Sports Time Radio

Upset are an exciting part of sports. Well unless you happen to be rooting for the team that just got upset. Now we’ve all seen fans go running onto the court or field after a big upset, but there is one sport where upsets happen so much that no one makes a big deal out of them. Since they play 162 games when an upset happens in Major League baseball it’s not always looked at like when we get an upset in another sport.

Just take last night for instance. The Toronto Blue Jays went into Baltimore to start a four game series with the Orioles. Coming into last nights game the Blue Jays where on an 8 game winning streak and had won 11 of their last 12 games. This winning streak included taking four straight games from the New York Yankees in New York. This stretch of games also moved the Blue Jays to just 1/2 game out of the second American League wild card spot.

As for the Orioles who seem to have been rebuilding for quite a few years now they had been on there own hot streak winning 4 of their last 6 games, but with a record of 45-94 and facing the Blue Jays it looked like Toronto would be in a good position to extend that winning streak even though the game was being played in Baltimore.

To add to the idea that the Blue Jays would win this game last night Robbie Ray was making the start for Toronto while the Orioles where countering with Chris Ellis. Ray has pitched so well this season that his name has come up as a possible Cy Young award winner while Ellis was making just his 4th start for Baltimore and pitching in jut his 6th career major league game.

Well this is just one of those things that happen in baseball. Even though every was stacked in the favor of the Blue Jays the Orioles went out and won the game 6-3 last night. Ray last just 4 1/3rd innings giving up 3 runs on 8 hits and while he did strikeout 8 he walked 2 while allowing 2 home runs and racking a a pitch total of 98 in a short outing. Ellis wasn’t around much linger than Ray as he pitched 5 innings for Baltimore. Ellis gave up 1 run on 5 hits while striking out 4 and walking 4 throwing 91 pitches in his start.

This was Ray’s shortest start since June 18th when oddly he also pitched 4 1/3rd innings against the Orioles. Ellis who the Orioles picked up off waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays gave them 5 innings for the second consecutive start in a row.

Neither starter factor in the decision last night, but the Orioles got 3 runs off of Toronto reliever Julian Merryweather in the 6th inning to break a 3-3 tie. Connor Greene picked up his first win of the season for the Orioles by pitching 1 2/3rds giving up 2 hits and striking out 3 in his appearance. Cole Sulser picked up the 2 inning save his 7th of the season for Baltimore while Merryweather was tagged with the loss.

One of the good things in baseball is if you’re upset one day there’s usually a quick turn around for the next game and that’s no exception here. The Orioles and the Blue Jays will play a split doubleheader today and even though the games are split they’ll be those stupid 7 inning games.

Keegan Akin is the scheduled starter for the Orioles in Game 1 while the Blue Jays are scheduled to go with Hyun Jin Ryu. Baltimore is currently undecided as to who will make the start for them in Game 2, but the Blue Jays are scheduled to go with Ross Stripling as their starter.

While last nights loss stopped the Blue Jays momentum the American League wild card race is really up for grabs. Right now the Boston Red Sox hold the first wild card spot, but they are just 1 game ahead of the Yankees who are currently sitting in that second wild card spot. The Blue Jays find themselves just a 1/2 game behind the Yankees for that second wild card spot while the Seattle Marines and the Oakland A’s are still in the race for a wild card spot. Both the Mariners and the A’s are just 1 game out of that second wild card spot.

So we’re looking at five teams playing for just two playoff spot with three of those teams being from the American League East and the other two coming out of the American League West. So let me know; which two of these teams do you think will end up facing off in that one game wild card game?

Last weekend Schaumburg Stu went 3-1, but he didn’t get off to a very good start this weekend. Schaumburg Stu had the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox combining to go over the run total of 8 1/2. Unfortunately for Schaumburg Stu the White Sox beat the Red Sox 4-3; so he’s 0-1 heading into today’s pick. For today Schaumburg Stu likes the White Sox to beat the Red Sox and then on Sunday Schaumburg Stu has the Los Angels Rams beating the Chicago Bears in the Sunday night football game in Week 1 of NFL action. Then to wrap up his weekend Schaumburg Stu has the San Francisco Giants winning their finally two games against the Chicago Cubs. That’s right Schaumburg Stu has the Giants winning Saturday and Sunday against the Cubs.

Schaumburg Stu makes his picks live every Friday on the Sports Time Radio podcast, but you should also listen to the podcast the rest of the week as well. The Sports Time Radio podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if for some reason you miss the podcast live all you have to do is head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime if you’re interested in looking me up.