It was a moment many missed. Brian Matusz had come out of the bullpen and pitched the Orioles out of a serious late-inning Yankee threat. Darren O'Day had done the same thing a moment earlier. Now, in the dugout, O'Day stood with starter Wei-Yin Chen as Matusz headed for the dugout. Casually, O'Day reached behind him and nudged Chen forward to where he would be the first to greet Matusz. It was just a bit different in Korea, where Chen pitched until this season. He didn't know that here the starters thank the bullpen for holding leads that turn into a win for the starter. And Chen had never earned a win of this magnitude. Tonight, he outpitched certain hall-of-famer Andy Petite as the Orioles evened the American League Divisional series at a game a piece with a 3-2 victory.
Now the teams head for the Bronx and the "new" Yankee Stadium. After the game, Joe Girardi tried to sound confident about the days ahead. Afterall, he was leading his team home for what now amounts to a best of three series. But Girardi knows that the Orioles and his team split 18 games over the regular season, and now have split two in the postseason. He also knows that in New York the Yankees lost all three series to the Orioles and trail the season series there, 6-3. Miguel Gonzalez will take the mound for the Orioles in Game 3. He is 9-2 with an ERA of under two and a half runs per game. Even though all of the remaining games are in New York, if Gonzalez can win in the Bronx on Wednesday night, it will be the Yankees who will have their backs to the wall.
No comments:
Post a Comment