When the Yankees ousted the upstart Orioles from the playoffs last season, questions were immediately posed whether the Birds could repeat the magic that ended a 15-year postseason drought.
But nine months later, the Orioles look just as good, looking like the team that tormented them for years. Displaying the kind of offense made famous in The Bronx, though now foreign to the borough, the Orioles swept a three-game series from the Yankees last weekend in Baltimore for the first time since 2005.
Playing in a division where it is plausible that every team could finish with a winning record, the Yankees can make up the lost ground tonight when they begin a three-game series against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.
“You certainly have payback on your mind, you think, now you got them in our park and this is your chance to do something,” said YES analyst Ken Singleton, who will be part of a three-man booth calling this weekend’s games. “They’re a division rival. The team that plays the best within the division this year is going to have a huge leg up when it comes to making the playoffs. You have to play other divisions, but division games are almost like two games. You lose and you’re losing ground while they gain ground.”
Chris Davis has led the Orioles in a first half that has been as powerful and productive as any Yankee, from Ruth to Rodriguez. The first baseman has almost already surpassed his career-highs in home runs and RBIs, leading the majors with 32 homers, while driving in 83 runs.
His teammates, including likely fellow All-Star starters Adam Jones and J.J. Hardy, have helped amass the team’s major league-high 117 home runs and the second-most runs in the majors.
With the Yankees ranked in baseball’s bottom-half of offenses for the first time since before Bill Clinton became President, the team’s pitching staff can’t just quiet the high-powered O’s offense, they have put their bats on mute.
“I think [the Yankees’ rotation] know what’s up, at least for now,” Singleton said. “They have to pitch a very credible game for the Yankees to have a chance to win. The offense hasn’t been Yankees-like, or at least what we’re used to seeing.”
The series with the Orioles opens a 10-game homestand for the Yankees, which ends with the All-Star break. It likely marks the last prolonged stretch of this version of the Yankees’ makeshift minor-league lineup, with Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter anticipated to return shortly after the break.
The Yankees finish the homestand against two teams below .500 — the Royals and Twins.
“There’s half a season to go and the Yankees are going to get healthier,” Singleton said. “In a lot of ways, this might be more interesting than some of the Yankees seasons of the past when they just went out and ran away from everyone. It’s been a foregone conclusion in a lot of other years that they were going to make the playoffs and that’s not the case this year. This is going to be a 162-[game] season.”