Cuellar's lost gem and losing two of three vs the A's
Speaking of gems, Mr. Mike Cuellar was one such gem. We (Orioles) stole him from Houston in a trade. And this special pitcher took the mound on Oct. 9, 1973. It was game three of the American League playoffs against the powerful Oakland Athletics.
This best of five series was knotted at 1-1. Jim Palmer had taken care of the A’s in game one.
Lefty Kenny Holtzman would pitch for Oakland in this day game on the coast. And big Earl Williams would put one over the fence early for early Orioles 1-0 lead. And Cuellar made the lead stand up. That is until the eighth inning. Joe Rudi’s clutch two-out single tied the game in the eighth.
The game went to extra innings. In the home half of the 11th, not-so-big Bert Campaneris went deep to beat the Birds and Cuellar.
The crafty left-hander’s line went like this. He finished 10 innings of action. He allowed just 4 hits. He walked 3 and struck out 11. Only Rudi, among the starters, didn’t strike out against Cuellar. Two A’s fanned twice. It was a great outing except his team didn’t score for him.
Now the first-place Orioles took off for the West Coast on Friday night. Now to be honest, the A’s team is terrific. So it was Chris Tillman vs. the Cubs-transfer, Jeff Samardzija. And it was a tough game.
We were down a run when Jon Schoop cracked a two-run dinger to give up a 2-1 lead in the fifth. In the seventh the game was tied. Manny Machado un-tied it with a big two-run homer. That had to feel good since the A’s fans hate him. That lead held up until the ninth.
I watched the replay later and found out loser Zach Britton’s sinker was indeed working. He just got beat. It was two bloops and a blast. The three-run inning was very painful for us because a sure win had vanished. That’s baseball.
Instead of hanging their heads in game two, the Orioles awoke and pounded ex-Birds righty, Jason Hammel. Adam Jones was the hero. Three batters into the game and we were already up, 3-0. That was an 3-run jack from Jones.
Even JJ Hardy joined in on the fun when he took a Hammel pitch out and it was 4-0 for Wei Yin Chen.
Chris Davis checked in with a run-scoring double and we were on our way. This tough A’s team didn’t wave the white flag and our lead was 7-4. Our old friend, Jim Johnson, showed his face in the 9th inning. And Davis greeted him with a solo homer.
Darren O’Day was his usual super self but ran into a little trouble in the ninth. Enter Britton. He fell behind 3-0 on former Twin Nick Punto. And then came back to strike him out.
Sunday’s game was a disaster in a 10-2 loss. Still I would like to see these two teams meet in another October series.
