Bracket Buster Alert: BAL (13) defeats NYY (3) in 5 game series.

In what would turn out to be a surprise of a series, the 47 win Baltimore Orioles battled the 100 win New York

Yankees and came away with a series win 3-2…..all games won  by the visiting team.

Game 1 O’s 8  Yanks 5

Game 1 had Alex Cobb of the O’s going against Al Severino for the Yanks.   

O’s got off to a fast start scoring three in the top of the first with Manny Machado driving in 2 with a

single following Craig Gentry reaching first on a throwing error by Yankee catcher Sanchez and a Joey Rickard

double.  Down 3-0 the Yankees wasted no time getting 2 of them back following a Brett Gardner single and

Didi Gregorius single with a Giancarlo Stanton 2 RBI double. In the bottom of the 2nd Garner put the Yanks

ahead 4-3 with a two run home run and in the bottom of the third the Yanks added another run to take the

lead 5-3 after 3 innings.

The O’s clawed their way back into the game with an Adam Jones solo shot in the 6th and added 2 more in the

7th with a D J Steward solo shot and a Mark Trumbo RBI single giving the O’s the 6-5 lead.  In the top of the

ninth the O’s added two more as  the O’s pen held the Yankees down over the last 4 innings giving up just 1

hit and three walks and giving the “O”ffense the chance to take the series lead 1-0.

Game 2 O’s 7 Yanks 3

Game two at Yankee Stadium saw O’s Ace Bundy  against Tanaka.  The O’s rookie catcher Austin Wynns struck

first with a solo home run in the top of the second but the Yankees answered back in the bottom of the 4th

with a Hicks sac fly to tie the game.  In the top of the 6th many Machado answered back with a sac fly putting

the O’s back on top 2-1 and in the 8th the O’s went up 3-1 on an Adam Jones RBI single.  Not willing to go away

easily, the Yankee tied the score in the bottom of the 8th on a Neil Walker two RBI single.  With the scored tied

3-3 in the top of the ninth the “O”ffense struck for 4 to give the O’s the 7-3 win on a Renalto Nunez RBI double

and Joey Rickard 3 run home run against Chapman.

Game 3 Yanks 4 O’s 2

Game three saw the series move to Camden Yards with the surprising O’s up 2 games to none, but the Yankee

had no plans of going away easily.  With A.J Happ set to face Kevin Gausman the Yankees got off to a 3-0 lead

with 1 in the first and 2 more in the third.  The O’s tried to fighting back with 2 in the bottom of the 4th on back

o back Machado and Jones home runs, but Happ had their number on this day.  The Yanks added 1 more in the

6th on a Luke Voit home run and that’s how it ended with the Yankees taking game 3 4-2.

Game 4 Yanks 14 O’s 13

Game 4 was a wild one to say the least as after 5 innings the O’s led 5-4 despite two Luke Voit solo home runs

and a Giancarlo solo home run.  The O’s owed their soon to be short lived lead to a two RBI double by Caleb

Joseph and an RBI double by Manny Machado and solo home run by Pedro Alvarez.  It was at this point the

Yankee bats exploded by scoring 9 runs in the top of the 6th to take 13-5 lead.  With two out in the top of the

6th the Yankees hung up two walks, 6 singles and 2 doubles against a tired Orioles bullpen.  This one appeared

over…….not so fast Bronx Bombers as the O’s would touch 4 Yankee relievers for 8 with some help from noted

Orioles (opps, Yankee reliever) Zach Britton  in the bottom of the 8th. Zach Britton entered the game with two

out and the bases loaded and 5 runs already in for the O’s.  Zach immediately threw two wild pitches and gave

up an RBI single to allow the O’s to tie the game at 13 after 8 innings.  Note:  Zach was immediately traded back

to Baltimore following the inning so he could throw 1 pitch for the O’s I the 14th and appear in game 5 of the

series after almost giving this one away (work with me people, this isn’t real life although getting Britton back

for real would have been  gentlemanly of the Yankees). Unfortunately the home crowd woud not leave happy

on this night as Luke Voit hit his THIRD solo home run of the game in the top of the 14th off Darren O’Day to

force the series back to Yankee Stadium for the deciding game.

Game 5 O’s 8 Yanks 2

So the series came down to one game, the 47 win Orioles looking to pull off the unlikely upset the 100 win

Yankees.  This time Aaron Judge got the Yankees off to a fast start with a solo home run in the bottom of the

1st.  The O’s answered back in the top of the third on Austin Wynns second home run of the series and a two

RBI double by Manny Machado. IN the top of the 4th the game got really weird as the O’s scored 4 more by

starting the inning with back to back to back homeruns by Johnathan Scoop, Mark Trumbo and Tre Mancini. 

Lading 7-2 after 4 the scoring in the game came to a close except for a D J Stewart solo homerun in the 8th.

Zach Britton, again acquired just the day before, got the last two outs in the bottom of the ninth sending the

#14 seed O’s into the next round of the KOD Holiday Tourney!

This was a fun and exciting series.  Alan got “Koched” more than once and deserved a better fate…but when

you’re one of the worst teams in baseball history, you gotta take ‘em where you can get ‘em!

--submitted by Mark Nixon--