2023 ALDS: Baltimore Orioles vs. Texas Rangers

O's in 4

O's in 5

O’s in 3, and I don’t think that’s an unreasonable call

O's in 4, but an upset from the Rangers wouldn't surprise me at all; no one knows how the Orioles will react to the spotlight.

O's in 4, I think they can score enough and quiet enough of the Ranger bats

O's in 5. I believe they can pull this out but the Rangers are sneakily very good. Stathead case; the Rangers can hit and have a better Pythag record than the Orioles and the Orioles overperformance relative to Pythag is partly because of Bautista, who's not there. Old-timers case; the Orioles are relying on starters who have pitched great in the second half but have never seen playoff pressure before.

That said, the team has come up big when it needed to and I believe we win a deciding game 5. (Let's see, who'd be starting that game?)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

We are getting Joe Davis, John Smoltz, Ken Rosenthal for this one.

Let’s go O’s. Bradish looking legit, disgusting movement on that fastball

That was fast

I’m always surprised when guys can hit a fastball that high

To only give up two runs there seems like a small win. They were hitting the ball all over the place

Bradish was throwing heat in the first inning but his velo dropped pretty sharply so they mixed in more breaking balls. But the Rangers do hit junk pretty well.

Bochy doing Bochy things with the pitching already lol

Yeah, never change

man it’s great to see camden yards full and going off like this. some gutsy pitching from baltimore so far

Yeah so much better to see than the deserted Trop

Well, fuck.

Jesus the Orioles are cycling through the pen really fast

They did that at the end of the season, too.

Yeah I remember that and thought the week off would benefit them more than any other team for that reason

jesus these teams both just stocked to the gills with boring white bros

Tony Taters goes yard, too bad it’s a solo.

They are at least answering

BANK IT

Santander feels like a guy that doesn’t get enough love

agree.

dunning is pitching so well. maybe solo homers is how it has to go

Lmao Bochy going to the pen again

everybody’s so quick with the hook it’s crazy

xxxp They love him in Balmer. He’s got the best walkup music.

if i have to watch one of these hall of fame connections promos again i am not responsible for my actions

This is classic Boch, he’d 10000% be doing one pitcher one out if he could

xp ITS LOOKING PRETTY GOOD FOR MIGGY

playoff baseball baby

This is classic Boch, he’d 10000% be doing one pitcher one out if he could

― I’m going to get fined for being right, again (gyac), Saturday, October 7, 2023 1:24 PM bookmarkflaglink

Lol get the man a fly rod

7 balls in a row and gets out of it

Boo but impressive

SBORZ IGNORES POOR FORM, SHOWS ORIOLES DOOR

Ugh this game is hard going

Cook this cunt Chapman please

Four pitch walk

Let's not waste this

Haven’t seen him pitch in a while — looks almost Frankensteinian stiff.

On the edge of my seat

Walking first two batters, that’s what you get for trading for this piece of shit

Fuck

Mountcastle needs to not let him leave scoreless

And we wasted it.

The only zero we should be seeing is a disconsolate Chapman trudging back to the dugout

101, still has it

Ouch

huge throw HAIM

That stolen base attempt was not a good idea.

one out, hicks up, down by one, bottom of the ninth, you kind of have to, but on a 2-1 count? very questionable

It would have been huge if successful but yeah agree that it wasn't a good idea

Despondent

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i gotta say that gunnar jump was one of the worst i've ever seen

I am still not getting a clear read on what the "miscommunication" was and who screwed up, which maybe it's fine, I can see why the Orioles would just want to close the book on that game and move on

It’s a new day. This is a very resilient team. Let’s go O’s.

Nice, two runs so far

that throw to the plate from adolis garcia in the first was an absolute bullet, almost got gunnar. garcia such an incredible player.

come on grayson keep your focus, this isn't over

grayson rodriguez reminds me of eovaldi today. the heat is there but everything’s on a straight line

Are they pulling him already?

how is it only the bottom of the second??

are they really pushing this narrative that the bye teams getting a week off was bad actually? Surely giving the pen a chance to rest benefits the teams not playing extra games & travelling?!

graysonned

Having the bye was good. Unfortunately for us, the Rangers are also good.

This commentary is mad. “The problem is rest should be a good thing at this time of year, the problem is nobody knows how to deal with that rest.” What?!

“If you’re a wild card team you shouldn’t be able to put Jordan Montgomery out in game 2 of the division series.” What?!?!

i guess you want him starting at home rather than in texas, but that is a fraught situation to subject a rookie to. poor kid

the concept of wild card is pretty meaningless if the wild card has a better regular season record than a given division leader. people mad that the rangers aren’t being punished enough ought to reflect on why minnesota’s still playing baseball despite having a worse record than seattle who didn’t make the playoffs. none of it makes any sense, just embrace the madness

He has been really good the second half of this season. The commentators kept going on and on so much about how few hrs he’d given up since he came back up it was one of those, are you trying to jinx him? The Rangers are a fucking nightmare relentless team though.

xp yeah the punished thing was very very strange. If you can sweep at the hellhole that’s the Trop against Glasnow & Eflin, idk what they want.

There was every reason to think Grayson would be good in this game. You have a team that's been great, you put those guys on the field, what else can you do?

Yeah you have to trust the kids if the kids are good.

the fans really letting bryan baker have it

Genuine question: why aren’t they putting out Flaherty? I thought he was supposed to be the long relief guy and was doing well in that role since they took him out of the rotation.

I feel for that reliever so much, absolute dogshit situation to be put into

ah. kill me.

flaherty was moved to the bullpen but pitched 3 innings over 2 appearances. i don't trust him in any role.

went to yesterday's game, lucked into amazing seats for a good price. had a great time despite the ending. almost considered being extremely stupid and buying a ticket for today......

Santander is a catcher?!

texas getting any non zero amount from their pitching was always gonna be a tough matchup

oh i wasn't saying that they *shouldn't* have started grayson. just that it's tough -- first postseason appearance, biggest game of his life, not-quite-but-pretty-close to must-win against a really good lineup. it's a lot

jordan montgomery: pitching to the score

I stand corrected on the subject of Jack Flaherty.

The Rangers have walked 10 times!

Went into the NFL void, it was a good season for the O's but don't see them winning three in a row here

Glad that Joe Davis is still calling these games and not doing his weekly NFL game as Fox #2 booth.

“Not dead yet”

Joe Davis is great

This Ranger pitcher looks like he’s about to shrivel up and die. YOU’RE STILL WINNING BY 3 IN THE 9TH MATE!

what the fuck

This one was depressing. Ten walks! It's hard to win like that.

This is not starting well.

I dunno, that could have gotten really out of hand and Kremer got out of it, I feel like Rangers may regret not finishing this off early

Fuck me with a shovel

Holy fuck.

Fuck me with six hundred shovels

I was kind of dreading an immediate playoff sweep after this incredible streak.

Dodgers -O’s solidarity. This suvks

It's heartbreaking after such a great season.

Consolation prize if this holds up: enjoy the next five years of dominating the division.

The team has a bright future. Its farm system is very productive.

Not trying to be glib--just saying the Orioles are here to stay, barring unforeseen injury catastrophes. As I'm sure was pointed out, maybe even in this thread, Texas had the better run differential this year, so it's probably less shocking than it seems, even if no less depressing.

Wild that barring a comeback the AL East won’t win a single playoff game.

I wish it were otherwise, but you guys are wrong. This was the year, if there was going to be a year. I'm not saying the young guys aren't good. But this was the year.

I think the Os are set up about as well as anyone but yeah one thing that's pretty apparent in pro sports is that championship windows are rarely as long as you think they are

Really? I know you're in the moment--believe me, I empathize--but I suspect very few baseball fans see it that way (assuming ownership is willing to spend whatever they need to to tweak a great team). I didn't think they'd lose to Texas, but I didn't think they'd go all the way, either, especially with Bautista out.

BTW I don't consider this game over, Adley could easily make it 6-3 right now

OK no but this team can score and we have a lot of guys who can pitch.

(assuming ownership is willing to spend whatever they need to to tweak a great team).

I'M SORRY WAS I NOT CLEAR THAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES

"There's still plenty of time," says Ben McDonald. I love Big Ben.

Ben's reading my comments on this thread

(xposts) That's definitely a problem in this division.

xp My thoughts exactly

feeling like the 2014 ALCS, hopeless and defeated

DL hall looking kinda amazing though haven't lost hope of him starting

I don't blame Bochy for using Chapman with a six-run lead. But that's about the only situation where I'd use him these days.

Chapman looks washed. still has considerable
velocity, can’t throw a strike.