ARLINGTON, Texas — Buck Showalter and the Baltimore Orioles will get another chance to overtake the New York Yankees.
The surprising Orioles have already beaten some big odds, getting past the two time defending AL champion Texas Rangers and their Japanese ace, Yu Darvish, in the win-or-go-home wild-card playoff.
Joe Saunders pitched effectively into the sixth inning at a place where he had never won, Adam Jones delivered the tie breaking sacrifice fly and the Orioles, in the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, eliminated the Rangers 5-1 Friday night.
“With our team it’s just a bunch of guys that raised the bar and wouldn’t give in and still haven’t. Now they get a chance to win to roll the dice, and there’s a lot of good card players in there,” said Showalter, their manager.
The Orioles advanced to play the East champion Yankees, the AL’s top seed - the teams split 18 games this season. The best-of-five division series starts Sunday at Camden Yards.
The upstart Orioles spent the whole second half chasing New York, never passing them and falling just short in a neck-and-neck race for the division title. And they haven’t gone away yet.
“Real proud of everybody. Tacking on runs were big, knew they were going to run at you,” Showalter said. “But just a real proud moment for us.”
“Our guys approached it and we talked about it being sudden life instead of sudden death, and we played that way. You’ve got to seize the opportunity. We don’t get many.”
After twice coming within a strike of winning last year’s World Series, this season is over that quickly for the Rangers, who were in first place for a major league-high 178 days this season. Texas loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth before David Murphy flied out to end it.
“We just didn’t get it done,” Manager Ron Washington said.
The Rangers lost the AL West crown on the final day of the regular season, after being swept in three games at Oakland for a stretch of nine losses their last 13 games.
“I’m not stunned, I was right there watching it,” Washington said.
Their worst slump of the season came at the wrong time for Texas, which a week ago had a four-game division lead with six games to play. Because of that, they couldn’t avoid the majors’ new winner take-all postseason openers, and then couldn’t get past the Orioles with their top pitcher on the mound.
“To be honest with you I never thought anything like this would happen,” Washington said.
Wiped out by San Francisco in the 2010 World Series, the Rangers twice came within a strike of their first World Series championship last October against St. Louis.
When the Rangers committed more than $107 million last winter to acquire Darvish, they did so with the anticipation he’d be on the mound for many big games.
“Me and my teammates and the Rangers’ fans, I don’t think we all thought that it would end this early,” Darvish said through a translator. “I mean, right now, no. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do tomorrow.”
They never would have expected him being out dueled in a playoff game by Saunders, a late-season addition by the Orioles who had lost all six of his previous starts with a 9.38 ERA at Rangers Ballpark.
Saunders quickly gave up the Orioles’ 1-0 lead in the first, but that was the only run he allowed in 5 2/3 innings. The left-hander struck out four and walked one.
It only took four pitches for the Orioles to get that lead against Darvish, who struck out seven in 6 2/3 innings.
Nate McLouth grounded Darvish’s first pitch toward first baseman Michael Young. The longest-tenured Rangers player got charged with an error when he tried to backhand the ball, which ricocheted off the heel of his glove and away from him.
McLouth stole second base on the third pitch. J.J. Hardy then drove him in by grounding a hard single up the middle - the Orioles had only one more hit until the sixth.
The Orioles had consecutive singles to start the sixth before Jones’ sacrifice fly made it 2-1.
After backing up the plate when Jones hit the ball in the air, Darvish started stretching his shoulder and rolling his neck. Washington and pitching coach Mike Maddux went out to the mound to try to figure out what was wrong when their pitcher still looked uncomfortable.
Darvish’s translator, Joe Furukawa, was also on his way out before initially being waved back by umpires. The six umpires then conferred before allowing the translator to come out while Darvish kept stretching and then threw a couple of pitches. Darvish said he had a cramp in the muscle on the top of his shoulder.
Darvish finished the sixth with a strikeout, and started the seventh with another, before Ryan Flaherty’s single and a sacrifice bunt by Manny Machado. Derek Holland took over and gave up an RBI single by McLouth for a 3-1 lead.
Sports, Pages 19 on 10/06/2012