Lee Lowenfish

Playoff-starved Baltimore Oriole fans know there will be post-season games in October for the first time in 9 seasons. Pennant fever is so high in Charm City that I've heard that the city is already getting decorated in Oriole orange and black. 

 

But the race for the AL East division title against Tampa Bay with the coveted first round bye at stake was still undecided as the last week of the regular season began. Yesterday (Sunday Sept 24) the Orioles salvaged a split in a 4-game series with the Guardians with a relatively easy 5-1 victory behind 7 strong innings by veteran starter Kyle Gibson. 

 

Gibson managed to contain former Met second baseman Andres Gimenez at the plate although the brilliant Venezuelan was a marvel in the field the

whole series.  He constantly robbed our hitters in the same spectacular way as our infield - and outfield - defenders have displayed all year.   

 

Even more encouraging for Oriole hopes was southpaw John Means who hurled one-hit 7 & a 1/3 innings on Sat night.  Out because of Tommy John surgery for almost two whole seasons, Means had a no-hitter until the 7th when that man again Gimenez homered for Cleveland's only hit. 

 

The weekend proved yet again the wisdom of the old baseball adage, "The best bullpen is a starter that goes 7 innings." Since Baltimore's breakout

closer Felix "The Mountain" Bautista went down in early August with a partial tear of his UCL (ulnar collateral ligament), the Bird bullpen has become

unsteady.   

 

By the end of the 17 games in 17 days road trip that mercifully ended on Sunday, you could sense the fatigue on the bullpen arms, not to mention the agita of those of us in front of our TV sets.  I don't even want to think about what it might have felt like if a playoff position hadn't already been secured. 

 

As it turned out, a righty-lefty combo of Yennier Cano and Cionel Perez secured the 4-1 Sat victory for Means and two lefties Danny Coulombe and DL Hall locked down the Sunday 5-1 win for Gibson.  Felix The Mountain has been throwing bullpen sessions but I would consider it very doubtful that he can return this season.  He is traveling with the team and though on the IL, you know the presence of the 6' 7 280 pounder who was signed by the Marlins at 16 and is only 28 means a lot to his teammates. 

 

AL and NL wild cards are still be determined this week and it is still wide open with only Tampa Bay definitely in although they will miss two recently injured stars, first baseman Yandy Diaz and second baseman Brandon Lowe.  The schedule has the Red Sox in the spoiler role, playing two at home with Tampa Tu and W and then four on the road in Baltimore. 

 

The Orioles play two at home with Washington before greeting the divisional rival Bosox for the last four at home.  The earliest Baltimore can clinch is Wed with a magic number of 3 (any combination of Balt. wins and TB losses).  

 

Oriole manager Brandon Hyde has been critical of the schedule that put Birds on the road for those 17 games in 17 days.  He hopes for a correction in

the future but how about the Diamondbacks having to make TWO trips to New York in the last weeks of the season. 

 

They didn't too well in the Big City and now find themselves in tie with Cubs for last wild cards with the dangerous Phillies already assured of a place in the tournament. The Reds and Marlins still have chances too, the Giants much less so. 

 

Toronto could be the sleeper team in the AL.  They have been winning series in September and just took a big one at Tampa.  They end season at home against Tampa Bay but first must play the Yankees who are likely to pitch Gerrit Cole on Wed or Thurs.  Stay tuned for some great drama in the AL East.

As well as the AL West where Houston, shockingly swept at home by 102-loss Royals, and Seattle are basically in a Survivor series before Texas

visits Seattle and Houston goes to Arizona to end season. 

 

Let me close with a couple of TCM sporting tips. 

Th Sep 28 8p "A Night At The Opera" (1935) the Marx Brothers classic with a memorable rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

 

Su Oct 1 1215A repeated at 10P - "Whiplash" (1948)   A Noir Alley presentation with as seemingly as preposterous a script for even Noir.

But could be a lot of unintended fun.  Dane Clark is a painter turned boxer gets into a triangle with Alexis Smith and Zachary Scott who becomes Clark's manager and names him Mike Angelo. You can't beat the supporting players, Eve Arden and S. K. "Cuddles" Sakall. (Obviously this film has no relation to the "Whiplash" of a few years ago about music that won an Oscar for J. K. Simmons.)

 

Su Oct 1 1015P  "On Moonlight Bay" (1951) - Doris Day as the tomboy who falls in love with next door neighbor Gordon McRae.  In addition to the title tune, we hear "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile".  Those of a certain age will remember this song as I believe the theme song on WOR Radio's morning "Rambling With Gambling" show. 

 

That's all for now.  Take it easy but take it and stay positive, test negative.

 

 

 

One of the well-worn yet correct cliches about the immense MLB season is that it is a marathon not a sprint.  Yet as autumn approaches, when there are barely 20 games left to determine division winners and wild card participants. each game takes on added importance. Only the mentally strong can balance the pressure of the schedule with the need to trust your own stuff and understand what you body is capable of doing on the given day. 

 

In the National League, two divisions have been long ago decided, Atlanta in NL East and LA Dodgers in NL West.  They are assured byes in the first round of the playoffs that will begin early in October with a best-of-3 wild card series in each league.   The third division champion doesn't get a bye but plays the third wild card in its league.  

 

For most of this season, the NL Central was surprisingly inept, the perennially contending Cardinals falling to the basement and no other team really excelling. But now two teams are comfortably above .500, the Brewers, before games of Mon Sep 11, leading the Cubs by 4 games and the surprising Reds also with a shot at the last wild card.

 

Defending NL champ Phillies have the lead in first wild card but only two games ahead of Cubs, narrowly holding 2nd wild card by two games over the surprising Diamondbacks who have a slight lead over Marlins with Reds and Giants still alive. 

 

You can't beat the drama of last weekend.  The Cubs salvaged the last game of a 4-game series against upstart Arizona at Wrigley Field.  Balls were flying unpredictably all over the ancient ballpark on Chicago's North Side, everywhere but towards the outfield stands as windblown home runs.  So pitching was at a premium and Zac Gallen, another onetime St. Louis Cardinal rashly traded, threw a complete game victory.

 

To me, the Cubs southpaw Justin Steele has established himself as a legitimate Cy Young contender - unlike Blake Snell of the vastly disappointing Padres, Steele wants to go deep into games and has 16 wins to prove it.  After a late season slump, Gallen may be back in the Cy Young conversation. His teammate, crisp speedy outfielder/leadoff man Corbin Carroll, looks like a Rookie of the Year favorite. 

 

In the inter-league matchup of the Brewers at Yankee Stadium (I must think twice to say "interleague" because I, for one, still consider in my bones Milwaukee an AL team and Houston an NL team), Milwaukee won the series but lost out on a sweep despite reigning Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes throwing a 8-inning no-hitter and closer Devin Williams putting up a zero in the 9th.

 

But the Brewers could do nothing against American League Cy Young favorite Gerrit Cole who threw a 7-inning 3-hitter and the Yankees' first bullpen pitchers kept putting up zeroes. Brewers twice took leads in extra innings but Yankees came back and ultimately won 4-3 in 13 innings.

 

Turning to the AL, the Central division is virtually decided with the Minnesota Twins holding a comfortable 7 1/2 game lead on the sub-.500 Cleveland Guardians.  They will not get a bye but will play the third wild card entrant in that 3-game series with home field advantage.

 

The other two AL divisional races are still up for grabs.  Prior to games of M Sep 11, the surprising Orioles led the perennially contending Rays by 3 games, 4 in the lost column. 4 big head-to-head matchups come up Th thru Su Sep 14-17 in Baltimore. Birds cannot afford to overlook at home 3 games with the disappointing-but-still-potent Cardinals and ditto the Rays playing 3 on the road in Minnesota.

 

The AL West has turned into a three-way tussle featuring defending World Series champion Houston, now narrowly in first place two lost games ahead of both Seattle and Texas.  As I mentioned in my last post, the Astros have likely the easiest schedule playing one series each against the A's and the Royals, teams on their way to over 100 losses.  The return to health of Jose Altuve, Jordan Alvarez, and Michael Brantley really deepens the Astros' lineup. Whether their overall pitching is as good as last year's will be something to watch carefully.    

  

In another dramatic series last weekend, Tampa Bay knocked the Mariners out of first place by winning at home the last 3 games of their 4-game series.  A controversy erupted after Tampa's come-from-behind Fri night victory when George Kirby, impressive young pitcher for the Mariners, emotionally confessed to reporters that he felt gassed after throwing 90 pitches in 6 innings and holding a two-run lead. 

 

He felt that he didn't want to pitch in the 7th and proceeded to lose the lead after giving up a 2-run homer to backup catcher Jean Pinto who like many Rays has emerged from minor league obscurity to be a big contributor.  Kirby immediately apologized the next morning, saying he never wants to be taken out of a game, but it was too late. 

 

The many pundit nay-sayers all over the baseball world, including former pitchers like hotheaded David Wells, branded Kirby as the poster boy for the spoiled 21st century starting pitcher who never wants to go beyond 5 or 6 innings in any game. 

 

I call myself a "lively dinosaur" because I, too, along with a lot of oldtime baseball fans, yearn for complete games by pitchers who want to complete what they started.  Yet I cannot overlook a lot of data that indicates after 100 pitches, pitchers tend to weaken. It was not the case in Cy Young award-winning Corbin Burnes' 8 no-hit innings against the Yankees on Sunday, but he was moved after throwing 109 pitches, 6 short of his career high.

 

Trying to look to the future dispassionately, the big problem is that today virtually every organization doesn't allow any minor league pitcher to work more than 5 or 6 innings. How can you develop major league arms that way?  Learning to pitch when tired to me is the essence of good pitching. And the essence of good coaching should be to teach pitchers to understand their arms and bodies and to help them understand the difference between being simply sore as opposed to be seriously injured. 

 

I know how hard it must be to make this distinction when adrenalin, testosterone, and competitiveness in service to the team all are in the mix.

Since common sense is so uncommon, especially in sports, you can see how this will be a long uphill struggle.  But one worth definitely worth exploring and fighting for sanity. 

 

Before I close this edition, here's a shoutout to another successful Kelly Rodman Memorial All-Star Game held on August 24th, a day early because of rain in the forecast at Worcester's Polar Park, home of the Red Sox Triple-A farm club the WooSox.  Spearheaded by veteran scouts Matt Hyde of the Yankees and Ray Fagnant of the Red Sox, the game features promising high school and college players from all over the country. 

 

The game is the culmination of a late summer program of clinics and intrasquad games that in its 14 years of existence has sent three dozen players into pro baseball.  Since 2020, the game has been dedicated to the memory of Yankee scout Kelly Rodman who rose quickly in the organization to become an advocate for amateur players like promising rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe.

 

She left us far too early at 44 years old, but her exhortation to aspiring players, "Be Great Today!," sums up the fiercely optimistic spirit that any successful player must exude.  I believe that telling her story was a perfect way to end my recent book, BASEBALL'S ENDANGERED SPECIES:  INSIDE THE CRAFT OF SCOUTING BY THOSE LIVED WHO LIVED IT.       

 

That'a all for now.  Always remember:  Take it easy but take it!  And don't forget - stay positive, test negative.