The Orioles’ impressive three games-to-one series win over the Boston Red Sox continues a disquieting trend for the AL East front-runner in which they have flat-out been unable to beat Baltimore.
While games against the New York Yankees have been recently competitive but still usually ending in defeat when it has mattered most, like last season’s Divisional Series Game 5 loss, contests against Boston have been a far different story.
Since taking over as Orioles manager in 2011, Buck Showalter has a 29-20 record against the BoSox. The Orioles won the 2012 season series with an impressive 13 wins to 5 losses showing and have now won 5 out of the first 7 games against the Sox in 2013.
Wins have included Thursday’s 13-inning, 5-4 result and several other extra-inning wins, including last season’s 17-inning win in Boston in which current AL home run leader Chris Davis earned the win as a pitcher which, at the time, was the O’s first sweep of the Sox at Fenway Park since 1994.
Yet all of this success can be traced back to a guy named Andino and a curse that seems to have baffled Boston. In September 2011 in front of a raucous Camden Yards crowd, O’s backup second baseman Robert Andino came to the plate in the final inning against closer Jonathan Papelbon with the game on the line.
The Red Sox, with a win then, would clinch no less than a playoff tie-break game against the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL Wild Card. The Rays were trailing the Yankees in their game and things looked very good for the Red Sox.
But then the Orioles got consecutive doubles from Nolan Reimold and Chris Davis with two outs before Andino hit a looping outfield liner that OF Carl Crawford could not quite catch up with.
The loss, coupled with Tampa’s comeback win, seconds later, against the Yankees sealed the fate of the Red Sox, tossing them from the playoff mix, and devastating Sox fans everywhere.
“End of the season, to make Boston go home sad, crying, I’ll take it all day,” said Andino to media members after the game in 2011. Andino was traded in November to Seattle for OF Trayvon Robinson, but his legacy has remained in Baltimore, and Boston where the alleged “curse” is not just a bar room jibe from Baltimore Boh-drinkers.
In an article written after Andino’s trade, Massachusetts Republican writer Ron Chemelis wrote: “There was Bucky Dent in 1978. And Aaron Boone in 2003. In 2011, there was Robert Andino whose escape from baseball obscurity came from the same avenue as the others: he stuck a dagger in the hearts of the Boston Red Sox and their fans.”
He added in the piece, “the curse of the Bambino was a media creation, but the Curse of the Andino was very, very real.”
After the Orioles’ first win of the recent home stand, The Boston Globe also covered the team’s success since Andino’s big hit. But as always, Showalter has steadfastly refused to make anything of the O’s recent domination of the Sox.
“I don’t think we look at it that way,” said Showalter to the Globe. “That team over there is a force and they’re going to be a force all year.”
And again after the win Sunday, Showalter swatted away domination questions with the two-word statement: “It’s early.”
Adam Jones, though, was more direct, in telling the Globe: “I think it comes down to our ability to compete. A couple of years ago we couldn’t compete. We’ve started to compete and we have confidence in our team and the ability to get things done and win games.”
That ability has been in large part due to the Orioles’ ability to close out games and get enough runs to win those games with suddenly hot-again closer Jim Johnson, now with a major league leading 25 saves and 1B Chris Davis, who continues to lead the majors in home runs, now with 23 as of Sunday.
But the comparison of Andino (a lifetime .235 hitter heading into this season) to Dent and Boone, who each hit season-ending home runs against the Red Sox, has to be particularly pleasing to O’s fans who have yet to see their team win a World Series since 1983, while they have instead seen the Sox win two World Championships since 2004.
While the O’s still need to add pitching depth to be able to compete with the Sox and the Yankees, the ride, and the wins have been fun.
No one seems to be complaining at the “curse” talk- even without Andino it is still music to O’s fans ears.
And probably Showalter too, whether he’ll tell you or not.
