A Superb Four Game Series

BALTIMORE, Maryland, June 16, 2013- The Red Sox had gotten back into the series.  It was late Saturday afternoon and in Baltimore, the sun was setting.  The 40,000 or so sitting in the cool of the later afternoon at Camden Yards had seen the division leaders take a 5-2 lead on the younger Orioles.  And these late Oriole rallies had gotten old, right?  The Orioles had been very Oriole-like in the first two games, winning game one in 13 innings and game two by a 2-0 score.  So Boston, after falling behind in game three, 2-0, had now scored five straight runs.  Andrew Bailey was ready and this one was going according to plan.  I should tell you, here, that Matt Wieters whacked a two-run homer in the ninth, and that "safe" three-run lead was suddenly, very suddenly, in fact, unsafe.  Especially when J.J. Hardy followed Wieters' homer with a single.  Buck Showalter wasted no time in getting Alexi Cassila into the game to pinch run for Hardy.  How many teams pinch run for their shortstop?  So here comes Ryan Flaherty, the one weak spot in the whole Oriole line-up.  Usually.  Well, not so much lately.  Flaherty, now the go-ahead run, got into a Bailey pitch - crushed it, according to Casilla - pulling it deep into that coffin-corner at Camden.  For the unfamiliar, it's the one corner in big league baseball that isn't a real corner.  There is a huge tunnel there, and all of it is in play.  So if a ball bounces fair and then into that corner, well, pitchers get cold sweats just thinking about it.  From the pitchers mound you see your right fielder racing into the corner and then, then, then, well, he's gone.  He's chasing the ball in the tunnel and geez oh whiz the runner is tearing around the bases and the right fielder is still nowhere.  You see the centerfielder setting up as a relay man where the rightfielder usually plays, and this is really bad.

Anyway, that is where Flaherty's ball was heading and Casilla, at first, didn't hang around to find out what happened next.  He was, after all, the tieing run.  The bloody ball is still in the air and old Alexi is already around second base and digging for third. And then Shane Victorino catches the ball. In the air, he caught it.  In baseball, that is an out. That wasn't supposed to happen.  Ask Casilla.  He was about to round third base when Victorino caught the ball for the second out.  When Victorino realized Casilla's mistake, he almost leaped for joy.  The throw to first beat Casilla by about 90 feet. 

So, come Sunday, when Miguel Gonzalez pitches for the Orioles and Jon Lester for the Sox, two full games will be at stake.  If the Orioles win, they will leave for Detroit just one and one-half games behind Boston.  If the Beantowners win, the lead will be 3 and one-half.