You mean the Montgomery who had a 9.0 ERA AGAINST US in the playoffs and still won? Yeah. Bud you keep beating this horse, but as it turned out the Orioles didn't pitch, hit or play def the same way in the playoffs. IF they had done that, perhaps it would have proven that the pitching was the reason the 23 playoffs ended for the O's. I mean I agree that I wish we had gotten Montgomery. But if Grayson pitched against Texas the way he pitched against Tampa or Wash in his last two starts...at the very least the O's do not get swept. And maybe they get on a roll. We don't know.
We do know that the best hitter for the Orioles in the playoffs last year was Jorge Mateo who outhit the entire team in one game (except Gunnar) going 4-5 in Game 3. That kinda tells you something.
And not specifically to your point, but even though Bradish exited game one in 4.2 innings, he outlasted Heaney for the Rangers. Game one comes down to the Jacob Webb HR, otherwise the bull pen does good work. Win Game 1 and well everything looks different. It didn't. But not because of the point you consistently make that the Orioles failed to get a starter like Montgomery.
They failed to perform pretty widely. As is won't to do in a three game series.
Simply repeating it over and over, doesn't make it so.