Part of what makes playoff races in baseball great are those moments remembered as the ones that jumpstarted a team’s push to the playoffs. Sometimes they come via a club’s superstar, but other times by perhaps the least likely player on the roster.
In the eighth inning of Friday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays Chris Davis launched his franchise record-tying 50th home run to put the Orioles up 4-3, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish as the Birds went on to claim a 5-3 victory in the series’ opening game. All-star shortstop J.J. Hardy put the team on the scoreboard in the seventh with a double to plate Adam Jones, Hardy’s 73rd RBI of the season.
In between those hits was a two-run double by catcher Steve Clevenger (also in the seventh inning) with two outs that leveled the score at three apiece.
Clevenger was acquired by the Orioles from the Cubs along with Scott Feldman in the trade that saw Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop head to Chicago. The 27-year old Baltimore native, who went to Mount Saint Joseph’s High School, was making his first appearance in an Orioles uniform. Clevenger hadn’t played in a major league game since April 13. His last hit in the big leagues came on April 9. You have to go back to September 2, 2012 to find the last time he hit a double. Through September 13, 2013 Clevenger posted a career slash line of .199/.262/.275 in 211 at-bats across parts of three seasons.
You can’t make this stuff up. Sometimes it just happens, and when it does it’s great.
Heading into Friday’s game Matt Wieters had started 12 of the last 13 games and been behind the plate for 1,086.2 innings this season, by far the most in Major League Baseball in 2013. Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals is second with 989.1 innings. Steve Clevenger had caught 424.2 for his career. But Friday the September call-up was in the lineup and came through in a big spot for the team he cheered for growing up.
The Orioles have 15 games remaining in the regular season and at just 2.5 games back in the wildcard race have a second consecutive playoff berth well within their sights. Whether Friday’s game proves to be a springboard toward that objective remains to be seen, but we’ll know soon enough.
In game that featured Adam Jones unleashing this cannon to nail Jose Reyes at third base (and potentially save a run) as well as a home run which vaulted Chris Davis to the top spot on the team’s single-season list alongside Brady Anderson let’s not forget this moment by Steve Clevenger.
It’s moments like these that make sports great and are yet another example of the thing we like to call Orioles Magic.
