It does not look good for the “Baltimore Nine” these days.
The score is two to nothing, with perhaps just two games left to play. At least, there’s only two games to play if they don’t win soon. And, well, that doesn’t look easy, since the Kansas City Royals have apparently cracked into the dark magic of playoff destiny usually only available in previous postseasons to their Missouri neighbors, the Cardinals. Oh, and the vaunted bullpen keeps failing the Orioles, too and they seem to have forgotten how to hit the longball.
Still, the Orioles have a chance!
Four reasons:
1) It can be done!
While nobody has ever come back from two down in an LCS where those first two losses were at home, it has been done before elsewhere. Three times has it happened in the World Series, and in the other “series” sports (NBA and NHL) it has occurred as well – 24 times across all three sports as of last fall. Sure, that isn’t that many, but it’s greater than zero. And, yes, the team that has won those first two games has a .820 series winning percentage, but, again, that isn’t 1.000. So, historically, there is a chance.
2) The back part of the Royals rotation isn’t as good.
Jeremy Guthrie and Jason Vargas aren’t exactly slouches, but they aren’t “Big Game” James Shields (career post-season ERA: 5.19) or the possibly-injured Yordano Ventura. In contrast, the Orioles back part of the rotation isn’t that much different from the front part of the rotation, due to the brilliant move of having every starter be a number three starter. Of course, the problem for the Orioles has more been the fact that the Royals become invincible in late innings, so they better hope that they can really beat up on Guthrie and Vargas while their starters don’t leave as early as they have been leaving.
3) Ned Yost can’t keep doing this forever…right?
It’s not unknown that Ned Yost isn’t that great of a manager, at least tactically. Don’t get me wrong, he seems a great guy and it’s clear his players love him, but he tends to leave his starters in too long (Ventura’s injury very well may have saved the game for the Royals on Saturday, since it meant that the bullpen could take over a little early), he loves to bunt even when all the numbers say he shouldn’t (even if he has been more restrained this series), and he continues to have his best hitter, Alex Gordon, hit sixth and his hottest hitter, Mike Moustakas, hit ninth. So, of course, he hasn’t lost yet this postseason.
He can’t have his luck hold up forever, and eventually those bad decisions will come back to haunt him…right?
4) The Orioles haven’t been playing bad so much as they aren’t doing what the Royals are doing.
The Orioles have seemingly runners on third on hundred times this series so far (I’m probably overestimating here, but I missed the end of Game Two due to a freelance assignment, so I’m not entirely sure), and they’ve gotten runners in in those situations, like, three times. Similarly, the bloops and doubles into the corner the Royals seem to get every time they need to never have seemed to happen for the Orioles when they most needed them. Call it luck. Call it clutchness. Call it the Royals’ better feeling. But the fact is, the Orioles are not getting blown out here, they are losing late and by just a little. They could have easily won either or both of the first two games. That suggests that the Orioles can just as easily win the next two, if they get a few breaks here and there.
Only time will tell.
–
LINKS!
Fewer this week, since my last one was later in the week last week.
A great article on Donnie Moore by Michael McKnight. It’s long, but worth the read.
A look at the first black player in the Japanese Leagues… in 1936!
Self-Promotion of the Week: The untold history of KC-Baltimore playoff match-ups.
–
Something I realized while watching all the shifts going on during the postseason: technically, there is nothing in the rules that says that you have to have people in the traditional positions. Now, I may be reading this wrong or something, but there’s nothing in the rules that says you have to have a second basemen, for example. I mean, second basemen are mentioned, but more as notes about how official scorers should respond to certain plays involving them.
So, the question is: When will we first see “new positions” created? Will we see the “rover” position formalized?
Who knows?
–
As always, you can see more of my work over at Baseball Continuum.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
