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Catching Tampa Bay? Sure, why not?


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This is semi-delusional, I know, but I'm not quite ready to give up on the season. I was last night, but today, I looked at the remaining schedule for the teams realistically still in the playoff race, and I see a glimmer of hope.

It's just a glimmer though because we will definitely not catch the Red Sox (we're too far behind) and most probably not Oakland either (even with their meltdown today, they just took 3 out of 4 from Detroit and they have a very soft schedule the rest of the way).

Tampa Bay though... Why not? Yes, seriously, WHY NOT?

After their loss this afternoon, we're 4 1/2 games back of them. Win tonight (yeah, I realize, far from a given...) and that's 4. From September 20-23, we have a 4 game series against them (at Tropicana field). No, we will not sweep them, but take 3 out of 4 and we just have 2 games to make up. How about 1 this weekend when we go to NY to play the Stinkees and they go to Oakland? How about another one from September 5-8 when we host the White Sox for 4 while they play at the Angels and the Mariners? Or perhaps 1 or 2 in the next to last series of the season (we're hosting Toronto; they're at the Stinkees)...

This to say that our respective schedules for the last month of the season are fairly similar in terms of opponents strength, and if we can come out ahead in our 4-game series against them, who knows what could happen?

Okay, I'll admit--this might be way beyond semi-delusional, but for a couple more weeks (days? hours?), I want to believe in miracles again.

Go O's!!!

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Our biggest obstacle right now is that Cleveland and Oakland have substantially easier schedules than we do the rest of the way and we do not have any head-to-head games with either of them after the series next week. Heck, we could overtake Tampa Bay and STILL not make the playoffs. In fact, I think that it is relatively likely that the AL East gets no wild card this year. Are you kidding me????

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Job done tonight. 4 back of TB. Yes, this is still totally delusional, but if we gain another game on them this weekend, maybe people will start believing again...

Right, but we need to overtake 2 of TB, Oak, Cleve. Even if we overtake TB we could easily miss out because of the schedule softness of the other 2.

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It's possible but of course the odds are still against us. Who knows, maybe we finally go on a long winning streak. I'm not giving up on the season but I often wonder if we've given just too many games away this season to overcome. But as with everything, it starts 1 game at a time. Go O's.

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And maybe Tampa/Oakland go on a losing streak... maybe Jones/Weiters/Markakis/Mclouth all start connecting with the ball.... For the 1st time this season, I sat back and allowed myself to enjoy the Birds play... There are a lot of possibilities, My Orioles flag is still out on the flagpole, and my magnet still proudly displayed on the back of my car... anything can happen in the month of Sept. The question is, who do we root for in Oak/Tampa?

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Weaver used to say that it was reasonable to consider your team in the race if you needed to pick up one game in the standings per week. The O's are 3.5 behind the A's and 4 behind the Rays with four weeks left. It won't be easy, but it's not delusional.

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gGod article about playoff comebacks,Mostly about the Nats .

The late-season chase, even when it fails, is one of baseball’s pleasant bonuses. Fans in towns with successful baseball traditions know that, once you’ve endured the disappointment of falling behind, you get the free ride of sniffing a big comeback but shrugging if it doesn’t happen. Washington has had so few talented teams in 80 years that many fans don’t get what seems obvious to fans of “miracle-comeback” teams such as the 2011 Cardinals, who were 10? games out of the wild card Aug. 25 but won the World Series, or the 2012 A’s, who went 33-13 to erase a 13-game deficit and won the division.

There’ll be a year, or for young fans several, when the Nats make up, or almost overcome, huge late-season deficits. Each time the odds will be hard against it. But when it does happen, there’s nothing nuttier.

In ’12, the Pirates, on a 93-win pace, the Dodgers, leading the NL West, and the White Sox, leading the AL Central, had late-season collapses of 9-23, 9-17 and 12-21 to murder their seasons.

This year, the Red Sox, Rays, A’s and Reds are the teams in roughly similar spots. The Pirates are printing playoff tickets and discussing October rotation issues. But they’re just eight games ahead of Arizona in wild-card standings.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/in-baseball-playoff-chase-never-give-up-too-soon/2013/08/28/bc818860-100c-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html

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And maybe Tampa/Oakland go on a losing streak... maybe Jones/Weiters/Markakis/Mclouth all start connecting with the ball.... For the 1st time this season, I sat back and allowed myself to enjoy the Birds play... There are a lot of possibilities, My Orioles flag is still out on the flagpole, and my magnet still proudly displayed on the back of my car... anything can happen in the month of Sept. The question is, who do we root for in Oak/Tampa?

I am going to just wait and see who wins this first game of the Oakland and Tampa series and tehn root for them the rest of the way. Anyway you look at it we gain atleast 1 game in the standings if we win 2 out of 3 on one of the teams and get to 2 or 3 games out in the loss column. I think Tampa takes the first two and then Oakland takes the last but a sweep from Tampa would be nice.

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We're still in it until we are mathematically eliminated. While each loss is painful, there's still opportunity for us to play in October...

This.

It's funny that after every loss we act like THAT was the final nail in our coffin, but after every win we "realize" that we ain't that far out. Everybody ahead of us lost yesterday, so we're 4 back f Tampa, 3.5 back of Oakland, and we jumped AHEAD of Cleveland by half a game. (plus remember we go to Cleveland after NY). Every game is crucial. Every game matters. But it ain't over til its over, and 3.5 games in 4 weeks is certainly doable and not delusional at all.

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