notice the happy tone! Didn't feel right to erase it, as those good things did happen. But oh boy are they going to be forgotten quickly.

The Bad:

• Adam Jones did pick up a hit - a grounder through the infield - but still looked bad at the plate (pressing?). He also "allowed" New York's first run when he took a poor route on a flyball over his head in center-field that turned into a two-out RBI triple.
• JJ Hardy, Matt Wieters, Jim Thome, and Mark Reynolds went a combined 0-19. Hard to score if almost no one hits, and can't win if you don't score.
• Raul Ibanez. Homers off Jim Johnson to tie the game in the 9th (pinch-hitting for A-Rod), and then homers off of Brian Matusz to win the game in the 12th. Raul Ibanez is going to be remembered by O's fans just like Jeffrey Maier, I suspect. Probably worth writing more on this but... can't.

The Final:

No words. Just horrible, horrible feelings...

The O's can still win this series, but their chances have shrunk dramatically. Given that they took a lead into the 9th, they absolutely had to win this game.

ALDS Game Two: Orioles 3, Yankees 2

Even if tonight's game wasn't literally a must-win, going to New York down 2-0 would have been mighty troublesome for the Orioles. They needed a good start from Wei-Yin Chen, and to actually score some runs against long-time O's nemesis Andy Pettitte.

The Good:

• Given that the strength of the O's pitching staff was supposed to be the bullpen, it might be mildly surprising how decently the starters have pitched so far. Wei-Yin Chen continued the trend; 6.1 IP, 8 H, 2 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 3 K.  Another trend was Buck Showalter hanging with his starter too long, letting Chen come out for the 7th to see the Yankees line-up for the 4th time. Two hits and a run later, and he was pulled for Darren O'Day (who struck out A-Rod, the only batter he faced) - though O'Day probably should have started the inning (and this time Buck got burned).
• And Brian Matusz continued his stellar relief work, pitching 1.1 scoreless innings and striking out a pair. And he's not just a LOOGY, as some suggest; right-handed batters against Matusz the reliever are now just 1-25 with 9 K's to 2 unintentional walks.
• Jim Johnson was once again called on in the 9th, and this time he delivered; two easy groundouts and a strike-out of Alex Rodriguez.
• Chris Davis picked up a pair of hits, and drove in 2 runs. He's continued swinging a hot bat in the post-season.

The Bad:

• For much of the game, many O's batters seemed to just be flailing at the ball at the plate. Notably Adam Jones and Manny Machado to my eye, but they certainly weren't the only offenders.
• JJ Hardy made a rare error at short, and Matt Wieters allowed a rare pitch to get by him behind the plate. Mark Reynolds made an error (no one surprised there).
• More Wieters; a throw in the 1st had Ichiro dead to rights at home, but Wieters made a couple of lunging tag attempts that allowed Ichiro to evade him and end up getting in there safely. Amazing play on Ichiro's part, but Wieters has to find a way to turn that into an out.
• More Hardy; in the 3rd, he failed to score from second on a single by Adam Jones and stopped at third. He would have been in there if he had went, and the third-base coach was waving him in, but Hardy didn't pick him up and instead allowed A-Rod to fool him at third.

The Final:

Huge win for the Orioles, who tie up this series. They'll need to take two of three in New York, but they're perfectly capable of doing that (they went 6-3 there this year). Exorcised some demons, beating the Yankees in a play-off game, with Jim Johnson closing things out. Another one-run with for the O's; just like they wrote it up. Have to say that watching this game was way, way more stressful than watching the O's go for win #70 late in September (as in previous seasons). But I'll take the trade-off, to watch some October baseball in Baltimore.

ALDS Game One: Orioles 2, Yankees 7

Orioles. Yankees. The two teams fought until the bitter end for the AL East title, and now square off in the AL Division Series. New York sent ace CC Sabathia to the mound, while the O's countered with Jason Hammel, who was their best pitcher this year but had barely appeared in the Majors in the last two months (though Hammel did have a slightly lower FIP this year, 3.29 vs. 3.33). Even playing in Baltimore, the match-ups probably favored the Yankees.

The Good:

• Jason Hammel's command was shaky (he left some balls up in the zone, and mostly got away with it) and so was his control (walked 4). But he had some movement on his pitches and some giddy-up on his fastball (down a tick from his 2012 average, but still 92-94), and was able to minimize the damage. Like with Joe Saunders on Friday, Buck stayed with Hammel longer than I (and many, judging by the comments on Twitter) thought was prudent, and once again it worked out fine. Can't complain too much about 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 5 K. It was good enough that I'd be comfortable seeing Hammel make a potential Game Five start.
• Darren O'Day continued his fantastic season, coming in with two on and none out and getting Jeter (who bunted), Ichiro (with Andino throwing to Wieters to cut a run down at the plate), and A-Rod (K'ed him swinging).
• Brian Matusz followed O'Day, walking Teixeira but striking out a pair (Swisher, Granderson) in pitching a scoreless 8th.
• Nate McLouth had another clutch hit, driving in two runs to give the O's an early 2-1 lead. 
• Chris Davis picked up a couple hits against Sabathia, and made some nice plays in right-field (including fielding a bounce off the scoreboard and gunning the runner down at second).
• Lew Ford had two hits as well - one a double.

The Bad:

• Troy Patton only retired one of the four batters he faced, walking the first two batters of the 7th inning before being pulled. His teammates picked him up though.
• With the game tied going into the 9th, Buck went to Jim Johnson* to face the bottom of the Yankees' order. Given that CC had saved the NY pen completely at that point, I probably would have left Matusz in there (and first guessed this decision). Lead-off better Russell Martin took JJ deep for the game-winning home run. Then four more hits to pile on and make it 7-2. He retired one batter. Not a good night for Johnson, following the "interesting" outing he had in Texas. He could have picked a better time for the regression to hit.
• The O's had multiple opportunities against Sabathia (including a lead-off double by JJ Hardy in the 8th), but just couldn't get the runs across when they needed to. Adam Jones and Matt Wieters were a combined 0-8 - the Birds need those guys to produce in this series.

* Just want to note that the problem isn't that it wasn't a save situation - using a closer in a tie game is generally somewhere between fine and good - but that Matusz should have been able to pitch another inning and saving Johnson for the next inning in case the game went to extras might have made more sense. It is funny that we've gone from "Jim Johnson doesn't have the closer mentality - he can't pitch in save situations" to "Jim Johnson can only pitch in save situations".

The Final:

Given that it was tied going into the later innings, this was a game the Orioles had to win. No matter the O's record on the road and in New York this year, winning both games in Baltimore was very big for them in this series. Just a huge punch in the gut in that 9th inning. Go get 'em tomorrow, I guess. As Jeff Sullivan said, the "Orioles [are] in position to win the series with a negative run differential". I'd take that.