MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
It happened later than it was supposed to happen but, given the circumstances, that it happened at all is the important thing and it will go into the books as quite the accomplishment.
There is still much to be done by the end of the week, but the weight of the world has been lifted from the Baltimore Orioles, who clinched their second straight postseason berth Tuesday night at Yankee
Stadium.
After buzzing through the first half of the season, despite not having closer Felix Bautista, then losing starters Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells for the season and playing over a three-week stretch of schedule without a day off, the Orioles were smacked in the kisser with just about every obstacle and misfortune a team can face, seemingly in triplicate, yet never stopped battling, never gave up and never stopped attacking the grind through a nightmare second half, despite being counted out by nearly everyone.
The “injuries are part of the game; everyone has them” spiel from opposing teams is true to a point, but when a team loses most of its starting rotation, the back end of its bullpen, an entire starting infield and has exactly half of its Opening Day roster on the injured list at the same time for an extended period of time, yet still makes the playoffs?
Someone in Bawlmer, hon is certainly doing something right.
For instance, Albert Suarez, who turns 35 next week, who had not pitched in the big leagues in seven years, pitching the previous five seasons in Japan and in South Korea, was thrown into the rotation by necessity and has done nothing but keep the Orioles in games, pitching 127.2 innings to a 3.74 ERA and eight wins.
Corbin Burnes, Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez, Means, Wells and Dean Kramer were the projected rotation at the beginning of the season. Find the name Albert Suarez in there if you can.
Don’t bother, because you can’t. In fact, you can’t find an Orioles fan who had even heard of Albert Suarez; but ask any Orioles fan now where their team would be without him?
Rodriguez, who last pitched on July 31, was 13-4 before the Orioles shut him down for the season on Wednesday, and you can understand why they did, as there are no more minor-league games to be played, so why jeopardize the young pitcher’s future when he was unlikely to be at full capacity at any point of the next month?
Yet through the ongoing struggle of the past two months, that starting pitching, led by Burnes, trade-deadline acquisition Zach Eflin, Kremer and Suarez, has been pretty good, while the bullpen, even without Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb has been gritty and resilient. The hitting and the infield defense, on the other hand, had been another matter.
That, however, is beginning to change with the return of Jordan Westburg, Ryan Mountcastle and Ramon Urias, three much-needed right-handed hitters who were in the lineup together on Tuesday night for the first time since July 31.
Westburg is the glue guy, a gamer, and one of the most important players on the entire team. He keeps the lineup moving and the infield defense intact. Mountcastle’s return immediately makes Ryan O’Hearn a better hitter again, because he won’t have to face so many left-handers, while Urias, a Gold Glove third baseman, is a pure professional who plays and produces anywhere manager Brandon Hyde puts him.
Signs of life began to show in the Orioles’ home series loss to the red-hot Detroit Tigers, even though a disastrous bottom of the ninth in the second game prevented an Orioles win. Tuesday night against the Yankees, even more signs of life prevailed with three home runs and clutch hits by O’Hearn and Mountcastle, with the Orioles defense also finding life, taking advantage of poor Yankees baserunning to end a threat.
With the exception of utility man Jorge Mateo (a considerable exception), everyone who doesn’t pitch is back. Whether it will be enough for a deeper run in the postseason remains to be seen, which is why it is important for the Orioles to gain some momentum for the rest of the final week, not to mention clinch homefield for the wild-card series.
Clearly, this Orioles team is more battle tested than the team that won 101 games last year before being swept in the divisional round of the playoffs.
There isn’t much that can be thrown at them at this point that they haven’t already seen and battled through.
That this team continued to find it in itself to even reach the postseason is remarkable and speaks very highly to the character and to the talent of the players, the manager and the coaching staff that refused to quit when it would have been so easy for them to do so.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @MikeBurkeMDT