The Orioles are mastering the art of the instarally

Sept. 24, 2012

A short wall in right field and the lack of a clutch hit Sunday afternoon kept the Orioles from continuing to do what they have done so well in the month of September; that is, score immediately after their opponent has done so. This team rallies, and they often waste no time doing so. Call it the instarally.

The Orioles have scored at least one run in the half-inning immediately following a score by the opponent 14 times in the month of September. It happened in all three games of this weekend's series in Boston including Sunday's finale. While the O's came up short in the ninth inning, they did manage to score in the top of the fifth inning after the Red Sox put a run on the board in the bottom of fourth.

Overall, nine of the team's instarallies have happened against the Yankees and Red Sox. The others have come against the Rays and A's. 

This immediate resilience might be easy to overlook were it not for the team's dramatic eighth-inning rally Sept. 6 against the Yankees. After a deflating eighth inning that saw New York score five times to tie the game at six runs apiece, the O's rocketed three home runs out of Camden Yards in the bottom half of the inning to re-energize an electric home crowd. It took only four pitches for Adam Jones to give the Orioles the lead again and make things right again in Baltimore's baseball world.

Ever since that night, I've taken note of how quickly the O's seem to respond to being scored upon. The full list of immediate rallies in September is listed below.

Rally Time

Sept. 2 – Yankees score one run in the fifth inning, Orioles score four in top of the sixth.

Sept. 6 – Yankees score one run in the top of fourth inning, O's score one in the bottom of the fourth; Yankees score five runs in the top of the eighth inning, Orioles score four in the bottom of the eighth.

Sept. 7 – Yankees score one run in the top of the ninth inning, O's score one in bottom of ninth.

Sept. 8 – Yankees score one in top of second, O's score two in bottom of second

Sept. 9 – Yankees score four runs in the top of the fourth inning, Orioles score three in bottom of fourth.

Sept. 11 – Rays score one run in the top of the third inning, O's score two in bottom of third; Rays score one run in the top of the eighth inning, O's score two in bottom of eighth.

Sept. 14 – A's score two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, O's score one in top of fifth.

Sept. 16 – A's score two runs in the bottom of the first inning, O's score one top of second; A's score two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, O's score two in top of ninth.

Sept. 21 – Red Sox score one run in the bottom of the fifth inning, O's score two in top of sixth.

Sept. 22 – Red Sox score one run in  the bottom of the first inning, O's score one in top of second.

Sept. 23 – Red Sox score one run in the bottom of the fourth inning, O's score one in the top of fifth.

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