Yankees, Orioles set to renew rivalry

Yankees, Orioles set to renew rivalry

September 6th, 2012

admin

There was a time during the mid-1990s when the Red Sox were not the Yankees’ biggest rivals. That distinction belonged to the Orioles.

During the early years of the Joe Torre era, Baltimore represented the biggest threat to the Yankees in the AL East, most notably in 1996 and 1997.

Cal Ripken, Mike Mussina and the Birds won the AL Wild Card after putting a big scare in the Yankees in 1996, cutting a 12-game lead down to 2 ½ games between July 28 and September 9. (Sound familiar?)

That October, the Yankees and Orioles found themselves locked in the ALCS, a series which will forever be remembered by Jeffrey Maier’s big catch in right field.

A year later, the Yankees actually finished second to Baltimore, settling for the wild card before ultimately being bounced in the first round by Cleveland.

In 1998, things got so tense between the two teams that they boiled over on May 19, resulting in one of the most memorable brawls of the past 25 years.

Why am I bringing all of this up? The Yankees and Orioles will kick off a four-game series at Camden Yards on Thursday that could likely decide the AL East, making for the biggest series between the teams in nearly 15 years.

“Everyone knows the importance of it,” Joe Girardi said after escaping Tampa Bay with a win Wednesday night. “You’ve got three teams that are really grouped together. You can go back to when we talked in spring training; we thought our division was going to be extremely tough and there were going to be teams grouped together in the month of September and it was going to go down to the end. It’s four big games in Baltimore.”

Derek Jeter and the Yankees have gone through plenty of big series over the years, but this is about as big as it’s been for Adam Jones, Nick Markakis and the rest of Buck Showalter’s club. Despite their difference in experience, Jeter isn’t taking anything for granted.

“I think you throw age out the window; those guys have been up for a while, playing together for a while,” Jeter said. “Buck has them playing good baseball. We’re 130-something games into the season; they’re right there. They deserve a lot of credit, they’ve done a lot of good things and it’s going to be tough for us.”

The Yankees enter the series with a one-game lead on the Orioles, leaving them 2 ½ games ahead of the Rays. The Bombers are 7-7 against the Orioles this season, including a 4-1 mark at Camden Yards.

“Do I feel like we have a great team? Yes, I do. Do I feel like they’re having a great season? I do. That’s why it’s going to be fun, man,” Nick Swisher said. “We’ve got to play it out. It’s late in the year, everyone’s a little tired right now, and pitching’s going to be crucial. Obviously, going into their ballpark, we feel comfortable over there, but we’ve still got to go out there and keep putting up the W’s.”