It happens in the last two months of most baseball seasons—a team surges from off the radar and makes a push for the playoffs. If you look in the American League at teams on the playoff fringe, the Baltimore Orioles are the most likely team to make that run. Let’s begin with the definition of […]
The American League is wide open this season and I think the Baltimore Orioles are the most likely candidate to fill the void at the top. My view is not a byproduct of their 6-0 start—although that certainly doesn’t hurt. I held this view prior to the season, as expressed in a preseason podcast with […]
The last time the Baltimore Orioles clinched an AL East title was 1997 and I was with a friend at old County Stadium in Milwaukee when it happened. The fact that this was pre-Miller Park and when the Brewers were still in the American League tells you how long it’s been. I couldn’t have foreseen at the time that I would eventually live four years in the city of Baltimore and the Orioles couldn’t have foreseen the long dry spell that lay ahead. Is that spell finally coming to an end?
The American League East is jammed packed with four teams within 2 ½ games of each other and the division has a “flavor-of-the-week” quality. Boston and New York have each had runs in first place, with the Red Sox still there. Tampa Bay has gotten very hot of late. Churning along almost unnoticed, like a horse in the middle of the pack at nearby Pimlico Racetrack, is the Baltimore Orioles.
Baseball on the Beltway got a big lift in 2012, as both the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles made the playoffs and stretched their Division Series showdowns to the full five games. The Orioles’ arrival was more surprising than the Nationals, but with giants in each dugouts—Davey Johnson in D.C. and Buck Showalter in Charm City—you had to know each organization would get it done eventually. Now they have the tougher task though, which is to make the second act of success. Let’s take a look at both the O’s and Nats as they prep for 2013…
The AL Central race is all but over after this weekend, and it’s because Detroit’s pitching come through, while Chicago’s big hitters did not. The Tigers won a series over the Twins, while the White Sox dropped three of four from the Rays. The end result is that Detroit is plus-3 games with the same number left.
Detroit got the usual stellar outing from Justin Verlander on Saturday, who pitched seven innings and allowed just an unearned run. Less expected was great work from Drew Smyly on Friday and Anibal Sanchez on Sunday. Though neither went deep into the game—they combined for 11.2 innings—both starters shut down the Minnesota bats, and though Friday’s opener ended up in Twins’ hands, the Tiger bullpen—with help from a big home run by Prince Fielder—delivered the Sunday victory that all but sealed this division title.
Every team in baseball has two series left as the MLB playoff race hits its final week. Let’s take a look at how the races shape up, who plays who and what we have to look forward to in these closing days…
The AL East race is still running close to a dead heat, with the New York Yankees holding a half-game lead on the Baltimore Orioles entering Wednesday night’s games. As part of a look at the landscape in this division race, we’re also going to include the Los Angeles Angels. Because it looks like the Angels’ place in the MLB playoff picture is trying to chase down the AL East runner-up for the second wild-card.
The American League wild-card race might not be clear, but it’s starting to look we might have one fewer contestant for the two berths in the one-game showdown that will kickstart the MLB playoffs in less than a month. The AL Central race between the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox is starting to look like a winner-take-all affair. The Tigers went west over the weekend and were swept by the Los Angeles Angels. The White Sox dropped two of three to Kansas City and concluded a six-game homestand where they could only split against the Royals and Twins. Detroit, currently two games back in the division race is now 4.5 back in the wild-card race and have the Angels, Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles all to catch. With only three and a half weeks to go in the regular season that’s going to take a lot.
We’ve talked about the Baltimore Orioles more often than most media outlets here at TheSportsNotebook during the season. Not only is that a byproduct of my having lived in Charm City from 2008-11, but the fact that somebody needed to talk about the Orioles and at least examine why they were winning instead of casually assuming the winning would stop. Now the rest of the media is on the bandwagon, and they’ll get a lot of TV coverage for a four-game weekend series with the New York Yankees that started last night in dramatic fashion.
No two teams in the American League have been bigger surprises than the Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland A’s. The Orioles, in spite of sluggish play through the summer continue to set the pace for the AL’s second wild-card spot, with a 46-41 record. Oakland isn’t far behind at 45-43. TheSportsNotebook takes a look at both teams here on the first weekend of the seasons second half…