The Polar Bear Plunge: Alonso Walks It Off After Ninth-Inning Miracle

Pete Alonso’s 9th-inning walk-off saves the O’s from a sweep in a 6-5 thriller over the Jays! We break down the comeback and share post-game audio from Craig Albernaz and Pete Alonso. #Birdland #BaltimoreOrioles #MLBonX

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

What's going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back into another episode of the Charmed City Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollahan. We're back here on this now a little bit earlier in the uh Sunday morning, a little past midnight, here as we're coming to you as the Baltimore Orioles they come back in, probably. How many times have we said that this season throughout the first two months? But they come back to beat the Toronto Blue Jays by a final score of six to five. It was a little bit of a carbon copy in a way, like the night before. Now we'll get into all that. We're gonna go through the you know the chronological order of events as we'll get into no doubt the situation that happened Friday evening. We'll talk about as well the first game on Thursday, but we're gonna spend a bulk of it talking about the game, of course, and the task at hand earlier this evening where the Orioles come back to beat the Toronto Blue Jays, and I gotta say, it was a game I mean, how could you not think, you know, you just took two of three to begin the homestand against the Detroit Tigers, you swept the first place Tampa Bay Rays, who have among one of the best records in all of Major League Baseball, and the top team in the American League East, so in your division. And then you, in your first two games, lay an egg offensively Thursday night, lose a game that was inexcusable on Friday, and then you're down five to two heading into the ninth, and you're saying to yourself, My God, this team just took two of three, just swept out the Tampa Bay Rays, you were five and run on this homestand, and now you're five and three, with potentially looking at five and four, and if you get swept tomorrow, you're back from where you started. And against another team that is a formidable opponent in the Toronto Blue Jays, the reigning American League pennant winners, they're also trying to get their season steered back in the right direction, the Blue Jays, whom uh did reach 500 yesterday in the win. But yesterday being, of course, Friday, not Saturday, depending upon when you're listening to this, but now with the win tonight, obviously you feel a bit better about things. You know, now you're six in three, with a chance to make it seven and three tomorrow to wrap up the end of May. Now, obviously, this has been a series that it it feels like the Orioles are there. You know, because hey, you could sit here tonight and say, you know, oh well they got lucky in the ninth. Well, did the Blue Jays get lucky in the eighth? The day before? I mean, the Blue Jays came back down five-nothing. Granted, they did it in a shorter or had a longer order of uh time to do so there in the ninth, but still, they had to come back uh in their own right. And the first game I thought was really in a sense disheartening because you went out there and you had so many great at-bats against Tampa Bay. I mean, obviously Monday was Monday on Memorial Day, but Tuesday and Wednesday were just perfect in terms of the way the Orioles played, in terms of their offense, in terms of their starting pitching. And you got starting pitching Thursday evening. I mean, Chris Bassett did, you know, God's work. Goes six innings, gives up a run on four hits, only two strikeouts, but hey, he was effective. He was very effective at that. Did a really outstanding job uh being able to just continuously inning after inning, the Blue Jays would get traffic on. And Bassett, I shouldn't say inning after inning, but at times the Blue Jays would get traffic on and Bassett would turn them away. And the Orioles offense, after trailing early on the Andre Simenez solo homer, they just were unable, so many 1-2-3 innings again, so many innings where it just looked like they were outmatched by Patrick Corbin at times, um, just unable to break through. Kobe Mayo hits his sixth homer of the year, one-one pitch, sends it 400 feet. Uh he has shown you he can hit some really uh nice, emphatic long balls, and then you're tied at one, and you go into the top of the eighth, and the Orioles have to bring in Anthony Nunez. Anthony Nunez is a guy that Craig Albernez and his staff, I assume, feel as though with Yunir Kano obviously having that hamstring issue against the Tampa Bay Rays, you know, they did not have him available, and I thought originally he might miss some time. I mean, hamstring issue is nothing to joke about, especially just in sports in general, and when you're a pitcher having to push off, you know, off the mound, I mean, that is a difficult situation to pitch in, so I assumed he might hit the IL. Well, they just kind of gave him a day as Grant Wolfram gives way to Anthony Nunez in the top of the eighth, and Nunez gives off the leadoff double to George Springer on a 2-2 sweeper that catches too much of the zone. And then a sack bunt by Luke's puts him at third, and then they intentionally walk Vlad Guerrero Jr. Not a bad decision, also sets up the double play, but you walk Dalton Varsho on five pitches, nothing really close. I mean, didn't even look like he wanted any part of pitching to Varsho. And then you get to Akamoto, and he gets him to strike out. But unfortunately, on the at-bat to Penango, 3-1 pitch, that again Nunez is pretty much all over. He gets ahead on the first pitch changeup, but aside from that, not not good. You know, four straight balls after that. Adley Rutschman tries challenging, it's upheld, it's a 2-1 lead, and then in the bottom of the eighth, Taylor Ward leads off with a single, Gunner strikes out, need him to come through in that situation. Adley grounds into a force, they get the lead runner at second and ward, and then you get Pete Alonzo to beat out an infield single. You think, alright, two on, two out, but when you see who is coming up to bat there, to because you had to bring in someone defensively as Samuel Basayo pinched hit for Kobe Mayo, and he obviously would rather have Weston Wilson come into play third, of course, than Samuel Basayo. Although maybe kind of say to yourself, well, do we sure put Weston Wilson in at third, but we bring Basal in to catch? I mean, you can kind of toy with that situation, so that but regardless, would you take Adley? It wouldn't make sense to take Adley out of the game there. So you have to bring Weston Wilson into this situation. And it's kind of like, all right, it's up to him. Well, it was taken out of his hands because Pete Alonso gets picked off over at first, and I mean a situation that i it can't happen. I mean, that is an inexcusable situation to be picked off at first base. Because I mean, l let's kind of face it, you know, the money he's making in a time like that, you you can't have that happen. And of course, we'll revisit that in a moment. But that pretty much did it for the night. The Orioles, you know, Will Weston flew out to end or to start the bottom of the ninth. Leote Tavares won out single, so the go-ahead run comes to play. Tying run at first, and then Colton Kowser can't come through this time as he grounds out to short, they get the lead runner at second, then Jackson Holiday grounds out to Vlad Guerrero Jr. And the Blue Jays take game one. Well, game two yesterday was one that fell. And after the game in the clubhouse, well, let's uh let's actually start off here with this. Because game two, I'll get to what what I noticed in the clubhouse later. I already put it out there on socials, but I wanted to talk about it here as well. I planned on talking about it after the series, anyways, and I figured even though they had a walk-off win tonight, I still think it's worth discussing. Now, they go out early, or fairly early, guess not early, early, in the second game of the series, with Trevor Rogers pitching, and Rogers 1-2-3 in the first, gives up the one-out triple to Dalton Varshow, but comes back to get McAdoo and Straw. You know, McAdoo to strike out. Straw lines out to Holiday, gets out of the jam there, or gets out of the runner being 90 feet away from scoring. 1-2-3 in the top of the third. Then the offense gets the first run of the game. Holiday with leadoff single, word a walk, wild pitch, moves Ward and Holiday to second and third, Gunner walks, Adley walks, one-nothing O's, Basayo, sack fly, two nothing, manufacturing runs, good at bats, and it's 2-0 O's. And you drive up, because the you know, the kind of the best part about that is you're driving up the pitch count of Austin Voth. And Orioles obviously no strangers to their former s former teammate, Austin Voth. Now, it's 2-0, and then we get to the top of the fourth inning, or another 1-2-3 inning for Trevor Rogers. So after sitting, after they gave him an early 2-0 lead, 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth, bottom of the fourth, Jackson Holliday, two away, hits a 1-1 splitter up and in, and uh he just clubs it out to deep right. And I'll tell you, that's a pretty damn fine swing right there by young Jackson Holiday, who's one on one of one on the night, two of two with a blast, three-nothing O's, one-two-three again for Rogers in the top of the fifth, bottom of the fifth, Pete solo blast, Basio follows him with a solo blast, back-to-back homers, the two-one loss of last night's put to bed, and it feels like it's a five-nothing game. They're gonna have their for sure, you would think, their sixth win of the homestand, and they're gonna even this series up at a game apiece with an opportunity to win it on Saturday and Sunday. Well, then we get to the top of the seventh. Vlad Guerrero Jr. lead off single. Kazuma Akamoto hits his 12th homer of the year on a first pitch four seam fastball up and in. Dalton Varshow with a double. Charles McAdoo hits his first homer of the year, and it's a one-run game. Now, I would have assumed you got a guy on the mound who has been struggling up until this point to find consistency throughout the season. Why would you not, and we'll get to it in a moment here, because Craig Albernaz addresses it, why would you not go, hey, you know what? Okay, maybe we'll let him start the the top of the seventh, but we're gonna have someone to come in behind him just in case. Get them warming up. Sure, Vlad leads off with a single. Alright, maybe the guy out in the pen's not ready to come in. Okay, he faces Akamoto. Well, when Akamoto blasts that baseball over the left field wall, you go, okay, that's it. Give me the give me the righty, give me the lefty, you know, whichever way you want to cut it. I guess you had two out of your your three next hitters being lefties. Alright, give give me, you know, Wolfram, whomever. Let's go to the bullpen. But no. You leave him in to give up the double DeVar show, and then the Homer to McAdoo and the momentum. And they don't even have an out yet in the top of the set. So there's still nine outs to be recorded for you to win the game. The Blue Jays make it a one-run game. And here was Trevor Rogers and Craig Albernez afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

That's a struggle. Leaving him in too early, uh leaving him too late. There's a fishing with his pitches and you know where the pen was, but yeah, left him out there too long. Um it was probably he hasn't gone the seventh up in a little bit, so I'm guessing he might have been, I wouldn't say tired, but just not uh his best self out there.

SPEAKER_05 15:49

He hasn't gone that best in quite a while because we're getting tired towards the end, but I leave the ball on my head. I'm gonna give it everything I got for the guys. I think it was a learning moment for both of us. I think I probably should have you know extending, you know, put my ego aside and probably turn it to the bullpen, but you know, this game's about learning and you know, you make adjustments.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Some explaining that sure needed to be done and and give it to Craig Albernez because he didn't stand up there and and didn't sound like a total you know, because there are managers who will stand up there and they won't say, Well, I probably looking back on it should have done something different here. He at least manned up to it, which is all well and good, but ultimately it doesn't help me as a fan when it's a one-run game, and you're sitting there going, oh no, and then Yanir Kano comes in to a one-run game, and you're going, wait a minute, this guy was just pulled the other night, and he gives up back-to-back singles, double, and then he gets a ground out by Akamoto before he's pulled. And it's like, well, wait a minute. Pack up. Was he not just injured the other night with a hamstring? And he's back out there. Now, after the game, here was Craig Albernaz on Cano.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Yeah, Cano was a that's what we get marked. You know, it was just a string of righties that weren't gonna pitch it for that top that spot in the order. And we love the matchups with Cano, and he's been throwing the ball extremely well, so we would definitely be more than comfortable bringing him in there.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Now, I would like to think the Orioles are not foolish enough to just go off of Cano's word alone. And I know Cano knows his body, but listen, you near Cano, and a lot I mean, you can't just go off of him. Someone else has to check that out. Someone else has to be able to give you the go-ahead and say, Yeah, he's he's good to go. Or at the very least, you go, you know what? It's a hamstring problem. Let's hold off here and get and put him at day-to-day, and let's reevaluate maybe at some point over the weekend here, because we don't want to play around with this. And I'm not trying to sit here and say, oh, he's a hundred percent hurt, you know, it's it's worse than what you thought, or whatever. But I I mean, certainly at that time, it's like, hey, that made kind of no sense. Um, go now, I I get it. To an extent, it's like, what else could you do? I mean, you could have said Tyler Wells, we know he can give us length being a starter. Let's see if we can have him try and pitch two innings. Granted, you're going up against Springer, Clement, Guerrero, Akamoto. You know, those are the four hitters there for Wells, that's kind of tough. So I somewhat understand it, but it's like I I feel like it's a little malpractice, though, to bring him in after he was just injured the other day. Now, the Orioles offense, they can't get anything going, and you lose the first two games. And you're saying to yourself, Oh my goodness, tonight's the most excruciating loss in quite a while because it was right there. But not even 24 hours later, Pete Alonzo and I mean, not I obviously not just Pete Alonso, but the seven batters, seven, eight batters ahead of Pete Alonzo in the bottom of the ninth inning, deliver you with a hopefully emotionally changed state of mind. Let's put it that way. Because let's face it, for the majority of this game, it was a pitcher's duel with one guy that, yeah, you I mean you expect to go out there and go five, six innings and you savage and just dominate a lineup. But he goes five innings, he gave up nine base runners, seven walks, two hits, the run by Gunnar Henderson. Brandon Young, I mean, let's face it, you know, he wasn't all over the place. He he wasn't obviously maybe as strong in terms of he also gave up his fair share of base runners. He gave up seven hits. You savage those seven walks, so you pick and choose free passes or hits, which one? But Young, six and two-thirds, gives up two runs, seven strikeouts. All you can ask is for him to keep you in this game. And he did just that. He's been looking very, very solid now a 3-3-5 ERA for Brandon Young. But Anthony Nunez, it was another difficult day at the office for him. He gives up two more runs, and suddenly as Albert Suarez in the top of the ninth gives up, or well, he didn't give up the run, but a run was uh given up in that inning. It's now a 5 2 game. And or 5 1 game. I'm sorry, 5 1 game into the bottom of the ninth. Basal leads it off with a strikeout against Jeff Hoffman, who hey, we remember last year with Jeff Hoffman. coming off the mound, uh blowing a kiss over at the Orioles dugout in April, middle of April, because, you know, obviously the Orioles did not sign him in that offseason. And now today, his come up and certainly came as he plunked Kobe Mayo, third pitch, and then Leote Tavares comes through with his second triple of the season. And might I say, you know, you kind of look at this, it's hit it's 94.7 off the bat, and when you think about you know where the ball ends up, I mean Luke's completely you know misplays it. But Tavares, because you see where it ends up and it's like, oh I mean probably a double, you know, going to the wall there and right. But because of how he misplayed and because of Tavares's speed to be able to get to third with one out and the tying run is on deck. And then Jackson Holiday on a 2-1 splitter low-in-away I mean not completely low and away to the low-in-away corner but low and away and he pulls it into right field for a base hit. A how do you do hit tying run to the plate and Colton Kowser again delivers. Late inning lightning 0-2 slider catches too much of low middle and now the go-ahead run comes to the plate in Taylor Ward. Four pitch walk Gunnar Henderson 5 pitch walk great at bat by Gunnar Henderson not looking to do a ton 5-4 game and then finally they take Hoffman out and then Adley Rutgman game tying walk on a 3-2 fastball that he that he takes that's maybe not you know it wasn't terribly close but how many times have you seen hitters go up there and try to do too much in that situation? They want to be the hero they want to be the one to you know come through in that spot have the walk-off hit be the guy that they're having the interview after the game and Rutschman watches it sail past them to get to Pete Alonzo who delivers an RBI single through the right side and then probably the Orioles walk it off.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Craig Albernez and Pete Alonzo after the game like we talked about all year I always feel like we're never out of a game you know everyone was in the dugout you know saying get the tie and run up went a bad at the time everyone it's we don't waver like the guys in the clubhouse they're outstanding. They don't waver but also to say that in a dugout and then go out there and be really disciplined in the box especially when the crowd's going nuts and everyone wants to be the hero being able to to be selfless take your walk and pass it to the next guy that was a that was fun to watch it probably felt awesome and to me that's what that's Pete's calling card you know his ability to drive the ball the other way with runners and scoring position you know he has he has pop to all fields and that right there being able to take that pitch and drive to the right field and to end the game like to me that's where Pete's had his best with runners and scoring position.

SPEAKER_06 25:38

That moment doesn't happen without the entire lineup just putting together just super gritty at bats. I mean we were in it the whole way through and I mean again we didn't give up uh and man my teammates really did a good job of putting me in a great position there. I mean outstanding by the whole lineup there. It's almost like you're trying to get the runner over with a you know a lead off double I mean your approach I mean big part of the field there's a lot of success that way and uh you can cover a lot of pitches that way so I'm really glad I was able to execute right there in the big spot. You guys have ground out so many wins this season for you in this moment and what it took in the ninth inning how does it all come together for you in a feeling like this in this moment I'm just gonna give a huge huge shout out to not just our not just our lineup for not giving up right there but uh BY did an incredible job with his I mean six and two thirds just outstanding stuff. Bullpen did a great job keeping us in the game and uh I mean the boys just uh on the offensive side of the ball did the rest. I mean that's that's that's a great team win right there.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Best win of the year since well the last best win of the year I suppose because how many times have we said that this season there have been so many moments by this Orioles team it's just been fantastic and today was just another example of them continuing to not give up to continue to have great bats great at bats as the game wore on and they come through when you know it it looked bleak. I mean listen it it's not you know it it would have been now this would have been something because you're 26 and 30 imagine those two games ahead of you go differently and tomorrow you have a chance to get back to five hundred or you're twenty-nine and thirty and you're the one holding that last wild card spot not the blue jays right now and it's the blue jays who are you know sitting there p at twenty seven in what would it be thirty one going, oh my goodness I can't you know I can't believe we or twenty-seven and thirty-two you know I can't believe that we just lost that game two days in a row and nope it's not that situation but tomorrow you have an opportunity to split and to go into June just four games under five hundred with Kyle Bradish on the mound which you know hey Kyle Bradish has looked great in his last couple of starts and the hope has to be he gives you tomorrow another one of those you know Kyle Bradish starts where he just pitches his butt off and you're facing Spencer Miles on the other side a pitcher who you know has only one start in this season for the Blue Jays uh majority coming out of the bullpen and the Blue Jays kind of having to go through you know kind of uh now he can give you length he can pitch into the fifth but if you're Baltimore if you're the O's you're looking for hey how do I how do I get to this guy early on often? And Spencer Miles is a pitcher that you know the Orioles have never seen before. So how is that going to factor in making his MLB debut this season as a Rule 5 draft pick. Good ERA but hopefully the Orioles can say screw the ERA we're gonna keep having our good at bats like they did with Yuseveg today and pull out another win and split the series a fantastic day at the ballpark and hopefully we'll finish tomorrow saying what a tremendous homestand thanks for tuning in and we'll talk to you next time something magic happens every time you go you make the magic happen the magic of Orioles baseball when the game is closed and the yokes are hot that's a thundery roar from 34 to give it all they got