The date was Friday, July 22, and the Astros were 30 games over .500 (62-32). They had a 9 game lead in the AL West and were clearly gearing up for another long post-season run.
But the focus and the buzz and the hype were not on the Astros, but on their opponents that night. At 51-42, the Seattle Mariners didn't seem all that much of a big story, but by God, those young guys had figured it out, racing to 22 wins in 25 games after a putrid 29-39 start. They had a 14 game win streak and a sellout crowd at Mocha Frappucino Stadium to welcome the Astros to town, fired up and ready to cut the gap in the AL West down to a smattering of games.
But what was the biggest series in 21 years for Seattle was just another day at the ball yard for the good guys. Jose Altuve hit a 2-0 pitch in the top of the first to put Seattle in a 1-0 hole on Friday night, and they never got out of it. Yordan homered, then Machete, The Astros snapped the old win streak with a 5-2 victory, won 3-1 on Saturday, and 8-5 on Sunday to push the lead to 13. All told the Astros won 6 of their remaining 7 games vs. Seattle in the regular season, and well, I don't have to tell you what happened in the playoffs.
The Orioles are not those Mariners at first glance. They've blown by the Rays after Tampa finally cooled off and even with back to back losses are still 2 games up in the East and 2-1/2 games up for the #1 seed in the AL. They have looked decidedly like the Astros transformation of a decade ago.
They were beyond horrific at 47-115 in 2018, 54-108 in 2019, 2020 didn't count, and 52-110 in 2021.
Last year, they figured it out, finally got all those young guys in place at once, and were in the wild card race until the end.
In 2022, their starting 8 position players ages were: 24, 25, 28, 27, 28, 26, 27, 27. Starting pitching was slightly above average, but the bullpen was really impressive.
Tampa Bay goes thermo-nuclear to start the year, and by April 12th (!) the Orioles are already 6 games out of first and they're treading water at 6-6. But they turn it around and end April 19-9, They lost 6 of 7 in early July to fall back to 6 games out of first, then win 8 straight to get within a game of the Rays. In mid-July, they take 3 of 4 games at Tampa to take over first place, and they've held the lead for 2 weeks.
And finally to my point. The Yankees and Red Sox are done and buried, they've put the Rays behind them at the moment, the Rangers are an unknown commodity, the AL Central is a late-night rerun on Comedy Central, and that leaves the defending WS champion, 2-time defending AL Champion, just-traded-for Justin Verlander Houston Astros coming to down; a perfect way for Baltimore to see what Baltimore is really about, and go up against AL playoff royalty in a potential post-season matchup.
And on Tuesday night, it looks like a perfect showcase. Their guy Framber is coming off a damn no-hitter and you rock him for 5 runs in the first 2 innings. And it's your 1-2 punch doing it- Rutschman and Mountcastle with long balls. It's 6-2 after 4 innings and now you're just kicking back, counting outs, and talking about what club to hit up after. There big guy thinks he's hit one out and Mateo pulls it back. Our night, baby!
Pena gets them within 3 after 8, but you've got Bautista ready to slam the door. Bautista with his league-leading 30 saves. Bautista who hasn't allowed an earned run since JUNE and has a freakishly low 0.85 ERA. Valdez for Cy Young? Really? Our guy Bautista on pace for 43 saves with a sub-1.00 ERA and is averaging SEVENTEEN strikeouts per nine innings. Those are Eckersley numbers. On par with the best of all time.
They sent up a guy who looks like he should be in your softball co-rec league to start the 9th. Jon Singleton? WTF is Jon Singleton? You've got to be kidding me. You have to look him up on BR.com and laugh out loud when you see he hasn't played in 2015.
You figure it's a 3 pitch strikeout, but somehow Bautista loses him to a walk. Then that rat ******* Altuve singles off of him and suddenly it's getting a little chilly at Camden. Bautista goes straight gas to fan Bregman on three pitches, and Alvarez lucks out when Mateo can't make a second circus catch.
But now the bases are loaded, but cmon, it's Bautista. Except that ball is carrying and carrying and carrying, and ... where the hell did all these Astro fans come from?
On Wednesday, it still smarts but you chalk it up to bad luck. Not even Bautista is perfect. He'll mow them down for sure tonight! Except that chance doesn't come. Because now it's Houston jumping out to the early lead, and then punching you in the mouth for 5 more in the last 2 innings. And just like that, you realize that these mother ****ers are a whole different animal, and for them this is just another series.
