WillyM

Taijuan Walker had 31 starts for the Phillies this year, pitched 172 innings, and led the team in wins with 15. Sure seemed like the Phillies could have used an innings-eater like him in Friday night's game, instead of trotting out an entire bullpen full of one-inning-type relievers. Anyone know why Walker has not pitched in the postseason?

In 2019, the Astros earned the distinction of being the only team ever to lose all four home games in a seven-game series. Now we get to see if they can do it again.

Though he won AL pennants in 1969, 70, and 71, Earl Weaver didn't win a Manager of the Year award until 1973, when he transformed the Orioles from a team that waited for the three-run homer to an aggressive base-running team, featuring eight players with stolen bases in double figures. I was a little surprised when I looked it up and found that the guy who led that team in stolen bases was someone I remembered more as a big bopper - Don Baylor, who swiped 32. Baylor had very good speed. But I have to concede that he probably wasn't as fast as Mateo, who stole 32 this year despite not getting on base as often as Baylor did.

Looks like losing games 160, 161, and 162 to get a matchup with the third seed worked out a lot better for the Diamondbacks than losing game 162 did for the Blue Jays.

Seems like I used to be able to edit my posts, but I can't figure out how to do it now. I neglected to mention in my previous post that all seven of the Orioles' eighth-inning runs scored after there were two outs.

Yes, I remember the game. I was an Oriole fan living in the Albany, NY area at the time. One of the local TV stations, which normally carried Yankees games on Sunday, decided to pick up five or six weeknight telecasts of Yankees games. This was the first of them. I didn't get to see the Orioles very often, so this was a real treat for me. I was ecstatic beyond words when the Orioles had that comeback from so far behind. I remember trying to figure out who the winning pitcher was, and finally realizing it was Chuck Estrada, who was trying (not very successfully) to recover the promise he had shown in his first couple of seasons in Baltimore. He gave up three runs in three innings, but was still the pitcher of record when the Orioles mounted their rally. That was the last game Estrada would win in an Oriole uniform.

I have a hard time believing that Bautista could come back from a ligament tear and be ready to throw a baseball 102 MPH by October. Unless he demonstrates the ability to throw Stu Miller-type changeup after changeup, I don't think we'll see him in the postseason. Of course, even though Miller was perfectly healthy in October 1966, we never saw him in that postseason, either. The only Oriole pitchers who saw action in the World Series were McNally, Drabowsky, Palmer, and Bunker. They were enough.

Congratulations to the Guardians on winning the season's series from the best team in the American League. How Cleveland managed to fall so far out of contention is a little hard to understand.

And with this win and the Yankees' loss earlier today, the Yankees are mathematically eliminated from contention for the AL East championship.

Will this be the last time the Orioles visit the Oakland Coliseum, or are the A's not moving until 2025?

With a six-man rotation and two off-days coming up, the starters are going to have eight days between starts. Seems like the Orioles could consider using one of those guys as a long man tonight and then get him back into the rotation with a normal amount of rest before his next start.

Erich Bacchus was the plate ump yesterday..

In order to make room for trade acquisition Jeimer Candelario, the Cubs have designated Trey Mancini for assignment. I don't see the Orioles having a place for Mancini, but I hope he finds a home somewhere.

Amazing to see so many pitches so far out of the strike zone and have the pitcher get out of it without allowing a run.

4. They should have retired # 35 for Mike Cuellar. Then they could have given some other number to Mussina and we could argue whether that number should have been retired.

Years ago, the Orioles said that no matter what time a game ended, light rail transportation would be available as much as 30 minutes after the end of the game. Of course, that was years ago, and things may have changed. I wish I could tell you that that comforting reassurance appears on the Orioles' website today, but I can't find it.

I guess if Ryan O'Hearn is to produce a game-winning RBI for a third day in a row, he'll have to do it coming off the bench. Come to think about it, that's how he got the first one.

Mike Baumann ran his won-lost record to 7-0 for the season today. For me, that brought back memories of Wes Stock, who pitched for the Orioles in the early '60's. Wes was almost exclusively a relief pitcher. While he was rarely called on to close a game, he had a knack for picking up wins in relief. He went 5-0 in 1961 and 7-0 in 1963. (He also went undefeated in 1964 with a 2-0 record, but only pitched in 14 games that year.) Oddly enough, Wes won his seventh game in 1963 before the end of July, just as Baumann has. Though he continued to pitch through the end of the season, he didn't get another decision. After 1964, he was traded to the Kansas City A's. He pitched in 1964-66, then was named a coach of the A's in 1967. He was activated as a player for one game, giving up two runs in the ninth inning of an 8-3 loss to the Yankees, in his final pitching appearance. His lifetime won-lost record was 27-13, with a very respectable ERA of 3.60. Stock was active as a pitching coach from 1970-81 and then again from 1984-86 with the Brewers, A's, and Mariners. He has the distinction of being the modern Brewers' first pitching coach (they moved to Milwaukee in 1970 after one season as the Seattle Pilots), as well as being a two-time World Series champion pitching coach with Oakland in 1973-74.

After every inning, the umps check the pitcher's glove and hand and anything they can think of, just to make sure he didn't have a chance of sneaking an illegal pitch in there. Then I watch Vesia lick his fingers, and lick his fingers again (not that he's the only one who does this), and then strike Rutschman out. Wonder how long it's been since any pitcher was called for throwing a spitball?

Very sportsmanlike of Soler to pull up instead of blasting Santander into right field.

Kremer looked pretty bad in the third inning, but he winds up as the first Oriole pitcher to reach double figures in wins this year.

Thank the ump for not calling that 3-1 pitch ball four.

That was strike five.

No. Catcher can throw to first as many times as he wants.

Rockies increased their lead over the Yankees to 4-2 on a home run by Grichuk. It was his fifth of the year. There was a year when he was playing with the Blue Jays and it seemed like he hit five home runs every series against the Orioles.