Unforlorn

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 7, 2013- It was hot.  It was New York.  The Baltimore Orioles had lost four out of five on the road trip.  The damn Yankees were looking for a sweep and the Orioles were trying to stop their downbound train before it got them to fourth place.  It had all the makings of another bloody replay.  The Orioles couldn't buy a hit and every little thing looked all wrong. Hiroki Koroda came in with an ERA well under three and against the Orioles he looks like Cy Young.  The Birds have seen that ghost quite a few times on this road trip and it is getting really eerie.  The only run in the game was scored by the Yankees, on a sacrifice fly, and now it was the ninth inning in Yankee Stadium and Mariano Rivera walked like the conquering hero out of the Yankee bullpen, across the green outfield grass and onto his throne, er, ah, pitching mound.  He's a certain Hall-of-Famer, you see, and even in this, his last season (having already announced his retirement effective at season's end), he has blown just one save.  He has 28 saves, one shy of Jim Johnson, but Johnson has seven blown saves.  Johnson leads the league in both categories.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Predictably, Rivera got the first out fairly easily.  At least he made it look that way.  Manny Machado, one day past both his twenty-first birthday and his player-voted All Star berth, grounded meekly to second base.  Up stepped Nick Markakis.  Nick is a big problem for Rivera because he is one of the few players in all of baseball who actually does well against Rivera.  He came into Sunday batting .316 against the Yankee Hero.  Early in the at bat, Markakis launched a tremendous blast to right field.  It hugged the line for a while, then veered off foul.  Oriole fans are hanging their heads.  Not only was it foul, but it reminded almost all of them of the shaft they received in the final playoff game - for them - last season.  They were tied with New York, two games apiece and the Bronx Bombers were protecting a narrow two-run lead against the Orioles in the sixth inning of the fifth and deciding game.  Nate McClouth launched a drive down the same right field line that nicked off the foul pole for what in any other reality was a key home run, bringing resilient Baltimore to within a run of the Yankees.  Except that the knuckleheads in blue called it foul and, even afforded an opportunity to look at the replay, didn't change the call.  So a home run was a foul ball.  Nick Markakis' shot on Sunday was a few more feet foul but it did seem like a deja vu multiplied by about one hundred.  Markakis, however, is an indefatigable lad and he stepped back in and promptly lashed a solid single to center.  Down one, one on, one out. Up stepped Adam Jones.  And by gosh Adam Jones was swinging true and did he ever get into one of Mariano Rivera's pitches; it was long and it was deep and my oh my was it was hit oh so hard.  It was a two-run home run.

But before you get into that 'game, set, match' talk, remember this is Yankee Stadium and the Yankees still get to bat.  Not only that, but the Orioles closer, Jim Johnson, is having all kinds of trouble of late.  On Friday night, the Orioles were a run up going into the bottom of the ninth and Johnson came in and got lit up.  It is absolutely dispiriting, having your closer give away a game the rest of the team had hung onto for the previous eight innings.  Some thought Johnson might be in the process of losing his job.  Like it was noted above, he leads the league in blown saves, and a team in a penant race cannot afford that.  It just cannot.  But all Orioles fans who could stomach it looked out to the bullpen after Jones' homer and there was Johnson, warming up.  Hang on.

One of the reasons baseball is so wonderful, so thought provoking, so redemptive, is that teams play 162 games before the playoffs.  Even when you blow an important game - and Friday night was a very important game between two bitter division rivals - there is a tomorrow most of the time.  This was Jim Johnson's tomorrow and he came to the Yankee Stadium mound like a man possessed.  The sinker was diving and the fast ball, his most under-rated pitch, was on fire.  Two of them were clocked at 95 and 96 mph.  Lyle Overbay, up first, struck out swinging.  Luis Cruz, up second, struck out swinging. Next came Eduardo Nunez.  Johnson threw him two curve balls.  Huh?  Yes he did.  They were both balls. A murmur of hope in New York?  Is Johnson thinking too much?  On the third offering Nunez hit a meek and timid ground ball to Chris Davis.  He fielded it cleanly and underhanded a sure throw to Johnson covering first.  Now: game, set, match.  On the radio Joe Angel was ebullient.  "This was the most important win of the season," the melodious and sure voice exclaimed.  Yes it was, it absolutely was. Jim Johnson now has 30 saves, which is the best in all of baseball.  Yet he will watch the All Star game at home with his family.