The Wildcard Race

[NCRaven]

Funny thing is, with last night's win and losses by lots of teams that the Orioles are competing with for the wildcard, we now only have three teams ahead of us, not six like yesterday.  KC has the second wildcard and we're playing them now.  Seattle and Tampa Bay are both two games ahead of us with TB only 3-7 over their last 10 games, so we've been gaining ground on them.  We're in a virtual tie with Minnesota, but they are also 3-7 over their last 10.  We actually have a path to a wildcard slot.

But then there's Jiminez, Miley and Tillman...

[DirtyBird]

Buckle Up, because We Won't Stop.

[BohKnowsBmore]

1 minute ago, DirtyBird said:

Buckle Up, because We Won't Stop.

JEEP WINNING!

[glenn__davis]

If we win the next 2 games, we're only 2.5 games back....

[TommyPickles]

I was hoping for more of a rebuild, but we are where we are. Bring on this wildcard race! I actually feel like the O's have played some of their best baseball in months since the Cubs series (9-5 in that stretch).

A few standouts:

Kevin Gausman- Over his last 3 starts- 3-0, 20.2 IP, 24 Ks, 0.44 ERA!

 

Ubaldo Jimenez- Over his last 2 starts- 0-1, 13 IP, 15 Ks, 2.08 ERA

 

Jonathan Schoop- Last 14 days- .388 AVG, 6 HR, 20 RBIs, 1.222 OPS. AL Player of the Week nod.

[interloper]

Schoop is out his mind right now.

[O's84]

Sweep KC and you're back in the race, though it still won't be easy. 

[SteveA]

5 minutes ago, interloper said:

Schoop is out his mind right now.

He'd be a lock for AL Player of the Month for July if it weren't for the damned midget in Houston.

[Lucky_13]

7 minutes ago, interloper said:

Schoop is out his mind right now.

And Machado is heating up too. That's a solid 2-3 punch. If only we had an actual lead off hitter. 

[Tx Oriole]

5 minutes ago, Lucky_13 said:

And Machado is heating up too. That's a solid 2-3 punch. If only we had an actual lead off hitter. 

Out of our lineup who would you use as a leadof hitter?

[OFFNY]

o

 

Because of the fact that the Orioles are still under .500 this late in the season, I only get excited about individual wins (such as last night.)

If and when the Orioles get to 3 or 4 games over .500, I might start peeking at the AL East standings and/or the the AL Wildcard standings.

 

And for the sake of simplicity, the Orioles happen to be 6 and-a-half games behind the Yankees for 1st place in the AL East (the division chase being mathematically less complex than the Wildcard chase.)

 

o

[Aristotelian]

2 minutes ago, Tx Oriole said:

Out of our lineup who would you use as a leadof hitter?

Kim. Doh.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Aristotelian said:

Kim. Doh.

Odd how he goes to another team and has three walks his first game.

[SteveA]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Odd how he goes to another team and has three walks his first game.

And odd how Miley and Jiminez both have good starts the first two days after we pick up someone who might supplant one of them from the rotation!

[El Gordo]

9 minutes ago, Tx Oriole said:

Out of our lineup who would you use as a leadof hitter?

Seth Smith but that would mean batting Jones sixth.