Amid a relentless stream of noise from the sold-out crowd at Globe Life Field on Tuesday, chants of “overrated” briefly leaked out. Regardless of whether or not the jeers had been directed at rookie Gunnar Henderson, who stood within the batter’s field on the time, or the Orioles at giant, who spent 2023 largely as the other, they had been misguided.
The Texas Rangers’ American League Division Series sweep didn’t show the Orioles had been overrated. It merely confirmed them to be overmatched.
“They outplayed us,” backup catcher James McCann mentioned. “It’s just that simple. I don’t think you can really point to experience in this case. They just outplayed us, and you’ve got to tip your cap to them.”
Across the three video games in opposition to Texas, Baltimore led for about 10 minutes, spending a lot of the remainder of the collection dealing with insurmountable deficits. All 16 of supervisor Brandon Hyde’s pitching modifications got here with the Orioles dropping. They had been the AL East champions, received 101 video games and had not been swept in 91 straight collection, all to have their season collapse in three video games.
“We were trying to play catch-up,” heart fielder Cedric Mullins.
Those regular-season successes didn’t come expectedly. Most sportsbooks and public projection programs forecast regression after Baltimore, likewise out of nowhere, received 83 video games a 12 months in the past. Before the Orioles clinched the division, Hyde mentioned he and his gamers took observe of that notion. They embraced their standing as an underdog.
They positive regarded like one within the ALDS. The Rangers tumbled into the playoffs, unable to carry their lead within the AL West. They completed with 11 fewer wins than Baltimore however the next run differential. This collection pitted the AL’s high file in opposition to its high offense and the circuit’s second-lowest payroll in opposition to its second-highest. The Rangers, the latter in each instances, got here out comfortably on high.
When the “overrated” chant broke out in Tuesday’s third inning, the Orioles had been down 6-0, the highest seed within the AL seven innings from eventual elimination. They entered the divisional spherical because the least seemingly of the eight groups standing to win the World Series at 5.7%, in line with FanGraphs. It turned out to be an acceptable estimation.
If followers’ ire as a substitute was towards Henderson, that, too, was defective. When Texas third baseman Josh Jung suffered a damaged thumb in August, he was in competition to be AL Rookie of the Year. Henderson’s late surge in Jung’s absence all however ensured he’ll turn into Baltimore’s first honoree since 1989.
Henderson ended that third-inning at-bat with a single and adopted with two others, supplying half of the Orioles’ hits because the 22-year-old wrapped up his first postseason by going 6-for-12 within the collection.
Jorge Mateo, who went 4-for-4 in Game 2 and got here off the bench within the opener and finale, was Baltimore’s solely different batter with greater than three hits within the sweep. Many of Baltimore’s main contributors within the common season supplied little in October, with Mullins, Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle every ending the collection with extra strikeouts than hits.
Despite comparable hit totals between the groups, Baltimore pitchers did themselves no favors by issuing 18 walks, twice as many as Texas’ did. Eleven of these free passes got here within the collection’ second recreation, making the Orioles the tenth workforce to permit that many in a playoff recreation. Nine of them went to celebrity shortstop Corey Seager, setting a division collection file.
Seager represents half of Texas’ $500 million center infield. He and Marcus Semien signed there as free brokers two years in the past to propel the Rangers to the place they’re in now. The pair accounts for 2 of eight gamers Texas paid a minimum of $10 million in 2023; the Orioles had one such participant in veteran pitcher Kyle Gibson, who entered in aid with Tuesday’s recreation already out of hand.
The Orioles put their belief in three younger starters and weren’t rewarded for that perception. Kyle Bradish struck out 9 as Baltimore’s Game 1 starter however didn’t full the fifth, permitting two runs and eight base runners. Neither Grayson Rodriguez, the Game 2 starter, nor Dean Kremer made it out of the second inning, combining to give up 11 runs.
“It’s tough to win when a starter goes an inning-plus,” Hyde mentioned.
The circumstances pressured Hyde to go to his bullpen usually, working with the identical platoon-based choices that led to a lot of Baltimore’s 101 wins. Texas supervisor Bruce Bochy, a three-time World Series champion with the San Francisco Giants, used a distinct system, although the Rangers’ giant leads afforded him the possibility to not search marginal benefits.
Hyde famous that the Orioles’ pitchers made too many two-strike errors whereas he didn’t imagine their hitters “rolled in with a ton of momentum.” Both facets confirmed throughout the three defeats.
They didn’t hit nicely in Game 1. They didn’t pitch nicely in Game 2. They did neither in Game 3.
“They battled and they fought,” Hyde mentioned. “We just came out short.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer contributed to this text.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com