Jeter's special moment; Orioles headed to the playoffs
Ok I will admit it if I was a Yankees fan, Derek Jeter would be cool. Kind of like Cal Ripken cool.
Lost in all that history last night was the incredible comeback the champion Orioles made last night in the ninth inning. All but left for dead, the O’s were down 5-2 with three outs to go in the ninth. And Yankees closer, David Robertson would have an easy save.
Oh, the dreaded walk to leadoff hitter, Nick Markakis. No problem, Robertson struck out Alejandro D’Aza. Can’t pick on him cause he homered in the first inning of the season finale with the Yanks.
And then in the process of fanning Adam Jones, the former Mariners prospect homered cutting the Yanks lead to 5-4. So Robertson fanned homer champion Nellie Cruz. And then Steve Pearce cracked one. We were tied.
I suppose if this was a pennant chase game, Buck Showalter would not have reached for Evan Meek. No matter, the baseball gods were in favor of Jeter winning the game in the Bronx. No matter, the first-place Birds eliminated the Yanks in this series.
OK, this four-game story began on a sour note on Monday. We couldn’t hit Michael Pineda. Wasn’t he picked up for cheating along the way.? JJ Hardy had the lone hit in the lackluster 5-0 loss. Wei Yin Chen, in search of win No. 17, had no help.
On Tuesday, we had to face former White Sox hurler Brandon McCarthy. And he had been tough on us. It was better this time around. The former Yankee, Kelly Johnson, must have chalked up some information during his stay as he homered off McCarthy in the second inning. Markakis added another run in that frame with a hit to center.
In the fourth, Markakis delivered again. His two-run shot to right made it 4-0. Of course, Ubaldo Jimenez was on the mound for Baltimore. And with his lack of control, that meant no lead was safe.
The Yanks got to Jimenez a little bit in the fourth. However, Cruz answered back with his 40th homer. Former Brave, Brian McCann, homered in the seventh and this was a one-run game. Tommy Hunter and Zach Britton closed this one off at 5-4.
Bud Norris won his 15th game on Wednesday. Trailing 3-0 into the fourth, we blew the game open with a six-run fourth. All the runs scored after two outs. Ryan Flaherty’s two-run double put us up. Markakis continued to hit with a RBI hit. David Lough cracked a three-bagger to drive in Markakis. Jones actually bunted home a run. Cruz had two singles in the frame.
Cruz and Jones had RBI hits in the eighth as we won going away, 9-5.
Now my middle child, Riley pointed out to me that the Orioles didn’t fare well against the Tigers this year. So I looked back at this blog when we played the Tigers and it’s true we didn’t fare well. I read a little and spotted my advice that the Orioles make Britton the new closer. Do you suppose the Orioles were reading Brian’s blog for advice? Not likely. Go Birds.
Oh, my book of short stories is available for sale. At Lulu.com. “Tales from Orioles Nation. Sorry about the self-promotion.
