Welcome to September.
With roughly 30 or so games left in the 2010 season, the Orioles are trying their best to finish on a definite high note.That would be a welcome change from what we have seen the last 13 years or so.
Last night, the Orioles defeated the Boston Red Sox, 5-2, thanks to yet another strong start by Brian Matusz, hefty work by the bullpen and the offense breaking through. The game was settled in the eighth inning as Luke Scott and Felix Pie homered.
Matusz stymied the Red Sox into the seventh inning and kept them off balance all night – especially J.D. Drew and David Ortiz. He seemingly has bounced back from his nightmarish start to the season and is finally looking like the young lefty that everyone had hyped up last year.
Even more impressive was the effort the bullpen gave to help Baltimore to the victory. The triumvirate of Jim Johnson, Mike Gonzalez and Koji Uehara saved the game for the Orioles and it‘s amazing what could have been if all three were healthy.
The Orioles might not be .500 team, but they would not have a .370 winning percentage either. More importantly, the Orioles avoided their usual August swoon, going 17-11 during the month.
The team is also 17-10 under Buck Showalter and I’d consider that accomplishment a minor miracle being that they were headed to being one the worst squads to ever play the game in recent memory. I still have a hard time believing the Orioles have seen during the last month are pretty much the same team except for some new faces we’ve seen since April.
But it’s pretty obvious that a lot of the players are hustling and playing harder under Showalter than what we saw with Dave Trembley or Juan Samuel. Then again, with key players healthy, the roster pretty much back at full strength, the mistakes being cut down and more effort on the field, perhaps the Orioles could now avoid losing 100 – or much less finishing off the second half close to .500.
However, despite the positive last few weeks, there will need to be some changes made in the off-season and the young players who struggled will need to step it up.
With the last month of the season upon us, I’d like to see the Orioles put a crimp in the plans of some in the American League East. It looks like Tampa Bay and New York (Yankees) will probably make the playoffs, but I’d like to see Baltimore make their journey a bit more interesting.
Finally, I’m curious to see what the September callups do. According to the Orioles.com, the first group of players called up will be Robert Andino, Nolan Reimold (both who have major league experience) and Brandon Snyder.
