The Orioles Absolutely No-Showed The ALDS And Got Swept Out Of The Playoffs
And just like that the 101 win Orioles are swept. 91 straight series or something and that is now done, they're going home after flat out not showing up to the ALDS. Won the AL East, earned the bye through the Wild Card only to get out-managed and out played. Brutal on all ends. Game 1 the offense flutters against Andrew Heaney. Game 2 the pitching pisses down their leg and it's over before it starts. And Game 3 was more of the same with pitching. I talked about the Dean Kremer situation on Tuesday when it was announced that he was starting. I'm not sure if that was the reason he didn't have it or if the Rangers are just that good. He wasn't fooling anyone with his stuff, couldn't make it through 2 innings and it was a dogfight to even get through an inning. 7 hits, 6 runs, 0 Ks, 2 home runs. Didn't have it, just didn't. Have to feel for him especially.
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All the credit to Nathan Eovaldi, that guy is amazing. His playoff resume was insane coming into this, and it got even better. 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 7 Ks, no walks. O's couldn't get anything going off of him. The game plan all series was for the Orioles to get to the pen and tear it up, they couldn't. One little threat with Chapman but couldn't get anything going from there. Just brutal offensively and on the mound, all around awfulness from the Orioles. But the Rangers, they're just a really good team. They've got dudes everywhere. Garcia, Seager, Jung, Carter, Eovaldi, Montgomery, Heim, they're really good and beat the breaks off the O's. 1-9 is relentless in that lineup and their starters stepped up when they needed it. Oh......they also did it without Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. Unreal squad who choked their division away and looked like they were going to miss the playoff but now are 4 wins away from the World Series
No shows from guys like Adley Rutschman, Cedric Mullins, and Grayson Rodriguez. Adley had 1 hit, Cedric had 0 hits, and Grayson couldn't get to the 2nd inning at home. Rough, rough showing for those guys who were key contributors this year. Starers not going deep will never work out for you in the playoffs. It killed them, they had guys in the bullpen they just couldn't trust, can't have that. It's just insane how inept they looked. They almost looked like a completely different team than from March to September. The team who didn't lose 3 straight to a team all year picked an awful time to do it for the first time. I mentioned the rotation up there, look at these numbers. 8 IP, 20 hits, 13 runs. Not even close to good enough.
Some of the good? Gunnar Henderson was 6/12. He's born for October. He was the only guy to really do something in all 3 games. We had Aaron Hicks with 5 RBI in Game 2, Jorge Mateo picked a great time to have his first 4-hit game of the year on Sunday, and man did DL Hall and Tyler Wells look good. Outside of those few guys, nothing. Can't falter with RISP over and over, can't WALK 11 GUYS IN GAME 2, can't have 5 hits in game 1 at home vs Andrew Heaney. Can't do it. Super disappointing to a season where we had such high hopes.
Expectations are such a fickle bitch. If you'd have told us January that the Rangers would beat the Orioles in the ALDS and that the O's would win 101 games we'd have taken that in a heartbeat. I've said it a billion times, Vegas picked them to win 76.5 games, they won 101. This was a really good team despite them making minor off-season moves. And none of those offseason pick ups had anything to do with the playoffs. This team has a lot to fix in the off-season, despite how successful they were in the regular season.
This whole season comes down to the moves that weren't made in free agency and the trade deadline. I get they weren't going to trade Jackson Holliday for Dylan Cease, but they had to get someone else other than Jack Flaherty and Fuji. Have to. Would have been nice to have a Jordan Montgomery. They know they have to open up the checkbooks and spend or make some trades from this #1 farm system and bring in the arms. HAVE to make the bullpen better. HAVE to have better starters. I'm excited for another year of Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez and a healthy John Means, but you need more arms. That is a talk for another day, but the fact that they won 101 games in the hardest division in sports with a team who tied the best start to a season of all time is pretty insane. They're going to add Jackson Holliday next year, ideally they have him start Opening Day to show they are 100% committed to winning a World Series next year. They have to spend money, I don't know how else to say it.
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I loved this team, this may be my favorite sports team ever, but they have to get better. But there is plenty of time to talk about that. It's okay to say the Orioles had an incredible year because their expectations at the beginning of the year were dogs hit. It's also okay to be fucking pissed off with how they played in the playoffs and how they laid down and were frankly never in games 2 or 3. I love this squad but man did they shit the bed. This is going to sit with them for a long time, especially guys like Adley, Ced, Dean, and Grayson. I hope this squad uses this as a chip on their shoulder moment and thinks about it during every workout until Opening Day. Winning over 100 games and then getting blanked in October should eat at them for a long time.
This really is a special team to me, what a fun year it was but man is it a kick in the dick with out it ended. It was basically over before it started. And I said it before, but it's okay to say how much you enjoyed this season and still be dreadfully upset with how it ended. Swept. Damnit man. Excited as hell to see who they pick up and sign this offseason but so fucking bummed the season is over after absolutely falling asleep in October. I love this team more than you know and can't wait to get down to Sarasota to see the boys in February. But this will hurt until them. They will be back, and they will have expectations next year, that will be dangerous. They didn't have the bullseye on their back for all of the season, but you bet your ass they will next year. You bet your ass.
I love you all.