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Baltimore Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter talked to reporters on Monday about going into a winner-takes-all matchup like tonight’s American League Wild Card Game with the Toronto Blue Jays. It’s different, Showalter acknowledged.
“There is a sense of finality,” Showalter said. “There are times during the season you may not put your best foot forward so you can be consistent over the long haul, because of health and putting people in harm's way. Not that we'll do that tomorrow, but there are some differences that you have to grasp. You don't worry about tomorrow or the next day. Everything is about that nine innings or 10 or 11, whatever it might be.
“There are some times during the course of the game that it may happen earlier than usual that you may attack it differently. You also have some things available to you from a bullpen standpoint and a bench that you don't during the season.”
Fighting for the right to compete in tonight’s game, Blue Jays’ skipper John Gibbons said, helped to prepare his team for the nature of tonight’s win-or-go-home tension.
“You know, I would think it has to,” Gibbons said. “You look back over the past few years, a lot of Wild Card teams have done very well. Maybe that's the reason. You normally have to take it down to the very end, and maybe that does something to you, hardens you up a little bit. I'm not sure. But the fact that it's two teams that have done that, so I don't know who has the advantage in that.
“But I've got to believe just from looking at the results from the last few years, maybe it does benefit you for whoever advances, anyway.”
One team will have their season end tonight. Who’s going to move on to face the Texas Rangers in the ALDS?
We’ll find out at 8:00 PM tonight. Chris Tillman for the Orioles vs Marcus Stroman for the Blue Jays.
Tillman vs the Blue Jays:
| Blue Jays | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SH | SF | IBB | HBP | GDP | missG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edwin Encarnacion | 63 | 58 | 17 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 7 | .293 | .333 | .500 | .833 | 1 | 3 | |||||
| Jose Bautista | 54 | 45 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 11 | .267 | .370 | .556 | .926 | 1 | ||||||
| Josh Donaldson | 36 | 35 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 4 | .257 | .278 | .486 | .763 | 2 | ||||||
| Ryan Goins | 28 | 27 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | .333 | .357 | .444 | .802 | ||||||||
| Kevin Pillar | 24 | 23 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 4 | .348 | .333 | .783 | 1.116 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| Russell Martin | 23 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 2 | .429 | .652 | .643 | 1.295 | 2 | |||||||
| Michael Saunders | 23 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | .286 | .348 | .619 | .967 | 2 | ||||||
| Dioner Navarro | 21 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | .286 | .286 | .333 | .619 | |||||||||
| Justin Smoak | 20 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | .200 | .400 | .267 | .667 | ||||||||
| Melvin Upton | 17 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | .214 | .353 | .500 | .853 | |||||||
| Troy Tulowitzki | 13 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | .417 | .462 | 1.250 | 1.712 | 1 | |||||||
| Ezequiel Carrera | 11 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | .300 | .364 | .600 | .964 | 1 | ||||||||
| Devon Travis | 9 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | .375 | .444 | 1.000 | 1.444 | |||||||
| Dalton Pompey | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | .571 | .571 | 1.714 | 2.286 | |||||||
| Darwin Barney | 4 | 4 | 3 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | ||||||||||||
| Total | 353 | 314 | 94 | 24 | 2 | 20 | 55 | 32 | 53 | .299 | .368 | .580 | .948 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
Stroman vs the Orioles:
| Orioles | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SH | SF | IBB | HBP | GDP | missG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adam Jones | 16 | 15 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .400 | .438 | .400 | .838 | 1 | ||||||||
| Matt Wieters | 15 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 2 | .357 | .400 | .857 | 1.257 | |||||||
| Chris Davis | 14 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 4 | .308 | .286 | .308 | .593 | 1 | |||||||||
| Jonathan Schoop | 14 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .214 | .214 | .286 | .500 | |||||||||
| Manny Machado | 13 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | .250 | .231 | .583 | .814 | 1 | |||||||
| Mark Trumbo | 12 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | .455 | .500 | .636 | 1.136 | 1 | ||||||||
| Ryan Flaherty | 11 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | .273 | .273 | .636 | .909 | 1 | |||||||
| J.J. Hardy | 11 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .091 | .091 | .182 | .273 | 1 | |||||||||
| Hyun Soo Kim | 9 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | .429 | .556 | .429 | .984 | 1 | |||||||||
| Pedro Alvarez | 8 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .375 | .375 | .750 | 1.125 | |||||||||
| Michael Bourn | 8 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .286 | .375 | .286 | .661 | 1 | ||||||||
| Caleb Joseph | 3 | 3 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | ||||||||||||
| Paul Janish | 1 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | |||||||||||||
| Total | 135 | 127 | 38 | 7 | 5 | 21 | 5 | 21 | .299 | .326 | .472 | .798 | 2 | 1 | 5 |