The Orioles avoided a three-game sweep by the New York Yankees with a incredible walk-off win, 4-3, in front of slight less than 40,000 on Sunday afternoon.
Despite losing a heartbreaker on Friday off a Alex Rodriguez go-ahead, three-run homer in the ninth and getting their arses handed to them on Saturday, the O’s fought back on in the final game of the set. Down 3-2 in the ninth, Luke Scott tied the game with a home run off Mariano Rivera and then earned the win in the 11th off Ty Wigginton’s double.
What was more amazing is that the Orioles won a game they surely would have lost not too long ago. The bullpen came through a held the game in check, with Koji Uehara striking out the side in the 10th and Mike Gonzalez nearly blowing the game in the 11th, but getting a crucial double play with the bases loaded.
New York had plenty of chances to finish off Baltimore, but they seemingly could not get the knockout punch.
Although we all probably hoped that the Orioles could have taken two-of-out-three or swept the Yankees, it was great to see them fight. Once again, the park was full with Yankee fans – I’d say they were at least 70% of the attendance that day – but it was good to see them frustrated at the outcome and Joe Girardi’s overmanaging.
On the afternoon, it was frustrating watching Chris Tillman on the mound. He’s looked flat-out brilliant at times, while bad at others. On Sunday, fans saw the bad Tillman as he didn’t even pitch four innings and walked six, giving up three runs. It could have been much, much worse for the pitcher. At this point, one has to figure will he ever pitch with some consistency to help out the team, or will his starts just became an exercise in frustration.
The Orioles have won 27 out of 44 games with Showalter at the helm. Let’s see if they can keep up the wins against the Red Sox in Boston.
Finally, on Sunday, Andy MacPhail was on MASN during the Orioles-Yankees game.
He was on the game telecast for half-an-inning and mused despite the Orioles playing well over .500, they are not going to assume that the current squad will magically go ahead and contend against the beasts in the American League East.
From what I got, the Orioles will attempt to make an attempt to get some impact players from the free agent market, though their pickings may be slim. Most fans, I would assume, want the team to make a solid run at some guys (arms, some corner infielders and a big bat) – personally, I think Adam Dunn would serve well in a Baltimore lineup.
