A defining function of the 2023 Orioles was their American League-record streak with out being swept. When they decide it up in 2024, it is going to have an asterisk subsequent to it.
The Orioles on Tuesday evening had been swept out of the postseason, falling 7-1 to the Texas Rangers in Game 3 of the AL Division Series.
“It’s an ironic situation,” heart fielder Cedric Mullins stated. “We avoid sweeps the entire year, come in the postseason — I don’t think pressure was the deal. I think it was just execution in certain moments. Baseball does what it does.”
Baltimore entered Globe Life Field with the daunting process of needing to win three straight video games to advance. But the Rangers barely let that risk linger.
Texas’ highly effective and affected person offense did to Dean Kremer what it did to Grayson Rodriguez in Game 2, scoring 5 runs within the second inning to finish his first postseason begin early. Unlike Sunday, although, Baltimore’s bats couldn’t muster a comeback, plating only one run off Texas starter Nathan Eovaldi and his bullpen.
“It’s tough to win when a starter goes an inning-plus,” supervisor Brandon Hyde stated.
Game 1 at Camden Yards was a one-run loss the Orioles simply might’ve received, however the Rangers proved they had been the higher playoff workforce in Games 2 and three — each feeling like blowouts all through. Baltimore led for lower than 10 minutes throughout the 27 innings.
“That’s just a really good offense,” Hyde stated. “We knew we were going to have to kind of outscore them a little bit because we knew they were going to score runs. … We just scored a little bit the second game. First and third game, had a tough time.”
Texas will advance to the AL Championship Series for the primary time since 2011 towards both the Minnesota Twins or Houston Astros, whereas the Orioles will start their offseason and sit up for 2024.
“It’s not where we wanted to end up,” catcher Adley Rutschman stated. “I’m proud of our guys. I’m proud of everyone who was a part of this journey. We’ll be back.”
The sweep ends Baltimore’s unprecedented 2023 season. It claimed the AL East title for simply the third time up to now 40 years and recorded a 100-win season for the primary time since 1980. The Orioles received 49 extra video games this yr than in 2021 for the best two-year enchancment in MLB historical past. And collection after collection they prolonged their sweepless stretch that started in May 2022, shortly earlier than Rutschman made his large league debut, profitable not less than one recreation in 91 straight regular-season collection, together with all 52 in 2023 — the longest streak within the majors since World War II.
The solely groups with longer such streaks are the New York Giants from 1903 to 1905 and St. Louis Cardinals from 1942 to 1944. The Giants received the National League pennant in two of these seasons and claimed one World Series title. The Cardinals made the Fall Classic in all three years, profitable two.
The Orioles had been the seventeenth workforce to achieve the playoffs with out being swept in any collection in the course of the common season (not together with the pandemic-shortened 2020 marketing campaign), in keeping with the Elias Sports Bureau. Before the ALDS sweep, the one workforce in that group to be swept in a playoff collection was the 1998 San Diego Padres, who misplaced the World Series and had been managed by now-Rangers skipper Bruce Bochy.
“This is a really good team,” beginning pitcher Kyle Gibson stated. “Anything can happen in the playoffs, in three games, four games, whatever it is. So I don’t think there’s anything to the sweep or anything that you take any extra. No matter how you look, it’s a really good group of guys, and I think that that adds a little bit of sting to it too because we knew we have something special and you want to try to capitalize on that whenever you can.”
Tuesday’s loss is the franchise’s eighth straight within the postseason, together with the 2016 wild-card recreation towards the Toronto Blue Jays and the sweep by the hands of the Kansas City Royals within the 2014 ALCS. No workforce within the main leagues has an extended lively playoff dropping streak. Only 9 groups in MLB historical past have misplaced extra consecutive postseason video games than the Orioles have over the previous 10 seasons.
“It sucks,” left fielder Austin Hays stated. “We expected to win the last game of the year. … As an organization, as a team, not much was expected out of us this year, so we accomplished a lot this year, even though we ended up coming up short.”
Baltimore’s process in Game 3 was particularly difficult contemplating the pitcher they confronted. Eovaldi, who has pitched seven of his 12 seasons within the AL East, is without doubt one of the finest and most skilled postseason pitchers within the majors. He entered Tuesday’s recreation with a 2.90 ERA in 49 2/3 playoff innings. In 18 begins towards the Orioles, a lot of which got here towards undermanned groups amid a grueling rebuild, he had a 3.23 ERA.
The Orioles had been no match for him, because the 33-year-old right-hander masterfully pitched seven innings of one-run ball with seven strikeouts and no walks, leaving the mound to a standing ovation from the 40,861 followers who additionally demanded a curtain name. The solely run they managed off him was a single by Gunnar Henderson within the fifth to attain Jordan Westburg.
“Eovaldi had complete control, which he’s done before and against us again tonight,” Hyde stated.
Baltimore’s finest alternative for a comeback got here within the eighth inning when seven-time All-Star reliever Aroldis Chapman loaded the bases. But Aaron Hicks grounded out towards José Leclerc to finish the menace, because the Rangers’ shaky bullpen bent however didn’t break within the ALDS.
Kremer did the identical within the first earlier than Texas burst open the floodgates within the second. The 27-year-old was chosen to begin Game 3 over Gibson, a 35-year-old veteran who later entered in reduction and pitched three innings and allowed a solo homer to Nathaniel Lowe within the sixth, after posting a 4.12 ERA within the common season.
The Orioles went 24-8 in video games that Kremer began within the common season, together with wins in September video games that clinched a wild card and the AL East. A 3rd celebration wasn’t within the playing cards.
“This feeling sucks,” Kremer stated. “But on the bright side, this is our first taste of the postseason and, I mean, we’re all pretty much … coming back, so a lot of good years to look forward to.”
Corey Seager made positive Kremer’s postseason debut wouldn’t be scoreless within the Rangers’ second at-bat of the night, because the AL Most Valuable Player candidate clobbered a low-and-in changeup 110.1 mph and 445 toes to proper subject for a solo homer. The lengthy ball was the 14th of Seager’s postseason profession. The shortstop additionally walked 9 instances within the collection, probably the most by any participant in a three-game span in postseason historical past.
Kremer surrendered two extra hits within the first however escaped with simply the one run. The identical couldn’t be stated for his second inning. With two outs, the highest of the Rangers’ order confronted Kremer a second time and bounced him from the sport. Marcus Semien doubled to place runners on second and third for Seager, whom Hyde walked deliberately. Mitch Garver, who hit a grand slam in Game 2, then roped a two-run double down the left subject line, and cleanup hitter Adolis García crushed a three-run homer to left subject to offer Texas a 6-0 lead.
After Leclerc struck out Westburg to finish the sport, the Rangers celebrated close to the mound. Rather than instantly head again to the clubhouse, many Orioles gamers sat on the highest step of the dugout, watching the jubilation they as soon as hoped could be theirs. They imagine it is going to be sooner or later.
“Sort of soaking it in,” first baseman Ryan Mountcastle stated, “and hopefully that’s us next year.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Nathan Ruiz contributed to this text.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com