Tag: managers

The Orioles were 20-22. That hardly sounds great. Except Baltimore had lost 115 and 108 games the previous two years. So this was a prediction-defying record two-thirds of the way through a season expected to be bizarre.

Baltimore awoke on Sept. 11 just 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees for the final AL playoff spot and about to face a revealing corridor: Four vs. the Yankees and five vs. the Rays split by a three-game set with the Braves.

The good Oriole news: Baltimore went 2-1 against Atlanta. The bad Oriole news: They went 1-8 vs. the Yankees and Rays.

t“We definitely know them,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said by phone about the Yankees and Rays. He laughed. “The schedule can get a little bit suffocating in our division.”

The Orioles played 20 games this year against the Yankees and Rays. The Blue Jays played 22, including losing twice in the playoffs last week to Tampa Bay. Hyde and Toronto’s Charlie Montoyo have been on the job two years each. Thus, they have combined to manage 80 games against the last two AL East champions. Throw in Ron Roenicke, Alex Cora’s Red Sox bench coach in 2018-19 and the interim manager this year before being dismissed at the end, and you have well over 100 games the past few years against clubs that were set to begin a Division Series on Monday night that Montoyo called “must-watch TV.”

The trio of AL East managers described the monster of playing both teams, centering on all the problems created by the length of the Yankee lineup and the depth of the Rays pitching.

Hyde summed it up like this, “We have a tough time outscoring the Yankees and we have a tough time just scoring enough runs against the Rays.” Or as Roenicke said, “This is basically offense vs. defense: The Rays great pitching — both starters and relief. And the Yankees with that big offense.”

The Orioles actually had taken three of four from the Yankees earlier in September, but of the Sept. 11-13 four-game series (there was a doubleheader), Hyde said, “I thought the Yankees, the last time we saw them, were the best team we saw all year.”

The three elements that make the Yankees elite in Hyde’s view were on display in that series:

1. Gerrit Cole and Masahiro Tanaka started the first two games, which the Yankees won by a combined 16-1.

2. The Yankees won the last two low-scoring games 3-1 and 2-1 with their bullpen throwing 8 1/3 innings of two-hit scoreless relief. Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman pitched in both games and Hyde said of that duo, “They are ridiculous. Really, you have to figure out how to have a lead to keep their leverage guys out of the game.” 3. The lineup, at that time even without Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, “is just tough to keep down, especially if (Gary) Sanchez is hitting.”

Baltimore’s pitching did far better against the Yankees in 2020 (13 homers and a .742 OPS allowed in 10 games) than a disastrous 2019 (61 homers and a 1.018 OPS in 19 games). Still, Hyde said, “they can hit a three-run homer any time from anywhere in the lineup. Their power is ridiculous. They are never out of a game.”

Montoyo said, “Against them, I am always thinking the third time around the lineup. Oh, there is (DJ) LeMahieu again. Your starter better be on if you think he is going to get them three times. If you have righty relief that is good against their righty hitters, that is something. But when they are healthy, like now, that lineup is just tough.”

The Rays have oodles of power righty relief to follow a trio of starters that Hyde praised this way, “(Tyler) Glasnow and (Blake) Snell are surefire No. 1 starters. And then (Charlie) Morton is a No. 1 on most teams. That’s three top of the rotation guys that all have plus stuff. You better bring your lunch pail for that. Then go to a bullpen that just doesn’t give up many runs.

Each of the managers mentioned a below-the-surface area that they thought could factor into this series:

— Hyde kept returning to the equation that makes the Rays so tough to score against: “They don’t allow many homers, they don’t walk many and they have lots of strikeouts.” Tampa Bay’s pitching was in the top seven in those categories. So Hyde noted it is hard to string together hits to score runs, but also hard to homer to produce them quicker. “So when you have second and third and one out and don’t score against them, you do end up wondering if that is ever coming around again in the game.”

— And homers may be tougher to come by. Roenicke was back home in California and observed the weather was unseasonably warm and that it would help the ball carry at spacious Petco Park. But cooler weather was due later this week and could negate power if the best-of-five goes long. “The Yankees are such a different offensive team at home. They have so many righthanders who can just inside-out a homer to right (at home). That will be tougher (in San Diego).”

— Montoyo said not to downplay that rosters are 28 men rather than 25 or even 26. “The bench is really loaded (for Tampa Bay). If you start a lefty (like J.A. Happ or Jordan Montgomery), they will play Brandon Lowe and Kevin Kiermaier, but another five lefties will be sitting on the bench waiting for you to bring in your righty reliever. And they will go to it quickly. The theory there is why wait to use your pinch-hitters against the elite late-game relievers. They will try to gain an advantage no matter where you are in the game.”