BALTIMORE—On September 28, 2011, in the final game of the season, the Orioles ended the playoff hopes of the Boston Red Sox with a walk-off single by Robert Andino. Ten years later, with the Red Sox entering Tuesday night’s game with a one-game lead for the second American League wild-card berth, the Orioles pulled off an unlikely win, beating Boston and Chris Sale, 4-2, before an announced crowd of 8,098 at Camden Yards.
It was the Orioles’ first win after six straight losses to Boston (88-69). Sale (5-1) had won 10 straight decisions over the Orioles (51-106). The Orioles’ starting pitcher was Bruce Zimmermann, whose last start was on June 13th. He set the tone for a dominant performance by Oriole pitching by allowing just one run in four innings.
While the Red Sox were losing, the New York Yankees were beating the Toronto Blue Jays after sweeping the Red Sox this past weekend. The Yankees have a two-game lead in the wild-card race. The Red Sox lead the Seattle Mariners by a half-game and the Blue Jays by a game.
“I want to stay competitive,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’re facing good teams that put themselves in a good position to play in October. Hopefully, someday we’re going to be in that spot. Until then I just want to stay competitive, try to give everybody a good game and give us a chance to win every single night. Fortunately, our pitching and our defense did that tonight.”
The Orioles scored three runs against Sale in the bottom of the sixth. Two perfect innings by Joey Krehbiel, who has thrown 4 1/3 hitless innings since joining the Orioles last Friday, enabled them to hold the lead.
“Didn’t know much about him a few days ago,” Hyde said. “Twelve pitches in two innings … I loved the aggressiveness, the way he comes in and pounds the strike zone.”
Cole Sulser pitched a spotless ninth for his eighth save. Leftfielder Ryan McKenna made an excellent running and leaping catch on J.D. Martinez’s drive to end the games. Marcos Diplán, Krehbiel and Sulser combined to retire the last 12 Boston batters.
Sale allowed just a second-inning single by Pedro Severino in the first five innings.
Kelvin Gutiérrez led off the sixth with a base hit. With one out, Ryan Mountcastle drilled a 414-foot home run to left to tie the score, 2-2. It was his 32nd homer.
“It was a great team win,” Mountcastle said. “We pitched really well. We had big hits throughout the game and overall played great defense, too. Definitely a good win for us.”
Austin Hays singled after Mountcastle’s home run, and Hansel Robles replaced Sale. Trey Mancini and Severino followed with singles, and Hays scored to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead.
“Our middle of the order did a really good job of taking some at-bats and using the whole field,” Hyde said. “We did some really good things offensively against one of the elite starters in this game.”
Zimmermann was coming off the 60-day injured list and allowed only two hits, but one was Kyle Schwarber’s 32nd home run in the second. The Ellicott City native, who missed time because of left bicep tendinitis and a sprained right ankle, knew it wasn’t going to be a long assignment.
“I can’t ask for much more than that,” Zimmermann said. “I knew I was only going to [go] four or five innings. I just wanted to go out there and have a strong outing and keep the game in play for the rest of the guys coming in behind me.”
Zimmermann could close the Orioles’ season on Sunday in Toronto.
Diplán (2-0) took over for Zimmermann in the fifth, and he gave up Hunter Renfroe’s 29th home run in the sixth.
The Orioles took a 4-2 lead with three consecutive two-out singles by Mancini, Severino and McKenna in the eighth against Tanner Houck.
There are two more home games against the Red Sox, and three final games in Toronto.
“You get to play spoiler, which is a lot of fun,” Zimmermann said. “As a Baltimore native, growing up, this is the anniversary of Andino, the Red Sox killer. I was a kid watching that game. It’s definitely a lot of fun to be able to do that on the anniversary of that game.”
Notes: Zac Lowther (1-2, 7.66 ERA) will face Nathan Eovaldi (10-9, 3.88) on Wednesday. … Severino had three hits, equaling his season high.
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Is Guttierrez looking like he could be a player. Let’s just pick up whoever Tampa Bay puts on waivers. Sevy playing for a backup job next year to bad it won’t be here.
Lowther has had two encouraging starts in September and two discouraging starts in September (both against AL East opponents), hoping he can build off his last start against Texas tonight. If the O's can manage to go 3-2 over their last five, they will equal the 2019 record with 54 wins. Nice win last night, good BB read this morning.
Add Diplan to that possible bullpen mix for 2022. Santander's miserable season finally ends. He played like a 40 year old all year. The mystique of Mountcastle--he'll look listless for 10 AB's then blow the game open with a bomb. That young man has some very impressive numbers. The Red Sox look very tight. Love the O's outfield--very athletic. Great listening to the 3"future stars" being interviewed in the booth last night. GRod--"I had a blast!!",Adley sounds like an outspoken leader,Stowers--young full of life. 2022 can't come soon enough. Great game to the point where the crowd was silenced by the 9th(hmmm something's wrong with that). Oh well. The weeding out process seems to be working. Get Guttierrez a personal hitting coach and we may have something there. He's smooth,has charisma. Number two draft pick--Brooks Lee(a keeper/check him out).
Guess the curse of the Andino lives on. Zimmermann looked good. Other then the Schwarber homer he was good. Think he can be part of the rotation next year. Can we just claim more pitchers from the rays? Ellis has been great and so has this Krehbiel so far.
What? We're happy with a win? Y'all DO realize that we're down (or is that up?) a game to Arizona don't you? What gives?
I'm so confused ... this process is sooooo confusing.
How am I supposed to feel after KICK'IN SOME RED SOX BUTT!?!?! I don'tknow about all you Tankers out there, but THAT was fun last night, and I feel GREAT! Screw the draft pick. I'd rather have that one extra W in the left-side column.
Go O's! (sorry CPs....your line)
OH yeah, Mountcastle is the AL ROY. Anything else is a Fix by Manfred.
Ken, the only talk about getting the number one draft choice is from the fans.
And my comment today was directed at those fans. They keep telling me that I don't 'get it' ... the process that is.
Buuuuuttt, since you mentioned it, I would never expect upper management to mention it (especially publicly), but that doesn't mean the thought hasn 't crossed their mind(s).
I think all involved with the team would get more satisfaction with winning games against the Red Sox and Blue Jays than getting the top pick—by far—and it would be better for business.
Don’t you think that a confident executive feels he could draft pretty well at No. 2?
Absolutely he, or any GM, would be comfortable at number 2. But if you're going to Tank, why not get #1?
I believe that a GM earns his salt picking at the back end of the rounds and deep in to the rounds past round #1. This of course would be predicated by the scouting and organizational infrastructure that is in place. Hopefully this is where Mr.Elias' strengths lie. Putting this infrastructure in place that is.
I have a hunch he knows what he's doing. I think we've seen glimpses of his draft prowess with his underslotting up to this point. Rich, while I remember you stating that you're not a fan of underslotting, I think it's a firm strategy. I believe that he's (Elias) confident in picking up quantity with latter picks. If he is, we'll have a bright future.
All that being said, I also firmly believe he's tanked.
BRR,
Keith Law, The Athletic, put forward ROY in AL naming Wanda. RM was not mentioned as a contender for the award. His criteria included importance of position, SS more important than 1B, and defense part of his equation. He used some other parametric as well.
I know this fan hates the Red Sox too, but I am way more interested in winning World Championships of our own than ruining other teams seasons, so I would rather lose at this point and get the best possible pick for a chance at great future success than a rare win in another lost season.
Twisted, sick and perverse view Akron. I'm afraid it's shared by many others in Oriole Nation.
(Oriole Nation ...get it? It's a joke boys)
I don’t despise many MLB players but Chris Sale is at the top of my list. So happy to see that jerk take a loss. Great win O’s!!
Jerk, indeed. The Angelos clan is too cheap to take the top player, anyway!
You keep repeating this, but in 2019, the Orioles paid a record bonus to sign Adley Rutschman.
Selective amnesia strikes again.
I got to see an awesome win last night! Pitching was outstanding against a playoff caliber team in the Sox! Timely hitting was great also. Interviews with the next 3 pieces by Mike Elias was great to hear as well. Very well spoken by the 3 of them! I'm hoping that the tank job by Dan Duquette era will finally be in the rearview mirror!!!
I’m sorta not hoping that. I’m sure you want Rodriguez, DL Hall, Lowther, Baumann and maybe even Sedlock to succeed, or am I mistaken?