In baseball, when your team loses to another in the playoffs, you look forward to the first rematch of the following season. It’s your chance for a little payback. As luck would have it, this weekend is Payback Weekend, unofficially of course.
You see, the American League Division Series, the Yankees and Orioles are facing off in New York, while in Oakland, the Tigers and Athletics are duking it out this weekend. As an A’s fan, this series, while early, is very important. These guys sent us home, ended our season, and crushed out dreams just 6 months ago. Watching the A’s comeback to win with a walk-off home run by Josh Donaldson in the 12th inning on Friday night was great, and reminded me of Games 4 when we came back to win, forcing a Game 5. Before the game, it was announced the Yoenis Cespedes had been placed on the Disabled List after injuring his hand/wrist while trying to steal the night before and that Coco Crisp was also injured, but listed day-to-day. Those were two big blows to the team both offensive and defensively, but luckily, the A’s are the masters of roster depth Yesterday’s game, gave me flashbacks of Game 5, and that’s not good. Like that last game of 2012, Verlander was on the mound yesterday, and like that game, he had a very generous strike zone. Ah the strike zone. The home plate umpire had the weirdest strike zone I have ever seen. Pitches thrown back to back in the exact same location were not the same call. Both Bob Melvin and Jim Leyland were chirping from their dugouts, with Melvin finally getting tossed in the 8th inning after a very questionable strike three call on Brandon Moss to start the inning. Brett Anderson, who started the game, had issues with either his footing, or leg, it was hard to tell, but he was wobbly the pitches leading up to a massive home run by Torii Hunter in the 3rd inning and never really seemed comfortable out there. The A’s did manage to get the tying run to the plate in the 8th inning, but were unable to score, as they left ten on the bases for the game. In the end, the struggles by A’s pitchers was the common theme yesterday and today. Today, Jarrod Parker, who started Game 1 and Game 5, struggled out of the gates, giving up two runs in the first, the second, and four in the fourth. Parker lasted only 3 1/3 innings, giving up 8 earned runs, striking out only two, forcing the question of what’s wrong with Parker. In Parker’s three starts this season, he’s 0-2, and was lucky to get a no decision in Anaheim on Tuesday. That said, Anibal Sanchez was dealing today, looking like his fellow starts Scherzer and Verlander, striking out 8 in 7 innings pitched. The Tigers starting pitchers (Scherzer, Verlander, Sanchez) had a combined 25 strikeouts. Holy crap. The good news for the A’s is that the Houston Astros are coming into town this week, so there’s a chance for them to get back on track, even though the Astros have been playing pretty good ball the last week.
In New York, the Orioles sadly met the same repeated fate as the A’s did this weekend, losing 2 out of 3 against their division rivals. Friday night, C.C. Sabathia was very C.C. pitching 8 innings allowing 1 run while striking out 9. Miguel Gonzalez of the Orioles, went just 6 innings, giving up 3 runs, 2 earned while walking five and striking out four. Something interesting though, while the O’s only scored 2 runs, they had 9 hits compared to the Yankees having 5 runs on 6 hits. The difference maker was when Adam Jones dropped a fly ball in the 7th inning with the bases loaded, leading to three runs, all unearned. The Orioles ties the series yesterday after Phil Hughes struggled, lasting only 3 innings after giving up 5 runs. Of those five runs, three were from solo home runs. For those who say solo shots aren’t going to kill you, if you give up enough of them, they will. The good news is that the Yankees bullpen threw six solid innings, including David Phelps who threw four innings in relief, while not allowing a run for the remainder of the game. Home runs seemed to be in plenty last night though. Along with the three hit by the Orioles, the Yankees had two, solos as well, in the game. What are the chances of there being five solo home runs in one game? Crazy. Tonight, the Orioles went for their second win in a row, and a series win, but despite solid pitching by Wei-Yin Chen, the Orioles lost. Chen is win-less in his last 10 starts, dating back to last season, but pitched well. He allowed just three runs in 6 innings, with all three runs coming in the 5th inning, two of which were on the home run hit by Jayson Nix off the foul pole. Meanwhile, Yankees pitcher, Hiroki Kuroda, threw a complete game shutout allowing five hits, no walks and five strike outs. These two teams will face off many more times throughout the season, and I expect each series will be high pressure, much like last season.
While both the A’s and Orioles had chances to get a little revenge for their playoff eliminations last season, both failed to do so, at least this time. Hope you all had a great weekend and you were able to see 42. If not, go! It’s amazing.
Out of Left Field 