Bring on the Orioles: ALDS matchup set
ByTwo days after winning Game 162 and clinching the best record in the league, the Yankees finally know who they will be playing the ALDS. The Orioles beat the Rangers in Texas by the score of 5-1 on Friday, winning the first ever AL wildcard play-in game. Joe Saunders turned in an unexpectedly strong performance while the offense mustered just enough off Yu Darvish before piling on the bullpen. The Orioles’ always strong bullpen handled the final 3.1 innings. Here’s the box score.
The Yankees will now head to Baltimore for the first two games of the ALDS, which begins Sunday. Here are the start times and umpiring crew. Joe Girardi confirmed that CC Sabathia will get the ball in Game One, and apparently right-hander Jason Hammel will return from his knee injury to start for the Orioles. That is unconfirmed, however. Either way, it’s time for the postseason to really begin.
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Instant post. Did you have both possibilities written up.
The “Rangers Win” version will be seen by poor children in Botswana with dial-up connections.
loled a little too hard at that.
Are not all children in Botswana poor? : -)
Beating them is gonna be so much fun.
I’m supposed to be in Baltimore Monday night, so I will be doing my best to be at Game 2. Let’s get this done.
Gonna be fun sweeping the Orioles. Of course I cant get the vision out of my head of the series going to a 5th game with Yankees winning 2 games by blowouts and Orioles winning both their games by 1 run lol
I hope you’re right about sweeping the O’s.
Fuck Ripken, Flanny, and Boog Powell’s BBQ stand. Send their asses back to mediocrity.
Classy. I guess only the Yankees are allowed to be successful.
If this is the new thread where most comments will go, well, I apologize in advance, but what I just posted there would get buried and forgotten otherwise:
The Yankees and Orioles battled for first place the entire month of September, with the margin almost never being higher than +1 for the Yankees (I think the largest lead was, like, +2.5 for the Yankees, and that was for one day).
Yankees ended up winning the division, Orioles beat the Rangers, and gained the wild card.
And now the Orioles get two guaranteed home games to start off the ALDS.
So, who really got the better end of the division race?
Screw you, Selig.
Yankees: 6-3 at Camden Yards this year
And, as proven today, what does home field advantage mean?
It’s the premise of everything.
Ironically, the non-division winner is being rewarded here, over the division winner. Selig and co. know no bounds as far as hypocrisy goes.
Hypocrisy? Did Selig and co. know the Yanks would secure the #1 seed in the AL back in April? If so, why the HELL didn’t they tell US?!?!
The Yanks for years have owned Baltimore. Played very well in Baltimore too by the way. This year they are very resilient as we all know. We played them 18 times. Worst case is splitting 1st 2 games. This O’s team has no fear. They are like the A’s. We need CC to step up. Hrandyvto tone down the K’s and Arod to show up and start driving the ball again. Let’s do this.
Yankees always play well in Camden. I thought that was the better option between there and Arlington. I have very little issue starting the series in Baltimore.
Let’s get loud at Camden Yards and have a presence like in Philly in ’09!
They had to face elimination in a 1 game playoff. Look at the Rangers. Perhaps the A’s fans would be saying the same thing if they won?
Probables:
Game 1: Hammel vs. Sabathia
Game 2: Chen vs. Pettitte/Kuroda
Game 3: Tillman vs. Kuroda/Pettitte
Game 4: Gonzalez/Saunders vs. Hughes
Yankees in 4
Sweep is what I’m thinking.
Respect what the O’s have done this year, and certainly tonight; not taking them lightly at all; but playing in Baltimore just won’t feel as imposing / intimidating as playing in Arlington, for sure.
The chase to 28 begins!
So sick of the Baltimore hype, its time to snuf this flame. Yanks healthybnd getting hot at te right time. Lets go Yanks!
Hammel’s pitched 8.2 innings in the last two months? I’ll take my chances with CC
This Orioles team is really scary because they have some odd force helping them out.
Besides that I like our chances. Superior pitching and hitting.
the guy who wins the lottery believes there was some unseen force behind it. there was not.
I believe in the baseball gods. The odd force that causes people to win the lottery, not so much.
Odd force vs. Yankees mastique in a 5 game heavyweight fight.
I agree with all you say, outside of the fact the Orioles just won’t go the eff away.
This nonsense must end. Sweep them!
Hammel: 0-1 with a 3.94 ERA in 3 starts.
The game wasn’t even a sellout. Haha.
It’s bird hunting season boys and girls
Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit em, but remember, it’s a sin to kill a mocking bird.
ooooooh, literary-like.
It might be the difference, it might not be, but in thinking on it again…I think I’d rather have faced the Rangers.
The Yanks have hit Joe Nathan and forced blown saves out of him in multiple games; they never seem to hit Johnson at all. Any close lead in the late innings would’ve been up for grabs vs. the Rangers, probably not against the O’s.
Well, they hit Johnson some when he was a starter, but not since he became 1st a setup man, and now the O’s closer.
However he looked shaky tonight…PS has a different set of nerves that are required.
This is true.
Technically he blew the save against them last month, but Jerry Meals didn’t see it that way.
Good point, actually.
That’s true, they did get 3 hits off Johnson that inning, one of which was a bunt single.
Can they bring back Jeffrey Maier to throw out the first pitch for Game 3?
Haha that’d be amazing
Awesome.
That’s great!
Lots of storylines, but as an old Yankees fan the Buck Showalter angle is most interesting. I’m sure revenge for that 1996 firing is running through his head. I hope he can deal with disappointment.
He already took his revenge on texas….
We wanted the Os and we got the Os. Even though the series starts in Baltimore I still think we have the advantage. The 2-3 could work in our favor more so than the traditional 2-2-1. All we have to do is take 1 of 2 in Baltimore, where we’ve played well, and then the series swings heavily in our favor. In a 2-2-1, Baltimore could take 1 of 2 in NY and look forward to 2 home games. In this format they don’t have that to look forward to if CC OR Andy can win and I like those odds.
I have no issues with starting the series in Baltimore. It’s on them if they can’t win in Yankees Stadium south.
I feel for buck in regards to the whole the 96 situation..but that actually turned out to be one of the only good decisions big George ever made….YAAAAANKKKKKEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS
Big George made many good decisions. Firing Buck was not one of them. The Yankees still did fine, but Showalter was a better manager than Torre and he’s a better manager than Girardi.
George actually panicked that offseason and tried to bring Buck back while bumping Torre up to General Manager, but Buck declined.
nothing will surprise me after today
this might just be “one of those years” where crazy stuff happens start to finish (1986, 1991, 2006 etc)
it would be nice to win game one and burst the “unstoppable team of destiny” bubble before it gets out of hand
josh hamilton went into a fugue state tonight. wonder if any potential suitors got spooked?
He’ll be back on the sauce within a week.
Do u even know what ur saying?
I don’t typically root for matchups because it never seems to work out as you imagined and it backfires.
So, I hope I was wrong in that I think deep down I wanted to face the Rangers instead of the O’s.
Win at least one of the first two and they’re in terrific shape. They’ve really been struggling on the road so hopefully 1 of 2 isn’t too much to ask for given they they’ll have their best pitchers out there and a really fresh bullpen. If they can’t win one and lose the series because of that, then they have no one to blame but themselves really.
Fucking stomp out and kill everything involved.
Starting with Mark Reynolds.
I love the Yankees chances, pitching set up, hitting well and have a decent draw. If we get one of two at Camden Yards the Yanks have a huge advantage. I hope Girardi goes with Kuroda in game 2. I like Andy better in NY and only once in the series if it goes 5 and Joe doesn’t use a 4 man rotation.
I ‘m not sure if David phelps should get game 4 start or if we are better off with him in bullpen in case on of our starters can’ t make it out of the fourth inning. I don’t think we will sweep the orioles. They play us too tough. It might go 5 games or at least 4 games. Is there any chance Dylan Bundy would start a game 5 if it went that far for baltimore? Alot of people would be interested to see how he does against us especially in a start. We don’t do well against pitchers we see for first time. Don’t know if buck would do that though but you never know.
Reminiscing about those 2 opposite field bombs by Montero off Johnson in the same game last September.
Sigh.
The Yankees get on a roll and add another banner. All these teams that have destiny or magic going for them, all the Yankees have are 27 World Series titles. How many teams of destiny came up against the Yanks during those championships? Too many to count, how about hanging #28 next.
I’d like to see Todd Zeile throw out a first pitch. His throw into the ground allowing Bernie to score was huge in 1996 and he eventually played for the Yankees. Armando Benitez might work, too.
Hopefully Joe has a little Billy Martin in him and will call out Johnson for doctoring the ball
I have to wonder will Girardi start Kuroda Game 2 on the road where his record and era arent as good or let Andy go 2 and Kuroda pitch at The Stadium game 3.