Orioles dismantle Rangers as Cardinals thwart the Braves
Source: Agencies |
October 7, 2012, Sunday
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THE Baltimore Orioles' improbable ride continued on Friday when they hammered the Texas Rangers 5-1 in Major League Baseball's first one-game AL wildcard showdown.
Left-hander Joe Saunders, who was 0-6 with a 9.38 earned run average in six previous starts at Rangers Ballpark in Texas, held the Rangers to one run on six hits and a walk through 5 2/3 innings with four strikeouts.
"As a baseball player and an athlete, you always want to prove people wrong," Saunders said. "We strive on that, and I strive on that, too.
"No one really gave me a chance, and I wanted to go out there and prove people wrong. It was a little dicey in the first inning, walking (Ian) Kinsler to lead off, and then just got a big double play."
In the National League wild-card game, the St Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 6-3 in Atlanta.
The Braves-Cardinals game was held up for 19 minutes in the eighth inning as irate fans rained trash onto the field to protest a controversial umpiring call.
But the Braves' elimination was less due to the umpires than it was to a throwing error by Chipper Jones that led to three Cardinals runs.
St Louis, the reigning World Series champions, advanced to a best-of-five National League Division Series against the Washington Nationals.
For Texas, it was a crushing end to the 2012 campaign as they had a four-game division lead with six games to play but lost the AL West crown after dropping nine of their last 13 regular-season games.
"We just didn't get it done," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "It came down to being able to execute against good pitching, and it wasn't the base hits or anything like that, it was just the fundamentals."
Left-hander Joe Saunders, who was 0-6 with a 9.38 earned run average in six previous starts at Rangers Ballpark in Texas, held the Rangers to one run on six hits and a walk through 5 2/3 innings with four strikeouts.
"As a baseball player and an athlete, you always want to prove people wrong," Saunders said. "We strive on that, and I strive on that, too.
"No one really gave me a chance, and I wanted to go out there and prove people wrong. It was a little dicey in the first inning, walking (Ian) Kinsler to lead off, and then just got a big double play."
In the National League wild-card game, the St Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 6-3 in Atlanta.
The Braves-Cardinals game was held up for 19 minutes in the eighth inning as irate fans rained trash onto the field to protest a controversial umpiring call.
But the Braves' elimination was less due to the umpires than it was to a throwing error by Chipper Jones that led to three Cardinals runs.
St Louis, the reigning World Series champions, advanced to a best-of-five National League Division Series against the Washington Nationals.
For Texas, it was a crushing end to the 2012 campaign as they had a four-game division lead with six games to play but lost the AL West crown after dropping nine of their last 13 regular-season games.
"We just didn't get it done," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "It came down to being able to execute against good pitching, and it wasn't the base hits or anything like that, it was just the fundamentals."
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