About last night
O’s shut out for the first time in 49 games, lose to Jays
Schmuck: Now is not the time for Orioles to panic
Dylan Bundy makes his home debut
Hoes and Bundy win top minor league awards
Randy Wolf (elbow) could be lost for the season
Jason Hammel (knee) takes a step in his recovery
Tuesday’s full scoreboard
AL East Standings
NYY 89-65 —
BAL 88-67 1.5
TB 84-70 5
AL Wild-Card Standings
BAL 88-67 —
OAK 87-67 —
LAA 85-69 2
TB 84-70 3
DET/CWS 82-72 5
Today’s game
Blue Jays at Orioles, 7:05 p.m.
RHP Carlos Villanueva (7-6, 3.88 ERA) vs. RHP Miguel Gonzalez (7-4, 3.52 ERA)
Key matchup
Mark Reynolds (5-for-14 with two homers), Chris Davis (5-for-8 with 2 homers) and J.J. Hardy (8-for-15 with 1 homer) have all had success against Villanueva in their careers. He’s got a 6.92 ERA in three appearances (two starts) against the Orioles this season despite posting solid numbers overall.
Other games that matter
Yankees (Sabathia) at Twins (Deduno), 1:10 p.m.
Royals (Guthrie) at Tigers (Porcello), 7:05 p.m.
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Rays (Cobb) at Red Sox (Lester), 7:10 p.m.
Athletics (Parker) at Rangers (Perez), 8:05 p.m.
Indians (Masterson) at White Sox (Santiago), 8:10 p.m.
Mariners (Hernandez) at Angels (Wilson), 10:05 p.m.
Thought of the day
Debating who should win the postseason awards is one of the more entertaining elements of baseball — and sports in general.
We love to get an early start doing so, but in reality, these late moments are where they should be earned.
A couple weeks back we wrote about Buck Showalter and Bob Melvin being the leading candidates for American League Manager of the Year. You can certainly toss Chicago’s Robin Ventura in that conversation, too.
But for all three of those guys, their most important work might be coming over the next eight days.
Many people have said that the Orioles looked tight last night. That’s a natural reaction to this situation, but it’s Buck’s job to make sure that doesn’t linger throughout the weekend.
Same is true for Melvin with the A’s (who can hear footsteps from the Angels) and Ventura with the White Sox (who have dropped into a tie with Detroit for the AL Central lead).
It’s taken impressive work for each of those managers to get their teams in this position, and it’s going to be even more intriguing to see which ones thrive under the greatest pressure this final week.
Inside the enemy clubhouses
Gardner back with Yanks as pinch-runner, defensive sub
Josh Hamilton rooting for Cabrera to get triple crown
It’s all about the rookie starters for Oakland A’s
Angels rooting for Rangers to beat A’s
Home runs alone can’t save White Sox
Poll question