The concept of Orioles Magic came to be as a result of the Orioles never feeling that they were out of games. You remember the lyrics to the song, right? ...when the game is close, and the O's are hot; there's a thundering roar from 34... Over the years we've seen flashes of that magic, however there's always been a lingering thought that it was gone for the most part. In fact, how many times in the last few years has that magic gone in reverse? They would head into the ninth inning of games and you'd be seeing sneers on the faces of the opposing players because even though they were trailing they had the O's right where they wanted them. You can put that notion to bed.
Zach Britton pitched by far his best game last night. Britton's line: 9 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 5 K, 0 BB. After the game Buck Showalter mentioned that there were only two or three times during the course of the ballgame where Britton had three-ball counts. MASN's Amber Theoharis did a piece on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Report prior to the game naming Britton as a potential rookie of the year candidate. I wholeheartedly agree. Earlier this morning ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted that Britton was an early favorite. He was spectacular last night; absolutely unbelievable. Unfortunately, he was matched by Justin Vargas of the Mariners who went 9 innings as well and surrendered no runs.
This was the type of game where it was a shame someone had to lose. Given that both teams were on the move after the ballgame, I'm sure that everyone involved would have liked for the game to have ended 1-0 in favor of someone after nine innings; it was roughly 9:10 PM. When a game goes to extra innings it doesn't really matter who's got the better record, who's the better team, or any of that. The visiting team automatically becomes a slight underdog given that the home team gets the final at-bat. That's why whenever you go to extras on the road I've always said that if you're able to score it needs to be more than one run. Lots of times when someone puts that one run up on the board, it awakens a sleeping lion in the opposing team. So in the top of the 12th nobody should have been overly concerned when Miguel Olivo singled home Ichiro to give Seattle a 1-0 lead. Had you been talking to me at the time, I would have told you to relax; not only did the O's have one more at-bat, but they had it with the heart of the order coming to the plate. Sure enough, Derrek Lee led off the last of the 12th with a single...as the winds of Orioles Magic started to blow...
...as Vladimir Guerrero stepped to the plate you kind of already had a feel for what could potentially happen. All Vlady had to do was get on base to get the tying run into scoring position. Sure enough, Seattle pitcher Brandon League hit Guerrero in the left hip, putting two runners on with none gone as the magic started to get more and more tangible. And go figure, League followed up that at-bat by hitting Adam Jones to leave the bases chok full O' Birds! After a Matt Wieters line-drive out, this week's hero, J.J. Hardy, stepped to the plate. It's situations like this that separate the men from the boys. If you were a Mariners' fan, you probably already knew that this wouldn't end well. So it should have come as no surprise to you when Hardy send a soft ground ball into left center, scoring Derrek Lee to tie the game. However chugging almost directly behind Lee was pinch runner Jake Fox; when "the Fox" crossed the plate, a full-on celebration ensued on the field and in the stands. In winning 2-1 once again in extras, these Birds showed a certain flair for the dramatic that was there for so many years at Memorial Stadium, but has been absent for quite awhile. Whether or not this is the start of something great remains to be seen. However the fact remains that the game was close, the O's were hot, and the thundering roar from 34 came down on Seattle.
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