[LUminary]

Ellsbury just saved the day (so far). Catch at wall robs A-Rod and sends game to the 12th.

[LUminary]

Arrrggh. More reasons for O's fans to hate both the Yankees and Red Sox. Yankees win in 12th.

[Cider Jim]

Back one game with only one game left in the season. Bosox, for the love of God, please avoid the sweep tonight!

[Chris Lang]

Scenarios are pretty simple at this point:

Orioles win and they at worst host the wild card. Orioles win and Yankees lose, one-game playoff Thursday at Camden.

Orioles lose, they're on the road in the wild card, no matter what happens with Oakland and Texas.

Tillman against Hellickson tonight in the Baltimore-Tampa game.

Dice-K against Kuroda in the Bronx. At least Soriano is most likely unavailable out of the pen for New York. He threw 40-plus pitches last night.

[R i]

This is Awesome. Go dice K.

[Cider Jim]

O's are down 3-0 in the 4th on 3 solo dingers.

[LUminary]

Not looking good at all.
But at least we are in the playoffs. Thankful for that. It's been a long wait.

[adam42381]

Sorry my Red Sox couldn't help you guys out. Silver lining on this awful Sox season: Bobby V should be fired before the weekend.

[Cider Jim]

An O's win wouldn't have helped them out anyway, since the Yanks swept the Bosox.

[NG33]

Sorry my Red Sox couldn't help you guys out. Silver lining on this awful Sox season: Bobby V should be fired before the weekend.

Worst season in 46 years has finally come to a close.. Nowhere to go but up

I hope...

[NotAJerry]

Sorry my Red Sox couldn't help you guys out. Silver lining on this awful Sox season: Bobby V should be fired before the weekend.

He barely made it past noon today. It will be interesting to see what Cherington does now after offloading so much payroll (according to Cot's, the Sox have $45m in payroll next year for 5 players + 12 arbitration eligible players).

[adam42381]

I'm hearing some interesting things about managerial candidates. I hope they give Cherington the power of making his own decisions this time around. Larry Lucchino shouldn't have a say in the hiring, IMO.

[LUminary]

O's 5, Rangers 1.
Bring on the Yankees!

[Cider Jim]

Gutsy performance by Joe Saunders who I didn't give a snowball's chance in...Texas to win this game. And this is Buck's team now, since we were able to win without a 3-run dinger.

[Chris Lang]

Joe Saunders ... West Springfield High School grad, Virginia Tech grad, lifelong Orioles fan. That had to have been the thrill of a lifetime for him.

Sunday may be the most insane sports day in D.C.-Baltimore in a long, long time. Redskins-Falcons/Ravens-Chiefs at 1; Nats in the playoffs at 3; O's in the playoffs at 6.

[NotAJerry]

I just don't get why managers continue to insist on bringing in closers in non save situations. Something short circuits in their brains in those spots and it rarely ends well.

[LUminary]

Yeah, not Big Jim's best night. And Russell Martin. Crud. I bet he has only 50 hits all season but all of them have been huge. No. 51 got the ball rolling. Bummer. Hammel was a gamble but he did alright. Round 2 tomorrow night.

[Cider Jim]

It's all water under the bridge now, but am I the only one on the planet that was yelling at Adam Jones to BUNT Hardy over to third base in the bottom of the 8th???

[NotAJerry]

It's all water under the bridge now, but am I the only one on the planet that was yelling at Adam Jones to BUNT Hardy over to third base in the bottom of the 8th???

It's one of the very few situations where the bunt is a good tactical move and there's no way the Yankees would have been looking for it.

[adam42381]

Apparently JJ Hardy doesn't like watching his third base coach.

[jbock13]

It's all water under the bridge now, but am I the only one on the planet that was yelling at Adam Jones to BUNT Hardy over to third base in the bottom of the 8th???

Somebody should have called Coach Toman.

I agree with NAJ about closers in non-save situations. Look at Jose Valverde's splits last year, I think he had an ERA of 6.88 in non-save situations, compared to a 0.51 ERA in save situations.

[LUminary]

Apparently JJ Hardy doesn't like watching his third base coach.

Survived that, and Ichiro's dance around home... on to New York for a best of three.

[Cider Jim]

Johnson was LIGHTS OUT. That last K was a thing of beauty!

[LUminary]

It was indeed great to see Big Jim finish like that and redeem himself from Sunday's bad outing. He has had a great season.

[NotAJerry]

That's just further proof that you don't use closers in non save situations. I don't know what happens to their brains/arms when it's not a save opportunity, but the majority of them struggle terribly.