Another miserable home game before a 55% empty house, as the Oriole fans had to endure another easy Red Sox victory in their house.
So the O’s now hold the 2nd wild card spot by a tiny thread. 10 games left–you would have to think no less then 7-3 will be necessary for the O’s to secure a spot in the tournament.
2-5 at home in the most important stretch of the season is unthinkable.
Can’t blame Ubaldo for this one–5 1/3 innings 0 ER
THE BRIGHT SPOT—10 games left and the O’s are still in it–hope exists and we have our ace going tonight —Chris Tillman—Can he stop the bleeding?
Todd
Thanks for the shout out to MD soccer and field hockey on last night’s show. Of course, I have a few bits to add.
While it’s nice to have that number one by you name, I’d tell your listeners to take that with some caution. This is a flawed team at this moment and isn’t one I’d necessarily favor in head to head match-ups with some of the other top teams in the country. That’s especially true on defense where they’ve had a major lapse in nearly every game. They are very good offensively but the defensive problems will be costly against quality teams on nights when they struggle to finish.
The last two games exemplify that. MD was a yanked shirt away from losing at Rutgers. Against Happy Valley U, the Terps first two goals came on PKs that were both the result of favorable calls. (Both were fouls but the ref could have held his whistle on the first and placed the second outside the 18.) The visitors meanwhile scored two goals on two shots because of major breakdowns in the defense.
Traditionally, Sasho’s teams get better as the year progresses and I have no reason to believe that won’t be the case this year so the Terps might well be College Cup worthy by the end of the season. Still, this is something that bears watching.
As for field hockey, I think they might be a bit better than their number 6 ranking. We’ll get a really good feel for that this week when they play two more ranked teams on the road (at #15 Iowa tomorrow and at #11 jNW Sunday).
Their only losses this season are at neutral sites against #1 Syracuse and #2 Duke. I didn’t see either game but I’ve heard near unanimity from people who saw the latter that MD had much the better play but simply ran into a goalie who stood on her head as they say. I did see the game in PA against BC and all but one half of their three recent home games and MD’s improvement between the weekend games against Cal & AU to their win over Indiana this past Sunday was astonishing.
The cautionary tale here comes from last season. After an early three game losing streak, the Terps went on a roll and had a stretch in the middle of the season when they looked like a juggernaut. They faded some at the end though when they Iowa pushed them to double OT in the last game of the year, they had another double OT game in the B1G Tournament and then wound up losing to Princeton in the NCAA first round.
One last note, I’d guess Tuesday’s win over Princeton was a bit emotional for Missy. The Tigers are coached by Carla Tagliente and their new assistant is Dina Rizzo another Terps great who had been Missy’s top assistant for a number of years.
· 11/12/2019