The World Did Not End

Nope, the world did not come to an end Wednesday night; and according to the Mayans, that is not scheduled until December. But the season did end – though not the way we exactly wanted it to do so.

As I’ve often said throughout this season, if you were offered in April the chance to have the Orioles right now be ______ (whatever), you certainly would have taken it. If you were offered on opening day the chance to have the Orioles finish 93-69, you’d have taken it, right?  And that is what they are, instead of being 69-93 like last year … like the Red Sox are right now!

October 3, 2012; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Baltimore Orioles center fielder

(10) catches a fly ball in the third inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

The Orioles ran into some pretty awesome pitching in Tampa. Everyone knows this is about the best staff in all of baseball, and they demonstrated why that is true. And Evan Longoria is “the man” for game 162 of the season – obviously. He hit the big homer last year in the dramatics of that incredible evening when the Birds beat the Sox, and his three shots this evening demonstrates why he is indeed a premier player. The Rays are a very good team. They’ll be back.

So the Orioles will travel to Texas to play the Rangers in a single wildcard teams playoff game. The Orioles have the distinction of being the first extra wildcard playoff team ever – presuming this format is continued.

Let’s stop and think about this a minute. Who do you really want to be playing right now?  The Yankees who have won 16 of their last 21 games? Do you want to face Oakland, a team that pulled out 9 of the past 11 games to overtake the Rangers? And how about Detroit? They have really stunk compared to New York and Oakland – winning only 8 of the past 10 games. However, Texas has dropped 7 of the past 9 games!

So, it would have been nice to play in Baltimore, but, here we go to Texas! The Orioles will simply need to man up and make it happen. They can do it, and I look forward to first playoff game for the Orioles in 15 years – which is so much better than anywhere we’ve been in a long, long time.

Twitter:  @OSayOrioles

Email:  r.buchman@myactv.net