Orioles 5, Red Sox 3 / Red Sox 5, Orioles 3

In the waning minutes before the Orioles postseason begins I ought to mark down, as is my habit, some notes on games I saw; by complete chance I was visiting Harvard CMSA (where I talked with Mike Freedman about parallel parking) the same week the Orioles were at Fenway, so I caught a couple of games. Tiny notes:

No amount of upgrades can make Fenway not feel old. The building itself, its shape and bones, makes watching a game feel like watching a game felt when I was a kid in the 80s. I guess if I ever go to Wrigley I might feel the same. But now that the Oakland Coliseum is done hosting baseball, those might be the only options.Adley Rutschman has been pressing for the whole second half; in the first game, with the bases loaded and two outs, had two great takes on close pitches to get to 3-2 and then poked an opposite field single for what turned out to be the winning margin. That’s the hitter he can be. Good to see.I got there a little late and missed a classic cheap Fenway HR by Cedric Mullins, 334 feet to the pole, but then he was kind enough to hit another one, a real one, shortly after I got there.Albert Suárez, the story of the year, journeyman plucked out of the minors turned key part of the rotation after Bradish, Means, Rodriguez all went down. He never looked dominant, a lot of guys squared up on him for loud outs, but he also induced a bunch of really ugly, lost-looking swings. I don’t know enough about the Red Sox to know whether this was Suárez or whether the Red Sox just swing like that.Went to the first game by myself; made me nostalgic for grad school, when I used to come out by myself to see the Orioles a lot. CJ came up to meet me for the second game, his first time in Fenway. Orioles looked limp the whole time but Kremer kept it close, 7 K in 7 innings, left with a 2-1 deficit which Tony Santander promptly erased with a 400-foot shot. Then Keegan Akin came in to close out a lead in the 10th and Orioles bullpen things happened.

Orioles-Royals starts in half an hour. I hope I do not have to say “Orioles bullpen things happened.” The lineup is basically back to full strength at just the right time. We only have Burnes and Kremer left out of our opening day starting rotation, but if things go well, Burnes, Kremer, Eflin and Suárez is enough starting pitching to win a playoff series.