Yankees Host Orioles In Saturday Matinee
UPDATE, Aug. 31: The Yankees have shifted their rotation for the weekend and David Phelps will start Saturday's game in place of Freddy Garcia. Check back at for updated odds and matchup information.
Raise your hand if you thought the Baltimore Orioles would still be in the AL East and wild card races when the calendar turned to September.
For a team that enters the final month of the season with a minus-44 run-differential to still be in playoff contention stretches credulity. But it’s true, which is why any list of American League Manager of the Year candidates has to include the Orioles’ Buck Showalter.
Still, there’s almost five weeks to go in the regular season, and the Birds have plenty of work to do if they want to qualify for their first postseason berth (not to mention finishing over .500) in 15 years. This weekend’s series at Yankee Stadium against the Bronx Bombers could further validate the O’s as a playoff threat or reveal some cracks in the foundation that could signal a slide in the final month of the campaign.
The middle game of the weekend set goes Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, when Showalter sends Wei-Yin Chen to the mound to duel the Yankees’ Freddy Garcia. First pitch on Saturday will be at 1:05 p.m. (ET). Satellite TV watchers have their choice between Michael Kay’s commentary on YES or Gary Thorne’s description on MASN to follow along.
Early numbers on the Don Best MLB odds screen show New York at -150 with a 9½-run total ('under -120).
Baltimore’s continuing involvement in the playoff chase is indeed one of the surprise storylines of the season. At various times, the O’s have looked ready to drop from contention, especially after Showalter was forced to overwork his bullpen in the first half of the season. The starting pitching rotation, which began the campaign very strongly, was wavering badly once the calendar hit June. And the Birds looked ready to fly south right after the All-Star break when the staff seemed about to crack at the seams.
Remarkably, however, Showalter was able to steady the ship and Baltimore rediscovered an unlikely second wind. Entering this weekend’s set vs. the Yankees, the Birds had won 20 of their last 29 games to pull (along with another surprise package, Oakland) into one of the two AL wild card positions at the end of August.
The O’s have also been uncanny in one-run games, having won 24 of 30 of those decisions entering this weekend, including 13 straight to set a franchise record. Baltimore, long a punching bag for the Yankees, has also taken five of the last seven meetings this season after losing the first four vs. Joe Girardi’s team back in April. New York hasn’t lost a season series vs. the Birds since 1997, going 13-0-1 in the years since.
New York will be without injured sluggers Alex Rodriguez (hand) and Mark Teixeira (calf) for this series, with Steve Pearce getting a pair of starts this week. Pearce, a 1B/OF combo player who was traded from New York to Baltimore on June 2 and re-acquired by the Yankees from Houston on Monday, will likely face the Orioles for the first time.
Derek Jeter, who leads the majors with 176 hits, is batting .438 in the season series while Curtis Granderson had homered five times entering Friday night’s clash. As for Rodriguez, he begins a rehab assignment at high-A Tampa this weekend and likely returns to the active big league roster next week.
The Yankees also enter the weekend set without a lot of momentum, having lost six of their last nine, including two of three at home earlier this week vs. the recently-struggling Blue Jays. New York’s once seemingly-secure lead in the AL East has also been trimmed to just three games over the hard-charging Birds and 4.5 over Tampa Bay, still lurking just off the pace.
Meanwhile, although the Baltimore pitching staff has held together throughout the summer, Showalter is getting some reinforcement, with veteran Randy Wolf signed to a deal just before the August 31 deadline for postseason eligibility.
Showalter has also gotten more mileage out of Saturday’s starter Chen than he could have envisioned, as the Taiwanese import has steadied after some wobbly efforts at midseason. Off of another solid stint on Monday when allowing the White Sox just one earned run on four hits and striking out eight in six innings of work in an eventual 4-3 O’s win, Chen has allowed one or no earned runs in four of his last six starts.
In Chen’s lone previous outing vs. the Yankees, he was similarly solid, allowing just two runs and five hits in seven innings of work when the Orioles scored a 5-2 win at Camden Yards on May 15.
As for Saturday’s opposing starter Garcia, he’s been serviceable at best for Girardi, rarely pitching beyond the sixth inning in a series of unspectacular yet modestly effective outings since the All-Star break. Garcia posted a 4.23 ERA in his five August starts, with the Yankees winning on four of those occasions. In his last meeting vs. the Orioles, however, Garcia allowed three earned runs and nine hits over six innings in a 5-4 loss at Yankee Stadium on July 30.
UPDATE, Aug. 31: The Yankees have shifted their rotation for the weekend and David Phelps will start Saturday's game in place of Freddy Garcia. Check back at for updated odds and matchup information.
Raise your hand if you thought the Baltimore Orioles would still be in the AL East and wild card races when the calendar turned to September.
For a team that enters the final month of the season with a minus-44 run-differential to still be in playoff contention stretches credulity. But it’s true, which is why any list of American League Manager of the Year candidates has to include the Orioles’ Buck Showalter.
Still, there’s almost five weeks to go in the regular season, and the Birds have plenty of work to do if they want to qualify for their first postseason berth (not to mention finishing over .500) in 15 years. This weekend’s series at Yankee Stadium against the Bronx Bombers could further validate the O’s as a playoff threat or reveal some cracks in the foundation that could signal a slide in the final month of the campaign.
The middle game of the weekend set goes Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, when Showalter sends Wei-Yin Chen to the mound to duel the Yankees’ Freddy Garcia. First pitch on Saturday will be at 1:05 p.m. (ET). Satellite TV watchers have their choice between Michael Kay’s commentary on YES or Gary Thorne’s description on MASN to follow along.
Early numbers on the Don Best MLB odds screen show New York at -150 with a 9½-run total ('under -120).
Baltimore’s continuing involvement in the playoff chase is indeed one of the surprise storylines of the season. At various times, the O’s have looked ready to drop from contention, especially after Showalter was forced to overwork his bullpen in the first half of the season. The starting pitching rotation, which began the campaign very strongly, was wavering badly once the calendar hit June. And the Birds looked ready to fly south right after the All-Star break when the staff seemed about to crack at the seams.
Remarkably, however, Showalter was able to steady the ship and Baltimore rediscovered an unlikely second wind. Entering this weekend’s set vs. the Yankees, the Birds had won 20 of their last 29 games to pull (along with another surprise package, Oakland) into one of the two AL wild card positions at the end of August.
The O’s have also been uncanny in one-run games, having won 24 of 30 of those decisions entering this weekend, including 13 straight to set a franchise record. Baltimore, long a punching bag for the Yankees, has also taken five of the last seven meetings this season after losing the first four vs. Joe Girardi’s team back in April. New York hasn’t lost a season series vs. the Birds since 1997, going 13-0-1 in the years since.
New York will be without injured sluggers Alex Rodriguez (hand) and Mark Teixeira (calf) for this series, with Steve Pearce getting a pair of starts this week. Pearce, a 1B/OF combo player who was traded from New York to Baltimore on June 2 and re-acquired by the Yankees from Houston on Monday, will likely face the Orioles for the first time.
Derek Jeter, who leads the majors with 176 hits, is batting .438 in the season series while Curtis Granderson had homered five times entering Friday night’s clash. As for Rodriguez, he begins a rehab assignment at high-A Tampa this weekend and likely returns to the active big league roster next week.
The Yankees also enter the weekend set without a lot of momentum, having lost six of their last nine, including two of three at home earlier this week vs. the recently-struggling Blue Jays. New York’s once seemingly-secure lead in the AL East has also been trimmed to just three games over the hard-charging Birds and 4.5 over Tampa Bay, still lurking just off the pace.
Meanwhile, although the Baltimore pitching staff has held together throughout the summer, Showalter is getting some reinforcement, with veteran Randy Wolf signed to a deal just before the August 31 deadline for postseason eligibility.
Showalter has also gotten more mileage out of Saturday’s starter Chen than he could have envisioned, as the Taiwanese import has steadied after some wobbly efforts at midseason. Off of another solid stint on Monday when allowing the White Sox just one earned run on four hits and striking out eight in six innings of work in an eventual 4-3 O’s win, Chen has allowed one or no earned runs in four of his last six starts.
In Chen’s lone previous outing vs. the Yankees, he was similarly solid, allowing just two runs and five hits in seven innings of work when the Orioles scored a 5-2 win at Camden Yards on May 15.
As for Saturday’s opposing starter Garcia, he’s been serviceable at best for Girardi, rarely pitching beyond the sixth inning in a series of unspectacular yet modestly effective outings since the All-Star break. Garcia posted a 4.23 ERA in his five August starts, with the Yankees winning on four of those occasions. In his last meeting vs. the Orioles, however, Garcia allowed three earned runs and nine hits over six innings in a 5-4 loss at Yankee Stadium on July 30.
