BALTIMORE—The Bowie Baysox, who began the season with a 7-23 record, are in the Eastern League Championship Series. The Baysox beat the Harrisburg Senators three games to one in the best-of-five Western Division series and face the Trenton Thunder, who swept Reading.
The best-of-five championship series begins Tuesday in Trenton, New Jersey. The second game is Wednesday, and the third, and, if necessary, fourth and fifth games are at Prince George’s Stadium Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Orioles reliever Dillon Tate, who spent most of the season with the Baysox, attended Bowie’s Game 1 win over Harrisburg.
“It all started with one guy playing well, and it just kind of carried over to the next guy wanting to produce,” Tate said of Bowie’s hot streak.
“I think guys caught a little bit of momentum, and then they kept that up. Slowly, one after another, guys just started following suit. Then the next thing you know, we were hot — really, really hot.”
Tate’s move to the bullpen helped the Baysox.
“It was surprising, honestly, because we were slowly starting to see ourselves creeping up,” Tate said. “We were happy to just get close to .500 at one point. We surpassed that, and guys just wanted more, and we kept going and going and going.”
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde is happy to see the Baysox make it to the championship series.
“It’s exciting for one of our teams with some prospects on it to do well and we hope they continue … I’m pulling for them,” Hyde said.
“To see our prospects be a part of winning clubs is always positive. You want to see them do well individually, but also being a part of winning clubs says a lot about the organization. We’re doing things well. In Bowie, for example, we’re pitching really well. Throughout our system, we’re pitching really well.”
Tate, Mychal Givens and Anthony Santander attended last Wednesday’s game. It wasn’t strange for Tate to go back.
“No, not at all,” he said. “I’ve been with those guys the majority of the year. I just felt like I really needed to go out there and show my support because I’m still a part of that team, too. I think it was good that I went out there.”
In July 2018, Tate was playing with Trenton when he was traded from the New York Yankees to the Orioles along with Cody Carroll and Josh Rogers for Zack Britton.
Tate isn’t looking forward to the series more because the Baysox are playing the Thunder.
“Not so much that they’re playing Trenton,” he said. “Just for the fact where we started. That’s the biggest thing, and I think Trenton is more of the cherry on top, getting that win and taking home the championship. I’m always rooting for my guys. I definitely want Bowie to take it home.”
Orioles to face Dodgers: The Orioles play their final interleague series of the season when the Los Angeles Dodgers come to Baltimore for three games beginning Tuesday.
The Dodgers, who have the best record in the National League, have a magic number of two to clinch the NL West.
“I still follow the National League,” Hyde said. “I still watch all the highlights and read up on how things are going and see how well they’re doing.
“It’s a really tough team to play against. They have really good starting pitching … They’ve always mixed and matched well out of the bullpen, and their lineup is incredibly athletic. They can do so many things. They have so many moveable parts.
“They have speed. They have huge power, a lot of versatile guys. It’s a tough team to play against.”
Ty Blach faces Walker Buehler on Tuesday. John Means and Dylan Bundy face Ross Stripling and Rich Hill, who pitched for the Orioles in 2007, Wednesday and Thursday.
Hyde chose the left-handed Blach, who faced the Dodgers when the was with the San Francisco Giants. Blach is 4-2 with a 2.87 ERA in 13 games against Los Angeles.
“The bottom line is we wanted to push Means and Bundy and give them an extra day,” Hyde said.
Clayton Kershaw, who is not scheduled to pitch in this series, has never faced the Orioles.
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Os getting in better position to secure one of those two top draft picks. That’s probably the best thing that could happen for the organization in the last couple of weeks of this season. Develop that pipeline! Next year will be a different story with the ascendancy of some of this youthful pitching in Bowie and Norfolk. They will starting winning more next year, and challenge for the playoffs the following year. Just get the right pitchers developed and up here, and then, they will be competitive again.
Not sure you’re going to see much pitching help from this year’s Bowie team next year. Maybe Akin from Norfolk at some point, and Zimmerman, Kremer, or Lowther near the end of the season. I don’t think Elias has any desire to rush the kids to the majors. And if they challenge for the playoffs in 2021, I will tip my cap to you.
I think .500 ball in 2021 would be a more realistic expectation.
The Dodgers have won the last 2 NL pennants and come up short in the World Series both times. I would hope that if they clinch in Baltimore, their celebration would be somewhat subdued. They pretty much wrapped up the NL West in May. This would only be the first step in what they hope to be a long playoff run. So Dodgers, don’t trash the visiting clubhouse too much. Save it for when you win the World Series
Ty Blach vs Walker Buehler in game 1. That won’t be pretty.
Trenton is being allowed to use rehabbing big leaguers in this series. Jordan Montgomery is scheduled to start the first game, and Betances and Tarpley are expected to pitch in that game also. In game two they are expected to start Severino, and Stanton may also play. There is also talk that Sabathia might pitch. The real weird thing is, the big league pitchers will be required to use the juiced big league balls while Bowie pitchers will use minor league balls.