DAVID GINSBURG
AP Sports Writer
BALTIMORE (AP) — So, the Detroit Tigers have sent two Cy Young winners to the mound in their AL Division Series against the Baltimore Orioles and given up 19 runs in two defeats.
Maybe David Price — the third Cy Young winner in the Tigers’ rotation — will have better luck in Detroit on Sunday, when the Tigers seek to dig themselves out of a 2-0 hole in the best-of-five series.
It probably will depend on the Detroit bullpen, and whether the Tigers can find a way to put the lid on a dangerous Baltimore lineup that can strike at any time.
The Orioles took command of the series with a 7-6 comeback win Friday. The decisive rally came in the eighth inning against a bullpen that thus far has provided little support to the team’s esteemed starters.
Although Max Scherzer took the loss in the opener, that game became a rout after Baltimore scored eight runs in the eighth.
On Friday, Justin Verlander left in the sixth with a 5-3 lead. Anibal Sanchez held the advantage through the seventh, but Baltimore rallied in the eighth to win it.
Both times Joba Chamberlain and Joakim Soria were victimized in the eighth. What happens next time?
“I don’t know that I necessarily have an answer for that,” Detroit manager Brad Ausmus said. “But if we have a lead in the eighth inning on Sunday, we’re going to have to find somebody.”
It might not matter, because the Orioles appear capable of hitting against anyone. Although Verlander put the Tigers in position to win, Baltimore worked him hard enough so that he had to leave after throwing 101 pitches in five-plus innings.
“We talked to him after he came out in the (fifth) and he said he was running low,” Ausmus said.
It was 6-3 with one out in the eighth when Chamberlain hit Adam Jones with a pitch and gave up a single to Nelson Cruz. Steve Pearce singled in a run, and the towel-waving, orange-clad fans among the sellout crowd of 48,058 sensed another comeback win by a team that won 10 games during the regular season during its final at-bat.
Soria entered and walked Hardy to load the bases for Delmon Young, who hit a three-run double to cap the comeback.
Young went 10 for 20 as a pinch-hitter during the regular season. He also was the AL championship series MVP in 2012 — for the Tigers — when they swept the Yankees.
“It’s very hard to sit around and not know where the consistent at-bats are coming,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “He has done the things that you need to do to give yourself a chance to be successful.”
In the top of the eighth, base running was a key point. Miguel Cabrera was thrown out at the plate when he tried to score right behind Torii Hunter on Victor Martinez’s double with no outs.
“I was watching the play develop and hoping they both would make it,” Ausmus said.
Zach Britton got three straight outs for the save.
Soria wound up with the loss, but Chamberlain took the blame.
“This one is on me. There’s no getting around it,” he said. “Obviously, if I don’t put us in that situation, then we’re having a different conversation.”
The defeat left Detroit’s bid to reach the ALCS for a fourth straight year in serious jeopardy.
“We’re 0-2. We understand it,” Ausmus said. “It doesn’t really affect us playing Game 3. If you win Game 3, you go on to Game 4.”
Price owns a career record of 7-3 against the Orioles. Cruz is 7 for 19 (.368) with two homers against the left-hander.
The Orioles will call upon Miguel Gonzalez, who will make his second career postseason start Sunday. In the first one, he allowed just one run in seven innings against the Yankees in 2012.
The right-hander is 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in three lifetime starts against Detroit.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
