Tonight at 7:10 p.m. ET, the Baltimore Orioles (81-70) look to continue their pursuit of a wildcard spot when they go for a sweep against the American League East-leading Boston Red Sox (92-61) at Fenway Park in the final contest of a three-game set between the two AL East rivals. The game can be live streamed here. Baltimore fans can listen in on the action by turning their dials to 1090 WBAL, while Red Sox fans can do the same at WEEI 93.7.
While the Orioles are looking to sweep and get closer to a wildcard berth, the Red Sox can clinch a playoff spot of their own with a victory tonight.
The Orioles took the first two games of the series with a 3-2 victory on Tuesday night and a thrilling 5-3 victory in 12 innings Wednesday, and Boston will look to try to avoid the sweep while simultaneously attempting to keep their division foes from gaining ground in the wildcard race. The Orioles will send out Chris Tillman (16-6, 3.70 ERA in 30 games) to the mound while John Lackey (12-12, 6.41, 28) toes the rubber for the Red Sox.
Baltimore's 4-1 start to its road trip, combined with the Texas Rangers (82-69) recent swoon has left the team just one game shy of Texas for the second wildcard spot in the AL, with the Cleveland Indians (82-70) just ahead of Baltimore by a half-game, making this game all the more important to the Orioles. Baltimore is also looking to protect its 1.5 game lead over the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees, who share identical records of 80-72.
With just 11 games remaining, Orioles manager Buck Showalter knows he needs to keep his team focused and not feel pressure from the other teams that surround them.
"Somehow I don't look at this team when I watch them play as a team that's all tightened up with pressure. I don't," Showalter told MLB.com. "They've got a lot of oil on their backs, things kind of slide off them really well. Doesn't mean they don't care -- I can tell you that."
The Orioles have at least a couple of statistics on their side heading into tonight as they are leading the season series 9-6 and Tillman is 3-0 this season against Boston with a 1.42 ERA through four starts and held them to just two runs over seven innings the last time he visited Fenway Park this year.
Still, Tillman is coming off a loss to the last place Toronto Blue Jays in his last outing, and looks to turn it around.
Lackey knows a little something about needing to turn things around as his past two outings against the Yankees didn't go well. Lackey gave up a combined 11 runs and 15 hits over 12 innings in both of those appearances.
The Red Sox received some hopeful news on the injury front as center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who fractured his foot after hitting a foul ball off of it on Aug. 28 and has been sidelined since Sept. 5 after playing on the injury for about a week, said he's optimistic he'll return before the end of the regular season.
"The docs have put me on a fast track as far as a plan and getting back as quick as possible," Ellsbury said.
Ellsbury leads the majors with 52 stolen bases this season. The Orioles have a league leader in their own right as first baseman Chris Davis leads the league with 51 homers, and also broke Brady Anderson's mark for the franchise's single-season long ball record. Davis is also tied with Detroit's Miguel Cabrera for the league lead in RBIs with 134.
It will be the battle of two teams looking to head to October and trying to outlast one another in the final game of this series tonight, as the Red Sox look to clinch a playoff berth with a win and the Orioles look to leave the champagne on ice by spoiling the party and continuing their pursuit of a wildcard berth.
© 2023 Sportsworldnews.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
