Birds have historic Opening Day win

With Thursday’s now seemingly traditional Opening Day walk off victory, the Baltimore Orioles are undefeated, in first place (OK, so it’s a three-way tie for first) in the American League East Division and are on pace to win 162 games!

The Birds started the season looking like a contender, at least in the pitching department. Dylan Bundy engaged in a pitching duel with the Twins’ Jake Odorizzi, with both hurlers tossing shutout ball (Odorizzi left the game after six innings and Bundy exited after seven).

The Birds scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh and reliever Darren O’Day held the Twins scoreless in the eighth before giving way to Brad Brach to close out the ninth.

If only.

I was already getting a bad feeling, because I was watching the game in an establishment where the “fans” were already bashing players, second-guessing management and otherwise putting down the home team (it always amazes me when a bunch of guys are bellied up to a bar, guzzling beer and talking like they know more than the professionals who have been in the baseball industry for decades, but that’s a story for another day).

The folks who weren’t bashing the Birds were already putting the game in the win column and looking toward Saturday night’s game. Such talk always makes me cringe. It ain’t over ’til it’s over, and I get quite superstitious when watching one of pro sports’ most superstitious games.

And sure enough, Brach had a meltdown that saw a precarious two-run lead disappear.

Brach had a horrible outing, loading the bases and giving up two runs to tie the game. He recorded just two outs and was yanked in favor of Mychal Givens, who finally ended the painful inning with no additional damage and return to toss a scoreless 10th.

Richard Bleier got the nod to pitch the 11th, recorded three scoreless outs and found himself the Opening Day winner when outfielder Adam Jones sent the first pitch of the bottom of the 11th into the left field seats for a 3-2 win over the Twins.

Jones’ walk off homer continued a streak of Opening Day dramatic wins for the Birds. Fans might remember last year’s walk off home run by Mark Trumbo, and catcher Matt Wieters hit a single to bat in the winning run in the 2016 opener. Coincidentally, Trumbo’s homer also came in the 11th inning, resulting in a 3-2 win over the Blue Jays.

The three consecutive walk off victories, an MLB record, will undoubtedly be fodder for sports trivia quizzes in the future.

Obviously, I was being facetious in saying the Birds are on pace to win 162 games, but part of the glory of a new baseball season is to dream and dream big.

So, remember to cheer FOR the home team, let the professionals do their jobs and don’t put the game in the win column (or the loss column, for that matter) until the final out is recorded.

Let’s go O’s!