Everyone finally got on the bandwagon to marvel at scrappy Baltimore, that lovable overachieving bunch winning games with Pluck despite their poor run differential. Except that's no longer true. That was true in May and June only. It was partly the case in April, July, and August, but not so you'd notice.
In September they've had a run differential over 50, and have picked up 10 more games over .500 in the W-L rankings. That's not can-do spirit, that's just beating the cookies out of people.
Baltimore manager of yore Earl Weaver used to say that "chemistry" in baseball was simple: GP + 3R = W. Good pitching plus 3-run homers equals wins.
The other scrappy team is Oakland. ESPN rated them 29th out of 30 teams at the start of the season (Baltimore wasn't much higher). They could now meet Baltimore in that new wild card game, but I would prefer that the A's pass the Rangers (it would take a sweep) and the O's pass the Yankees (it would take some help from the woeful Red Sox) and then they meet in the ALCS in some 70's retro baseball.
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