For those that weathered the Orioles’ 100-loss seasons, 2023 has actually seemed and felt completely different. The clubhouse hurrahs of current weeks, with champagne and beer spraying and cigar smoke within the air, have helped it odor and style completely different, too.
But maybe essentially the most notable change, outfielder Austin Hays mentioned, is the way it sounds.
“Just the postgame celebrations when you win — opposed to it being dead and quiet,” Hays mentioned. “There was no music being performed. There’s no postgame speeches. There’s no music on the planes, on the bus rides. There’s a lot extra that goes into it than simply the three hours on the sector.
“Man, there’s nothing better and there’s nothing more fun than winning in the big leagues.”
The staff Baltimore faces within the American League Division Series can relate. In 2021, because the Orioles misplaced 110 video games, the Texas Rangers fell 102 instances. They had been the 2 worst groups within the AL. Two years later, after one constructed and the opposite purchased, considered one of them will finish the ALDS 4 wins from representing the circuit within the World Series.
First, they need to undergo one another, starting with Game 1 on Saturday at Camden Yards. In the common season, the Orioles went 101-61 to win the AL East, with their 49-game enchancment comfortably the biggest in a two-year span over the previous century. The 90-62 Rangers missed out on the AL West title on a tiebreaker, however with them and the Arizona Diamondbacks becoming a member of Baltimore within the playoff area, 2023 marks the primary season a number of golf equipment reached the playoffs inside two years of dropping 100 video games.
The Orioles and Rangers returned to prominence with differing strategies. 2021 marked Baltimore’s third straight full season with at the least 108 defeats, however throughout that point, they amassed younger expertise, with the planted seeds starting to sprout in 2022′s 83-win marketing campaign. This yr, by FanGraphs’ model of wins above substitute, eight of the Orioles’ prime 12 gamers made their debuts in 2020 or later, with six of one of the best 10 arriving for the reason that begin of final season. That consists of every of the highest 4: catcher Adley Rutschman, infielder Gunnar Henderson, Game 1 beginning pitcher Kyle Bradish and injured nearer Félix Bautista.
Texas has additionally pulled from its farm system inside this yr’s success, however its greatest contributors are exterior — and costly — additions. After struggling by triple-digit losses in 2021, the Rangers revamped their center infield by signing Marcus Semien and Corey Seager to contracts totaling $500 million. As fixtures within the sport’s greatest offense exterior of the Atlanta Braves, Semien and Seager led the membership in WAR this yr and ranked second and third within the AL.
The pair are two of the 9 Rangers being paid at the least $10 million, all acquired previously two years. The solely energetic Oriole with an eight-figure wage is veteran starter Kyle Gibson, a member of the 2021 Rangers.
“They’re kind of in the opposite stance of us,” mentioned Orioles right-hander Tyler Wells, who made his debut in 2021. “They’ve bought guys which have been within the postseason, they usually’ve bought somewhat little bit of sprinkle of youth in there. For us, we have now a big pool of youth.
“I think a lot of people were going look at our youth this year and think of it as a negative and a weakness, and I think that we’ve 100% turned that into one of our biggest strengths.”
Manager Brandon Hyde and a number of other gamers have mentioned the younger Orioles received’t be fazed by the atmospheres they’ll face within the playoffs, with Hyde saying his staff has “played postseason-type of games these last few weeks” to carry its division lead. He famous how the Orioles dropped their first two video games in a key collection with the Tampa Bay Rays to fall right into a digital tie, solely to win the subsequent two matchups to safe a playoff spot, propelling them towards their first AL East title since 2014.
Unable to retain their benefit within the AL West, the Rangers as an alternative met the Rays within the wild-card spherical. They swept Tampa Bay behind two starters who, when Texas acquired them, had been outshined by aces. A day earlier than the Rangers traded for Jordan Montgomery, they made a splash by bringing in three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer. They signed former World Series champion Nathan Eolvadi in December, having inked two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom to a five-year, $185 million contract earlier within the month.
With Scherzer and deGrom injured, Montgomery and Eovaldi mixed to permit one run in 13 2/3 innings to remove the Rays. They determine to play vital roles in opposition to the Orioles, with the likelihood Scherzer returns from his shoulder muscle damage in some type after throwing a stay bullpen off the Camden Yards mound throughout Friday’s exercise.
The Orioles’ greatest additions have been extra supplementary than standout, however Gibson, second baseman Adam Frazier and catcher James McCann have crammed comparable clubhouse roles as predecessors Jordan Lyles, Rougned Odor and Robinson Chirinos, who helped construct an expectation of profitable in Baltimore.
That mindset, Rangers supervisor Bruce Bochy mentioned, is commonly the ultimate piece to show a staff right into a contender.
“To have a team that won a hundred games, it starts with talent, which they have,” Bochy mentioned. “But sometimes one of the last hurdles to get over is that winning feeling, attitude, when you’ve been losing for a few seasons. That’s kind of the last hurdle that you get over. And they’ve gotten over that, obviously, with what they’ve done.”
Semien mentioned he and Seager knew success was doable after they signed with Texas, just for the Rangers to lose 94 video games final yr earlier than delivering on their promise in 2023 after bringing in Bochy, a three-time World Series champion supervisor with the San Francisco Giants. A member of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021, Semien helped contribute to the Orioles’ struggles that yr, watching from the opposite facet as Hays and different younger gamers took their lumps below Hyde, a first-time supervisor.
But as that group endured the rebuild, they knew what was effervescent beneath them. At Baltimore’s alternate coaching web site in 2020, the members of the farm system, one which was baseball’s greatest then and stays so in the present day regardless of their graduations, envisioned a future like this.
“We talked about the what-if and what we could do,” Rutschman mentioned. “You by no means know till you get right here and also you see the clubhouse, and in spring coaching, we noticed all that. Guys had been excited to get going this yr. The approach we battled all year long is one thing particular, and I believe we’re very pleased with the way in which we dealt with the common season. The guys are prepared for the subsequent step.
“To see guys go through multiple years of development and experience together, to see them end up at this spot, achieving their dream and their goals is really cool.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com