12 October 2023
Asked whether receiving a day off Monday will help the Orioles reset ahead of their third playoff game, catcher Adley Rutschman answered honestly. He doesn’t know — he hasn’t been in this situation before.
“We’re going to see,” he said. “This is my first time doing this postseason thing.”
The young Orioles saw growing pains in their first two postseason games, dropping both to the Rangers at home to go down 2-0 in the best-of-five American League Division Series. If they want to keep their memorable season alive, they’ll need to win three straight games, including two in Texas starting Tuesday, to do so.
Here’s what we learned from a long Sunday at Oriole Park.
A 2-0 deficit comes quick when the little things go wrong
The Orioles did a lot of the big things right this past weekend. They did not commit an error. They struck out 16 hitters Saturday, a franchise record for a nine-inning postseason game. They racked up 14 hits and eight runs Sunday; in each of the other 14 occasions they’ve performed that well offensively this season, they’ve won.
That wasn’t the case Sunday, though, as sloppy play in less obvious ways doomed them. Eight Orioles pitchers combined for 11 walks, tied for the most in Baltimore playoff history, and allowed 11 runs, their most ever in the postseason.
When Mitch Garver hit a grand slam off Jacob Webb, a blast that quieted a sold-out Camden Yards, he drove in three players who’d reached base on free passes issued by Bryan Baker.
“It’s a good offense, and it’s been a really good offense all year,” manager Brandon Hyde said of the Rangers. “But we also walked 11 of them. Not doing yourself any favors.”
Other miscues hurt the Orioles. Starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez floated a ball to first base, allowing Garver to reach on an infield single during a nightmarish second inning. And on several occasions, the Rangers had big hits with two strikes.
It was largely an uninspiring performance. If the Orioles want to do the improbable and come back in this series, they’ll need to play cleaner baseball.
Redemption performances don’t necessarily mean victory
Aaron Hicks made a mistake — highly scrutinized by Orioles fans — when he missed a hit-and-run signal in the ninth inning of a one-run game Saturday. That left Gunnar Henderson easily out at second base in a pivotal moment in the Orioles’ first home playoff game since 2014.
But things move fast in baseball. Hicks was nearly the hero Sunday as he first drove in two runs to give the Orioles a short-lived 2-0 advantage in the first inning. Then, in the game’s final frame, he hit a three-run homer to cut the Orioles’ deficit to three. His timely hitting might not have atoned for his mental error in a closer game, but the veteran produced about as much as he could Sunday.
In a different way, Jorge Mateo had a redemptive performance in the loss. The shortstop started the season strong but then went through a long lull, posting a .165 batting average from May to August.
That monthslong slog didn’t matter Sunday, as he was unstoppable, going 4-for-4 with two doubles out of the No. 9 hole. He became the first Oriole with four hits in a playoff game since Kiko Garcia in the 1979 World Series.
“I was hoping Jorge could be a little spark for us and he was. When he gets on base, it’s exciting,” Hyde said.
Playoff baseball is just different
Leading up to the postseason, Hyde and his players were frequently asked how the postseason would be different (for the few who’ve experienced it) or how they imagined it would be. They, understandably, mostly gave cliches. It’s the same game they’ve been playing their whole lives, many said.
That is, of course, true. The dimensions of the diamond weren’t changed, and Major League Baseball didn’t institute any last-minute rule changes for the postseason.
But, as this weekend proved, playoff baseball just ain’t the same.
The pressure is on another level. So is the noise. Every managerial decision is questioned. And a singular play can make or break a series.
Rodriguez was amped up for the first inning as 46,475 fans at Camden Yards waved orange towels, only for a letdown in the second. On a second straight day, Hyde had to make one difficult bullpen decision after another following short starts from Kyle Bradish and Rodriguez. In Game 1, Hicks missing the hit-and-run sign was criticized, and in both games, Webb allowed a backbreaking homer.
And, as Rangers manager Bruce Bochy proved, playoff baseball can also be when conventional wisdom goes out the window.
The veteran skipper brought in left-hander Cody Bradford to face the bottom half of Baltimore’s order in the fifth and allowed him to cruise through 3 2/3 innings. During that stretch, he faced lefty masher Ryan Mountcastle once — a surprise in itself — and Hicks, Rutschman and three other Orioles hitters twice. The rookie southpaw rewarded his manager with a scoreless outing, stymying Baltimore’s comeback attempt.
It’s still the same sport, but it’s clearly a different game.
The Rangers are really, really good
The Orioles entered this series as the top seed in the AL. They won 101 games in the regular season with one of the most exciting teams in baseball.
Despite their regular-season success, the projections from the analytics website FanGraphs still didn’t favor them. It could’ve been easy to ignore the reasoning behind that, as FanGraphs predicted the Orioles would regress this season and only win 75 games.
But one reason Baltimore had only a 5.8% chance to win the World Series entering the ALDS was that its opponent was a formidable one. By run differential, the Rangers were the second-best team in the AL — ahead of the Orioles.
Their success in the regular season was built on their dominant offense, which led the circuit with 5.44 runs per game. Game 1 didn’t feature such firepower, instead relying on a few timely hits and a surprisingly stout bullpen. But Texas’ bats couldn’t be tamed for long, and they proved Sunday that they’re a legitimate World Series contender with an impressive combination of patience and power to take down Rodriguez and Baltimore’s bullpen.
Garver hit a grand slam off Webb; Josh Jung, Adolis García and Marcus Semien all recorded two hits; and Corey Seager walked an MLB postseason-record five times.
”They have a very good team,” Rutschman said. “We got to give kudos to them. They’ve done a great job. You just got to be that much more locked and we got to come out ready to go.”
Rutschman was far from the only Oriole who said the club would come out ready in Game 3 on Tuesday. But so will the Rangers.
ALDS, Game 3
Orioles at Rangers
Tuesday, 8:03 p.m.
TV: Chs. 45, 5
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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