BALTIMORE - The Detroit Tigers and the Baltimore Orioles, two teams with proud postseason legacies dating back decades, had never faced one another in a playoff game until Thursday.
They have 15 American League pennants between them (nine for Detroit and six for the Orioles) and seven World Series (four for the Tigers), but none of those had come at the expense of the other - a curious hole in the fabric of postseason baseball.
Then again, after witnessing the final two innings of the opening game of the teams' American League division series, it seems safe to say that the baseball world has not been missing much. Although the Tigers hit three home runs to the Orioles' two, Detroit failed to execute plays when it mattered most and Baltimore took advantage, scoring eight runs in the eighth inning to turn a competitive game into a 12-3 rout at Camden Yards.
Nelson Cruz swatted a two-run homer in the first inning to initiate the power surge and later hit a run-scoring single off Joba Chamberlain as the Orioles pulled away in the eighth, thanks in part to a fielding error by Andrew Romine, the Detroit shortstop.
Cruz's home run was his 15th in the postseason in only 35 postseason games, with 14 of them coming with the Texas Rangers. The Tigers responded quickly in the top of the second against Baltimore's starting pitcher, Chris Tillman, as Victor Martinez led off with a home run to right field, followed by another home run from J. D. Martinez.
J. J. Hardy, the Orioles' shortstop, powered a changeup from Max Scherzer, the Tigers' starter, over the wall in center field leading off the bottom of the seventh to give the Orioles an insurance run that seemed important at the time. Miguel Cabrera answered with bases-empty drive to right field off Darren O'Day with two outs in the eighth to draw Detroit back within a run, but things went badly for the Tigers in the eighth after Romine's error. The Orioles sent a dozen batters to the plate in the inning and wound up scoring eight runs.
Scherzer, who can become a free agent after the season, took the loss in what could be his final game with Detroit, depending on how the series goes.
Tillman, after surrendering the two home runs in the second inning, retired 11 in a row. But his pitch count grew worrisome as the game went along. He required 105 pitches to get through five innings, signaling the end of his night. Much of that workload was due to Ian Kinsler, the Tigers' leadoff batter, who saw 30 pitches in his first three at-bats against Tillman, including 14 in his third-inning plate appearance.
Kinsler proved more troublesome in the eighth, when he got an infield hit against O'Day leading off the inning. But with Kinsler running on a pitch, Torii Hunter lined out to Hardy, who threw to first base to complete the double play.
It was a big play because Cabrera homered in the next at-bat. Buck Showalter, the Orioles' manager, the replaced O'Day, the side-arming right-hander, with Zach Britton, who had 37 saves in his first season as a closer. Britton got the final four outs.
The Orioles' bullpen has been an asset all season. Andrew Miller, a trade-deadline acquisition from the Boston Red Sox, replaced Tillman and threw one and two-thirds scoreless innings before giving way to O'Day.
The score was 2-2 after the early home runs, but the Orioles broke the tie in the bottom of the second by playing station-to-station baseball. A walk, an infield single and a two-out flare to right by Nick Markakis put Baltimore back in front.
Game 2 is scheduled for noon on Friday, a quick turnaround for a playoff series. During his pre-game news conference Thursday afternoon, Showalter asked a moderator why the game was set do early, and he was told it had to do with the markets - there are four games scheduled Friday, two in the Eastern time zone and two in the West.
'What about our market?' Showalter asked.
He was concerned that the fans in Baltimore might be unable to get to a noon game and provide the kind of electric atmosphere that energized Camden Yards on Thursday. The fans, most of them wearing orange shirts, were also given small orange towels. When they waved them, the ballpark was saturated in an Oriole-themed monochrome.
Brooks Robinson, who played in four World Series for the Orioles and won two of them, visited the team's clubhouse recently and told the players how much this team means to Baltimore.
'He's been there for a World Series, for playoffs, and he said this is the most fans he's ever seen walking around the streets wearing their Baltimore Orioles jersey and proud of it,' Tillman said. 'That was his main message, and he threw in pieces and tidbits about how to handle the playoff atmosphere, and the World Series atmosphere, that he will be watching and he's excited for us.'
Post By http://ift.tt/1rRdo8I