Yankees vs. Orioles: Looking Ahead To the Remainder of the ALDS

(Patrick Semansky/AP)

By Bernadette Pasley | @LadyBatting

It should not surprise anyone that the ALDS series between the Orioles and Yankees is tied at a game apiece. These two teams know quite a bit about ties. After all, they sat tied atop the AL East for what seemed like the entire month of September. They split their last regular season series of the year. They split their 18-game season series. Even Game 1 of the ALDS was tied at 2 for four long innings on Sunday night.

Things will remain tied today, a travel day before the series resumes tomorrow night in the Bronx. All the remaining games will be at Yankee Stadium, which leads one to believe that the Yankees now have home field advantage. But, do they really? I don’t think so.

There are two reasons for this phantom home field advantage:

1) For whatever reason, the current building that the Yankees call home does not have the noise level that the old place had, even when it is filled to capacity. Opposing teams are less likely to be intimidated by its atmosphere.

2) The Baltimore Orioles probably would not be intimidated even if they were playing in the old building. That’s because this team has done more than anyone expected them to do this season. Anything else they achieve is just icing on the cake.

So what do the Yankees have to do stop the Orioles magic carpet ride? What do they have to do to beat the Orioles in this series? They have to get early leads and keep them. They need to score off Orioles starters and avoid one of the best bullpens in baseball. That bullpen includes closer Jim Johnson, whose Game 1 implosion turned out to be just a blip on the radar, as he hurled a 1-2-3 9th inning in Game 2.

The exact opposite is true for the Orioles. In order to advance to the ALCS, they need to keep the remaining games close and get into the Yankees bullpen. The Yankees’ pen is not even close to what it has been in years past, when Mariano Rivera routinely and easily closed things out. Current closer Rafael Soriano is a big playoff question mark, and the arms leading up to him (Joba Chamberlain, David Robertson, etc.) were very inconsistent in the second half of the season.

Whichever team manages to do what is outlined for them above will finally emerge on top. The epic battle between them will be over. But it looks as if they could fight like this every season for years to come. That would be great for their fans, and even better for the game. Bring it on!