Orioles head into the MLB playoffs with the most exciting storyline on display
USA TODAY Sports’ Steve Gardner breaks down what made the Orioles great in 2023 and what we can expect from them in the playoffs.
Sports seriously
After winning their wild-card openers, the Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies can advance to the Division Series with wins today.
In a wild first day with a quadruple header, the Tampa Bay Rays look to bounce back from a sloppy 4-0 loss to the Rangers in front of a small home crowd. Meanwhile, the Twins ended an 18-game postseason losing streak with their victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
In the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers lost a slugfest against the Diamondbacks after taking an early lead. And finally, the Phillies defeated the Miami Marlins with their 4-1 victory behind the dominant performance of Zack Wheeler.
Today four teams are facing elimination. Follow today’s quadruple-header with live updates from USA TODAY Sports:
Texas Rangers (Nathan Eovaldi) at Tampa Bay Rays (Zach Eflin) – 3:08 p.m. ET, ABC
Toronto Blue Jays (Jose Berrios) and Minnesota Twins (Sonny Gray) – 4:38 p.m. ET, ESPN
Arizona Diamondbacks (Zac Gallen) at Milwaukee Brewers (Freddy Peralta) – 7:08 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Miami Marlins (Braxton Garrett) at Philadelphia Phillies (Aaron Nola) – 8:08 p.m. ET, ESPN
Curtis Mead’s RBI single in the bottom of the seventh ended Tampa Bay’s 33-inning scoreless postseason streak that stretched back to last October.
The MLB record is 34 scoreless innings, with the Los Angeles Dodgers going without a run in the postseason from 1966 to 1974.
Heading into the Round of 16, the Rangers lead 7-1 and need just six more outs to eliminate the Rays and advance to the American League Division Series.
Texas scored on RBI doubles from Marcus Semien and Corey Seager early in the sixth to extend its lead to 7-0, just 12 outs from eliminating Tampa Bay in the AL wild-card series.
The Rays’ offense has been kept in check this postseason. Entering the sixth inning of Game 2 of the Wild Card matchup with the Texas Rangers, the Rays had remained scoreless in their last 32 postseason innings since last October.
That’s that most consecutive scoreless innings in the playoffs as the Pirates had a 29-inning scoreless streak between 1991 and 1992.
– Scott Boeck
Evan Carter, who made his major league debut with the Texas Rangers on September 8, was a key factor in both wild card games against the Tampa Bay Rays.
According to the Rangers, in Game 1 he became the youngest player in MLB history to safely reach base four times in his postseason debut. At age 21 years, 35 days, Carter recorded two doubles and walks while scoring one of Texas’ four runs.
In Game 2, he hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning to give the Rangers a 4-0 lead.
The outfielder was praised for his ability to control the strike zone. In spring training, he drew seven walks in 18 plate appearances and was nicknamed “Full Count Carter” because of his talent for deep counts.
Carter enjoyed a quick rise to the majors, spending just three years in the minors after being selected in the second round of the 2020 draft. In 23 games in the majors, he batted .307 and drew 12 walks in 75 plate appearances.
– Scott Boeck
After three scoreless innings, the Rangers scored four early in the fourth inning, capped by Evan Carter’s two-run home run off Zach Eflin with two outs.
Adolis Garcia led off the inning with a home run and Josh Jung hit an RBI triple with two outs before the 21-year-old Carter blasted one over the right field wall.
Carter played in 23 regular-season games as a rookie and impressed with five home runs, 12 RBI and a 1.058 OPS in 62 at-bats. In Game 1 on Tuesday, he went 2-for-2 with two doubles and two walks. Carter went to the plate for the first time on Wednesday and reached base with the home run in his first six postseason plate appearances.
Rangers right fielder Adolis Garcia led off the scoring with a home run past Zach Eflin in the bottom of the fourth.
Garcia, an All-Star this season, unleashed an epic burst with the bat after giving Texas a 1-0 lead in hopes of clinching the wild-card series with a win in Game 2 on Wednesday.
It was the first career playoff home run for Garcia, who set career highs with 39 home runs and 107 RBI in 2023.
In the first game of the day, Rays starter Zach Eflin managed to avoid two doubles – Corey Seager in the first inning and Josh Jung in the third – to keep the Rangers off the field.
Texas is 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position through three innings – including Marcus Semien, who launches a double play with runners on first and second and no outs in the third. Eflin hit Robbie Grossman with men on first and third to end the frame.
Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi had five strikeouts in three innings.
Rangers at Rays
Blue Jays at Twins
The front row of last night’s Brewers-Diamondbacks wild card game was filled with familiar characters.
Laurence Leavy, better known as the Marlins Man, sat between M&M’s Jacket Guy – a well-known star at Chicago White Sox games – and Front Row Amy, an avid Brewers fan and season ticket holder, sitting in the front row at American Family Field sat at most games for over a decade.
Amy is known for her attendance at Brewers games, where she scores every pitch in her scorebook. She also became known for her game day attire and the fact that she stays there throughout the game, seemingly never leaving her seat.
Amy quickly became a sensation online and at Brewers games, where other fans routinely approached her and asked for a photo. −Claire Reid
MILWAUKEE – The Diamondbacks, one win away from advancing to the NL Division Series, have extended Mike Hazen’s contract and tied their general manager to a contract guaranteed through 2028 with a club option for an additional year, according to sources.
Hazen already had a contract through next year with a team option through 2025. This contract, a five-year deal, replaces his old one. It was drawn up sometime in the last two weeks, sources said. − Nick Piecoro
MINNEAPOLIS – As Royce Lewis walked to the plate Tuesday and listened to the thunderous ovation, he actually stopped before entering the batter’s box. He looked around at the sellout crowd of 38,450 at Target Field. He looked at the fans above the Twins dugout. He turned and looked at the fans sitting at third base above the Toronto Blue Jays dugout. Lewis, 24, stepped in and immediately made history six pitches later, becoming the youngest player in franchise history to hit a postseason home run in 100 years.
He came to bat again in the third inning and hit another home run, this time to right field. He became only the third player in baseball history to hit home runs in his first two postseason plate appearances.
In this way, Lewis will forever be known as the man who personally ended the longest postseason losing streak in North American sports, a one-man battle team in the Twins’ 3-1 wild-card victory over the Blue Jays.
“I had to take it all in,” said Lewis, standing quietly in front of his locker after most of his teammates had left. “I got this advice from [Twins Hall of Famer] Joe Mauer. I had to do that the first game. You never know when you’ll run into this situation.
“This is a moment I dreamed of. I thought about Kirk Gibson’s home run. I thought about the strip. I’ve thought of everything.
− Bob Nightengale
PHILADELPHIA – On a night when their raucous ballpark at the foot of South Broad Street officially became the toughest playoff venue for opponents in baseball history, the Philadelphia Phillies overwhelmed both the Miami Marlins and themselves in Citizens Bank hysteria Park.
You could see it when Nick Castellanos hit a game-winning double off Miami Marlins starter Jesus Luzardo in the fourth inning, charging to second and clenching his hand into a fist.
Except a middle finger appears – fortunately for the FCC and parents watching at home, the ring finger.
“I just did it,” Castellanos said in the haze of a Phillies clubhouse where a postgame smoke show was taking place. “And I thought, did I just do that? It just came out.”
This October they are just getting started. But on Tuesday night, they recorded the first of hopefully 13 wins en route to the championship with a 4-1 victory over the Marlins in Game 1 of their NL Wild Card Series.
− Gabe Lacques
The best-of-three wildcard format is entering its second season. The format changed in 2022 from the sudden-death one-game format that had been in place since 2012, except for the 2020 season affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Six teams each from the American League and the National League qualified for the postseason, including the three division winners from each league. The three wild card teams in each league are the teams with the best record that did not win their division.
The top two division winners with the best record in each league receive a bye and do not have to play in the wild card round. A big advantage for the higher seeds in these wildcard series is that they get to host all three games.
The Rangers-Rays winner will face Baltimore in the Division Series, the Twins-Blue Jays winner will play Houston, the Phillies-Marlins winner will play in Atlanta and the Brewers-Diamondbacks winner will face the Dodgers. -Associated Press