Sunday, October 5, 2014
Updated MLB Playoff Scoreboard for the ALDS games of October 5,2014 from ESPN.GO.COM
As of 12:15AM,EDT/9:15PM,PDT
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Nelson Cruz homer all Orioles need to sweep Tigers, advance to ALCS
54°Broken Clouds
3:45 PM ET, October 5, 2014
Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan
Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan
Associated Press
Orioles Sweep Tigers
Cruz sliced a two-run homer for his latest big postseason hit, and the Orioles held off the Tigers 2-1 Sunday to reach the AL Championship Series for the first time since 1997.Bud Norris outpitched David Price in Game 3 of the AL Division Series. The Tigers scored in the ninth and put the tying run on second with no outs, but Orioles closer Zach Britton escaped the jam and lifted Showalter into his first LCS in 16 seasons as a big league manager.Baltimore opens the ALCS on Friday at home against Kansas City or at the Los Angeles Angels.Cruz's homer was the 16th of his postseason career, including eight against the Tigers. He was the MVP of the 2011 ALCS for Texas in a six-game victory over Detroit.Cruz spent much of this past offseason without a team after serving a 50-game suspension last year for violating baseball's drug agreement.Norris pitched two-hit ball for 6 1/3 innings, and Andrew Miller got five straight outs to keep the shutout going.Victor Martinez and J.D. Martinez opened the ninth with back-to-back doubles off Britton. Bryan Holaday struck out after a failed bunt attempt, and Showalter made the unconventional decision to put the winning run on base by intentionally walking Nick Castellanos.That meant the bottom of Detroit's lineup would have to come through. The Tigers sent up Hernan Perez -- who had five at-bats in the regular season -- to pinch hit, and bounced a 96 mph fastball into a 5-4-3 double play. It was Britton's second save of the series.Cruz led the majors with 40 homers this season, and the Orioles topped baseball with 211. It was his two-run homer in the first inning of the opener that set the tone for this series, and he came through again in the sixth inning against Price. Cruz's drive cleared the wall in right, about 2 feet to the left of the foul pole.Not bad for a guy the Orioles signed in late February. Cruz turned down a $14.1 million qualifying offer that would have kept him with Texas -- but he ended up having to settle for an $8 million, one-year contract with Baltimore that included $750,000 in roster bonuses.Cruz's powerful bat enabled the Orioles to withstand season-ending injuries to Manny Machado and Matt Wieters, as well as Chris Davis' 25-game suspension for an amphetamine violation.Detroit won its fourth straight division title this year, but they couldn't make it four ALCS visits in a row. The Tigers remain without a World Series title since 1984 -- a drought one year shorter than Baltimore's.Detroit acquired Price at this year's trade deadline, adding another impressive arm to an already-formidable rotation. Max Scherzer, Price and Justin Verlander are the AL's last three Cy Young Award winners, and the Tigers started them all in this series. They couldn't manage a single victory.Verlander and Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera have combined for the last three MVP awards. No use against a Baltimore team that had already surprised most of baseball with a 96-win regular season and an AL East title.TRAINER'S ROOMDetroit OF Rajai Davis was out of the starting lineup with a pelvic strain. He lined out as a pinch hitter in the seventh. Tigers C Alex Avila left in the sixth after taking a foul ball off the mask.UP NEXTBaltimore reached the ALCS in 1996 and 1997, losing to the New York Yankees and Cleveland. The Orioles went 3-4 against Kansas City this season and 4-2 against the Angels.
Photo Wire
DETROIT, MI - OCTOBER 05: A general view of the field prior to Game Three of the American League Division Series...
(Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
(Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
Game Information
| Stadium | Comerica Park, Detroit, MI |
| Attendance | 43,013 (104.3% full) - % is based on regular season capacity |
| Game Time | 3:41 |
| Weather | 53 degrees, partly cloudy |
| Wind | 13 mph |
| Umpires | Home Plate - Jeff Kellogg, First Base - Jim Wolf, Second Base - Fieldin Culbreth, Third Base - Dan Bellino |
Research Notes
Nelson Cruz has owned the Tigers in the postseason as few have before him.
[+] |
Nelson Cruz
hit a 2-run HR in the 6th inning. It was his second home run of this
postseason and 16th of his postseason career, moving him into a
9th-place tie with Carlos Beltran.
|
Nelson Cruz
hit .210 in at-bats ending in a changeup this season, 40 points below
league average. Five of Cruz' 13 hits against changeups this season were
home runs. Four came on changeups in the middle of the zone or higher.
|
The
Orioles missed on 24.6 percent of the fastballs they saw thrown in the
upper third of the strike zone or higher, above league average. David Price allowed a slash line of .178/.239/.284 in plate appearances to end in such pitches this season, all lower than league average.
|
Updated MLB Playoff Scoreboard for the ALDS games of October 5,2014 from ESPN.GO.COM
As of 8PM,EDT/5PM,PDT
MLB Playoff Scoreboard for the NLDS games of October 4,2014 from ESPN.GO.COM
NL Playoffs
Final
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NLDS - GAME 2 Series tied 1-1
Delmon Young, Orioles pounce on shaky Tigers bullpen for another win
12:07 PM ET, October 3, 2014
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland
Not only because the Orioles are capable of scoring in bunches, but more importantly, they were going up against Detroit's leaky bullpen.
Delmon Young drove in three runs with a pinch-hit double, and Baltimore used a four-run eighth to pull out a 7-6 victory Friday for a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five AL Division Series.
If Detroit gets bounced early by Baltimore, the Tigers' relievers will be a big reason why, writes Jerry Crasnick. 
Yes,
it happened again. Same inning, same ending. For the second straight
day, the Tigers' bullpen self-destructed, writes David Schoenfield. "It's huge going into Detroit up 2-0," said J.J. Hardy, who scored the go-ahead run with a sweeping slide. "We've got to go over there and do our job."
A day after the Orioles battered Detroit relievers during an eight-run eighth that produced a 12-3 win, they pushed the Tigers to the brink of elimination with an uprising against the beleaguered duo of Joba Chamberlain and Joakim Soria -- the primary victims on Thursday night.
It was 6-3 with one out in the eighth when Chamberlain hit Adam Jones with a pitch and gave up a single to Nelson Cruz. Steve Pearce singled in a run, and the towel-waving, orange-clad fans among the sellout crowd of 48,058 sensed another comeback win by a team that won 10 games during the regular season during its final at-bat.
Soria entered and walked Hardy to load the bases for Young, who lined the first pitch into the left-field corner.
"We did it yesterday, we've been doing it all year against teams in our own division," Young said. "So any time we have an opportunity and get guys on, we think we can win."
Young went 10 for 20 as a pinch-hitter during the regular season. He also was the AL championship series MVP in 2012 -- for the Tigers -- when they swept the Yankees.
"It's very hard to sit around and not know where the consistent at-bats are coming," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "He has done the things that you need to do to give yourself a chance to be successful."
In the top of the eighth, baserunning was a key point. Miguel Cabrera was thrown out at the plate when he tried to score right behind Torii Hunter on Victor Martinez's double with no outs.
"I was watching the play develop and hoping they both would make it," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said.
Same Old Struggle
The
struggles of the Tigers bullpen is really nothing new in the
postseason. The bullpen is a combined 3-8 with a 5.87 ERA over the last
four postseasons.| Year | W-L | ERA |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 0-3 | 8.01 |
| 2012 | 2-2 | 3.90 |
| 2013 | 1-2 | 4.07 |
| 2014 | 0-1 | 12.27 |
| --ESPN Stats & Information | ||
Soria wound up with the loss, but Chamberlain took the blame.
"This one is on me. There's no getting around it," he said. "Obviously, if I don't put us in that situation, then we're having a different conversation."
The defeat left Detroit's bid to reach the ALCS for a fourth straight year in serious jeopardy. The Tigers wasted home runs by J.D. Martinez and Nick Castellanos, along with a solid start by Justin Verlander.
"We're 0-2. We understand it," Ausmus said. "It doesn't really affect us playing Game 3. If you win Game 3, you go on to Game 4."
Rooted on by girlfriend Kate Upton, Verlander left in the sixth with a 5-3 lead. Unless the Tigers stage a comeback, it was his last outing of the season.
"This is frustrating. This isn't easy," he said. "I don't think anybody's walking out of this clubhouse feeling great, but you've got to stay positive. We win two games and the pressure is squarely back on these guys."
Brad Brach got the win, getting two outs in the eighth after Kevin Gausman allowed one run and three hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Detroit trailed 2-0 before peeling off five straight hits against Wei-Yin Chen. Hunter singled, Cabrera doubled and Victor Martinez delivered an RBI single.
J.D. Martinez and Castellanos followed with consecutive home runs, the second day in a row that Detroit's done it.
Chen lasted only three more batters in his shortest outing since June 28 and left down 5-2.
Baltimore got a run back in the bottom half with a two-out RBI single by Hardy, and the Orioles turned a 5-4-3 double play against Cabrera in the fifth that began with a diving stop by Ryan Flaherty.
Nelson Cruz led off the sixth with a single to chase Verlander, and Anibal Sanchez held the lead through the seventh.
After that, however, Detroit's bullpen crumbled.
"Anytime you can go into the eighth inning winning by three like that, you have all the confidence in the world with Joba going out there," J.D. Martinez said. "But unfortunately it just didn't happen today."
The game started shortly after noon, and the boisterous crowd had plenty of enthusiasm left from the night before.
The volume decreased, however, after Verlander began mowing down a potent lineup that one night earlier banged out 12 hits in a lopsided victory.
He retired the first eight batters before Jonathan Schoop bounced a single up the middle. Nick Markakis then hit a 3-2 pitch off the roof of the grounds crew enclosure in right field.
A replay confirmed the drive as a home run, ending Verlander's 32-inning scoreless streak in the ALDS. Markakis' first homer off the right-hander in 50 career at-bats came on Verlander's 50th pitch.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Tigers: CF Rajai Davis (pelvic strain) was replaced in the fourth inning by a pinch-runner.
"It tightened up on him coming out of the box," Ausmus said.
UP NEXT
Tigers: Price owns a lifetime record of 7-3 against the Orioles. Cruz is 7 for 19 (.368) with two homers against the left-hander.
Orioles: Gonzalez will make his second career postseason start Sunday. He's 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in three lifetime starts against Detroit.
Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press
MLB Playoff Scoreboard for the ALDS and NLDS games of October 3,2014 from ESPN.GO.COM
AL Playoffs
Final
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HR » DET: J. Martinez (2), Castellanos (1) BAL: Markakis (1)
ALDS - GAME 2 Baltimore leads series 2-0
NL Playoffs
Final
- R
- H
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NLDS - GAME 1 St. Louis leads series 1-0
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