10/4/2016 Baltimore Orioles 2, Toronto Blue Jays 5

Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario

AL Wild Card Game

Et tu, Ubaldo?

My scoresheets, using my pitch-counting method! Read about it HERE, download the scoresheets for free HERE!

If you enjoy my work, I encourage you to spread the word via Twitter 

(I am @yoshiki89), and also please leave a comment!

8/15/2015 Norfolk Tides 1, Louisville Bats 0

Louisville Slugger Field, Louisville, KY

Game 2 of 3

It's Todd Frazier Bobblehead night in Louisville...however, I'm not actually getting a bobblehead. My daughter Chihiro is with me at the game, and she's getting one...my other daughter Kei couldn't make it, so she's getting mine.

The lines were pretty damn long, everybody here loves Todd Frazier. They love bobbleheads, too.

Chihiro and I actually ended up standing in two different lines today...the folks at Louisville Slugger Field have made a lot of changes since the 2013 Opening Day debacle. These changes are excellent; among other things, better line management for giveaway days that include designated lines for ticket holders and regular ticket checks. We had Club Level tickets, and were standing in what is usually the Club Level only line...we found out soon enough that we were in the Season Ticket Holder line. Sure, we are season ticket holders, but didn't have actual season tickets, so we high-tailed it to another line in timely fashion...if you squint, you'll see us in the photo above.

My kids love Todd Frazier...even when they are old and likely not to care about baseball so much, they will always remember growing up and watching him play here with their dear ol' dad. 

They certainly will never forget actually meeting Todd...it seems like this was yesterday, but it wasn't.

My scoresheets, using my pitch-counting method! Read about it HERE, download the scoresheets for free HERE!

LOU Starter RHP Donovan Hand faces Cuban OF Dariel Alvarez (Orioles prospect IF Christian Walker is at 1B)

NOR LHP Chris Jones versus Kristopher Negron. Jones went 8 innings plus one batter, allowing 2 hits, 4 strikeouts.

Jones pitches to 1B Kyle Waldrop

Hand versus Walker in the 3rd inning. Walker will get a single here, but the game will be scoreless until Walker's next meeting with Hand, a solo HR that gets Norfolk on the board...it will be the only run of the game.

RHP Miguel Celestino, in relief, and NOR C Audry Perez

Celestino faces former Louisville Bat Paul Janish, playing SS today for the Norfolk Tides

Reliever RHP Jose de la Torre and NOR OF Julio Borbon

With the tying run, LOU C Chris Berset, on base (after being hit by Chris Jones), RHP Pedro Beato is called to the mound to close the game for Norfolk...one quick out, and one not-so-quick out follow, Kyle Waldrop represents the winning run for the Bats...

...here, he's about to strike out swinging to end the game and complete the shutout

My pick in the Mystery Rookie Card game? Ha ha, it's the legendary Wily Mo Pena...a guy who some here in the states may have forgotten, but still brings warmth into the hearts of millions of baseball fans in Japan...

  

Official Program (featuring Robert Stephenson) and Scorecard

Ticket

Bat Chat and Gameday Stats

If you enjoy my work, I encourage you to spread the word via Twitter 

(I am @yoshiki89), and also please leave a comment!

10/10/2014 Kansas City Royals 8, Baltimore Orioles 6

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD
ALCS Game 1

A 10th Inning donnybrook ensues; The Royals disrupt a tie game with two Home Runs in the top, Baltimore answers with one run. The math!

KC leads the series 1-0

My scoresheets, using my pitch-counting method! Read about it HERE, download the scoresheets for free HERE!

6/16/11 Baltimore Orioles 4, Toronto Blue Jays 3

Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Game 3 of 3

Orioles baseball magician Jeremy Guthrie takes the mound against the Blue Jays in an effort to shut down the Orioles’ 16 consecutive losses at Rogers Centre, a streak that dates all the way back to 1999, when Guthrie was 20 years old. I guess I’ve been living under a rock, as when I considered this, I realized that Guthrie is a lot older than I had previously thought he was.



Chalk it up to my apparent AL East tunnel vision, but 2011 was really the first season I encountered Jeremy Guthrie and his work on a personal level. This happened in April, a typically whacky month for lopsided baseball…the 2011 season was no less whacky in this respect than it ever was (The Royals in first place!!). I’ve always admired the Orioles, and I’ve done my best to keep track of how they are doing, but in the first few weeks of April of 2011, the Orioles were shockingly good and teams that ended up better than the Orioles were shockingly bad during that time frame.

This was the time when I first really started noticing Jeremy Guthrie, and when I decided he’s really great at pitching. This game (one of the few I could watch after the free MLB Extra Innings preview ends in early April) really featured some of the best 5 innings of work one could ever hope to see from a starter who is really great at pitching. Guthrie delivers the goods, striking out 5, walking 1, and only allowing a single hit (ha! Corey Patterson!!) until being lifted from the game with a scoreless tie.

I believe he was on his way to hurling a veritable gem, but as in the case of Sir Cherokee in the 2003 Kentucky Derby, we’ll never know where this game could have gone for Guthrie.

This was Zach Stewart’s MLB Debut, having been called up from the AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats…he was also very good (7IP, 7H, 2ER, BB, 4K) and looked like a million bucks, despite being called for a Balk (hey, right handers get this also…welcome to the Big Leagues!) and hitting Mark Reynolds. His 2 runs allowed/earned occurred in the 6th; the Blue Jays responded with 2 runs (1 earned) against Jim Johnson, in relief of Guthrie.

Sometimes great baseball games are decided in the 9th inning…this was no exception. Tied at 2, the Orioles sneak out 2 runs against Closer Jon Rauch (who was replaced twice by the end of the inning). The first was on a Fielder’s Choice RBI by Baltimore’s mystery flavor of the month, Derrek Lee; the second was on a shocking RBI single by Ryan Adams, his first career RBI in Major League Baseball.

Until that point, Adams had the distinction of hitting into double plays in each of his 3 plate appearances; two GIDP and one FIDP.

The Blue Jays came back with a lead-off HR by Adam Lind to start the home 9th, but the next 3 batters flew out, flew out, and grounded out, and that was it. The 12-year Orioles loss streak at Rogers Centre ends.

The roof was open, Jose Bautista did not hit a Home Run today.

UPDATES:
Jeremy Guthrie would finish the season 9-17 with a 4.33 ERA and 1.341 WHIP for the Orioles. On February 6, 2012, he was traded to the Colorado Rockies for Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom. I will still admiringly track his progress. You can follow him on twitter: @JGuthrie46

Zach Stewart would make 3 more starts for Toronto, with only one decision (a loss against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field in an outing that was not very fantastic) and had compiled an ERA of 4.86 and WHIP of 1.860 before ending up as part of the bombastic 3-team trade that sent he and Frasor to the Chicago White Sox for Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen (Jackson was famously sent to the Cardinals for playoff-value sucking Colby Rasmus). His WHIP in 10 games with the White Sox would improve to 1.520, but his ERA ballooned to 6.22. On September 5th, 2011, he pitched a 9 inning shut-out of the Minnesota Twins but would lose his next 3 outings to end the season with a 2-5 record for the White Sox.

Ryan Adams stayed in Toronto for the remainder of the season, ending 2011 with a .281/.333/.326 and .659 OPS. He would hit into a groundball double play only 4 more times during the season.




If you enjoy my work, I encourage you to spread the word via Twitter
(I am @yoshiki89), and also please leave a comment!

10/8/83 Baltimore Orioles 3, Chicago White Sox 0

1983 ALCS Game 4
Comiskey Park, Chicago, IL

Ah, the 83 White Sox…on the threshold of their first potential AL pennant since 1919 and first subsequent World Series appearance since 1917, the beloved south-siders in their enormously beautiful multi-colored team gear (led by Tony LaRussa) were the hottest thing since boiling cannelloni. Even entering the series behind the Orioles (2-1), there was more than a chance of the unbelievable happening…and more than a chance for things to, literally, ‘go south.’

Two skilled starting pitchers pitched several effective innings that ended in a nail-biting 10th inning decision fired off by a lesser-known utility player.

BAL 3 9 0
CWS 0 10 0

Britt Burns (CWS) pitched 9.1 remarkable innings; Storm Davis (BAL) lasted 6. As Davis gave up a lead-off single to Greg Walker in the 7th, we was yanked in favor of Tippy Martinez, who nearly gave up the game but was rescued by a classic base-running blunder by the White Sox. With Vance Law at 2nd and Jerry Dybzinski at 1st, Julio Cruz singles sharply to left-center field. Law doesn’t pick up the call and holds up at 3rd – Dybzinski ‘runs into an out’ and in a 7-5-4-2 relay, makes it back to 2nd while Law is tagged out at home – a wasted opportunity. Not to be topped by atypical game blunders, Martinez attempts to pick-off Cruz during Rudy Law’s AB but there’s nobody covering at 1st! The official call is an ‘automatic balk,’ the runners get a base but two pitches later, Rudy flies out to LF Gary Roenicke and this corny inning is over…and the game is still scoreless.

Burns is nearly wiped out into extra innings, and shows it with a solo HR by Tito Landrum, acquired from St. Louis by the Orioles that very same year, and sporting a single HR during the regular season (and 26 games played for the Os). 2 more runs and 3 CWS pitchers later, the Orioles leave their 10th with a 3-0 lead and Martinez effectively holds of the White Sox to get the pennant and a trip to the World Series. The Orioles ended up winning it, and Landrum ended up returning to the Cardinals the following year.

I scored this came on 12/24/09.