2011 Baltimore Orioles season: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox MLBbaseball yearlyteam season

| image = Baltimore Orioles Script.svg

| current league = American League

| divisional placedivisional_place = 5th

| general managersgeneral_managers = [[Andy MacPhail]]

The '''Baltimore Orioles' 2011 season''' was the 57th111th season in franchise history, the 58th in [[Baltimore]], and the 19th20th at [[Oriole Park at Camden Yards]]. It also marked the last year of a streak of fourteen consecutive losing seasons dating back [[1998 Baltimore Orioles season|to 1998]].

The 2010–11 offseason has been notable for the Orioles, featuring a complete makeover of their infield, with only [[Brian Roberts (baseball)|Brian Roberts]] expected to reprise his starting role. On December 6, 2010, the Orioles completed a trade with the [[Arizona Diamondbacks]] for third basemen [[Mark Reynolds (baseball)|Mark Reynolds]], in exchange for relief pitchers [[David Hernandez (baseball)|David Hernandez]] and [[Kam Mickolio]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Dierkes |first=Tim |url=http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/orioles-acquire-mark-reynolds.html |title=Orioles Acquire Mark Reynolds: MLB Rumors |publisher=MLBTradeRumors.com |date=December 6, 2010 |accessdateaccess-date=September 19, 2011}}</ref> The next day, the Orioles lost corner infielder, second baseman (40 games in 2010), and lone 2010 All-Star representative [[Ty Wigginton]] when he signed with the [[Colorado Rockies]]. On December 9, however, a deal was struck with the [[Minnesota Twins]], acquiring shortstop [[J. J. Hardy]], utility infielder [[Brendan Harris]] and cash in exchange for minor league pitchers [[Jim Hoey]] and [[Brett Jacobson]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Adams |first=Luke |url=http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/orioles-trade-for-hardy-imminent.html |title=Orioles Acquire J.J. Hardy, Brendan Harris: MLB Rumors |publisher=MLBTradeRumors.com |date=December 9, 2010 |accessdateaccess-date=September 19, 2011}}</ref> The following day, the Orioles re-signed former starting shortstop [[César Izturis]], though now as a utility middle infielder.<ref>{{cite web|last=Nicholson |first=Ben |url=http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/orioles-to-re-sign-cesar-izturis.html |title=Orioles To Re-Sign Cesar Izturis, Not Nick Green: MLB Rumors |publisher=MLBTradeRumors.com |date=December 10, 2010 |accessdateaccess-date=September 19, 2011}}</ref> Finally, after weeks of rumor and speculation, concerning possible first base signings, the Orioles inked veteran free agent [[Derrek Lee]] on January 6, 2011.<ref>{{cite web|last=Links |first=Zach |url=http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/orioles-lee-agree-to-one-year-deal-1.html |title=Orioles Sign Derrek Lee: MLB Rumors |publisher=MLBTradeRumors.com |date=January 6, 2011 |accessdateaccess-date=September 19, 2011}}</ref>

The Orioles also worked to stabilize their bullpen whose depth had been weakened in trades to strengthen the infield. They began on December 13 by re-signing former starter and de facto closer [[Koji Uehara]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Nicholson |first=Ben |url=http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/orioles-to-sign-koji-uehara.html |title=Orioles Sign Koji Uehara: MLB Rumors |publisher=MLBTradeRumors.com |date=December 13, 2010 |accessdateaccess-date=September 19, 2011}}</ref> The following day, the Orioles signed former [[Toronto Blue Jays]] reliever [[Jeremy Accardo]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Nicholson |first=Ben |url=http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/orioles-to-sign-jeremy-accardo.html |title=Orioles Sign Jeremy Accardo: MLB Rumors |publisher=MLBTradeRumors.com |date=December 17, 2010 |accessdateaccess-date=September 19, 2011}}</ref> A month later on January 13, the Orioles signed former Blue Jays closer [[Kevin Gregg]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Nicholson |first=Ben |url=http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/01/orioles-agree-to-sign-kevin-gregg.html |title=Orioles Sign Kevin Gregg: MLB Rumors |publisher=MLBTradeRumors.com |date=January 13, 2011 |accessdateaccess-date=September 19, 2011}}</ref> Though still on the 40-man roster, the Orioles may have lost reliever [[Alfredo Simón]], as he was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the [[Dominican Republic]], following an accidental shooting death of his cousin during a New Year's celebration.

In addition to shoring up their bullpen, the Orioles signed [[Justin Duchscherer]] to a one-year deal.<ref>{{cite web|url=httphttps://sportswww.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6075683|title=Source: Justin Duchscherer, O's agree|author=Jerry Crasnick|date=January 31, 2011|publisher=ESPN}}</ref>

On February 4, the Orioles signed, pending a physical, free agent [[Vladimir Guerrero]] to solidify the offense. Guerrero had hit for 29 home runs and a .300 average in the 2010 season with the [[Texas Rangers (baseball)|Texas Rangers]]. He hasalso had a career average of .320 and 436 home runs prior to the 2011 season.

The team started the season 4-04–0, the first time since the [[1997 Major League Baseball season|1997 baseball season]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Brian Roberts’Roberts' three-run homer lifts Orioles to first 4-0 start since 1997|url=http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/other_mlb/view/20110405brian_roberts_three-run_homer_lifts_orioles_to_first_4-0_start_since_1997_1/srvc=sports&position=recent_bullet}}</ref>

The Orioles eliminated the [[2011 Boston Red Sox season|Boston Red Sox]] from the playoff on the final day of the season, the last of their five victories over the Red Sox in September. The Orioles were 15–13 in September, including two extra-inning wins over the division champion [[2011 New York Yankees season|New York Yankees]] and another two wins against the AL wild card [[2011 Tampa Bay Rays season|Tampa Bay Rays]] on September 13–14. They also stopped division champion [[2011 Detroit Tigers season|Detroit Tigers]]'s [[Justin Verlander]] attempt at 25 wins, beating the Tigers 6–5 while scoring five runs in Verlander's seven innings.<ref name=hoffman>{{cite news |last=Hoffman |first=Benjamin |title=Lowly Orioles Took the Spoiler Role to New Heights |date=September 30, 2011 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=B9 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/sports/baseball/in-final-month-orioles-tamed-al-easts-best.html?ref=todayspaper |archiveurl=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/sports/baseball/in-final-month-orioles-tamed-al-easts-best.html?ref=todayspaper |archivedate=September 30, 2011}}</ref>

| colspan="10" style="background:#fb4f14; color:white; text-align:center;"| '''Roster'''

* {{MLBplayer|30|[[Luke Scott (baseball)|Luke Scott]]}}

{{refimprovemore citations needed section|date=September 2011}}

Despite being in last place in the division (29 games out and with a 68-9368–93 record), the Baltimore Orioles were a part of what is famously touted in Major League Baseball lore as the "Best Night Ever"<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://m.mlb.com/news/article/39125938/|title=One year later, recalling baseball's Best Night Ever}}</ref> in baseball with the AL and NL wild cards still tied and were up for grabs.<ref>{{cite web|url=httphttps://sportswww.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7033428/breakdown-wednesday-games|date=September 29, 2011|accessdateaccess-date=October 1, 2011|work=ESPN Stats & Information Group|publisher=ESPN.com|title=How the night was won}}</ref> The Orioles had gone 4-2 down the stretch vs. Boston with game 162 still left to play in Baltimore. The game was broadcast on [[Major League Baseball on ESPN|ESPN]] as well as the [[MASN]] and [[NESN]] networks. The Orioles were aiming to play the role of spoiler and end the Red Sox season with help from the Tampa Bay Rays.

In the AL wild card race, The Boston Red Sox were suffering through a 7-19 stretch in which they had blown a nine-game lead on August 30 (which gave them more than a 99.7% chance of making the playoffs). This was a do-or-die game for the Red Sox, but felt they had a lot of momentum going into this game having beaten the Orioles, 8-78–7, the night before.

The Orioles sent [[Alfredo Simón]], who had a history of success vs. Boston against [[Jon Lester]], who was 14-0 lifetime with a 3.26 ERA against the Baltimore Orioles. The scoring got started with [[Dustin Pedroia]] getting a single to score [[Mike Avilés]] to give the Red Sox a 1-01–0 lead. However, the Orioles struck back in the bottom of the 3rd as [[J. J. Hardy]], laced his 30th home run of the season into left field to give the O's a 2-12–1 advantage. In the top of the 4th with [[Marco Scutaro]] at 3rd base, a controversial balk call was made on Alfredo Simón which tied up the game at two apiece. The bottom of the 4th went by one-two-three for the O's. In the top of the 5th, Dustin Pedroia hit a one-out solo home run to give the Red Sox back the lead, 3-23–2. At the start of the bottom of the 7th, the game was delayed for 85 minutes because of some heavy thunderstorms that moved through the area. In the top of the 8th, Marco Scutaro had singled to right and was on as a hopeful insurance run to boost the Red Sox lead. [[Carl Crawford]] then picked up a double after [[Nolan Reimold]] mistimed his jump to make the catch and [[Adam Jones (baseball)|Adam Jones]] fired the ball to catcher [[Matt Wieters]] to get Scutaro out. Mike Avilés fouled out and the inning ended.

In the bottom of the 9th inning, the Boston Red Sox sported a 77-077–0 record when leading after the 8th inning and the O's were down 3-23–2 to the Red Sox versus top closer [[Jonathan Papelbon]], [[Chris Davis (baseball)|Chris Davis]] laced a double to the garage door in right field to put him on 2nd base. The next batter was Nolan Reimold (who hit pretty well against Boston pitching) and on a 2-2 count, Reimold laced a drive into the gap in right center field which one hopped the warning track over the wall for a ground rule double. The next batter following with Reimold on 2nd base was [[Robert Andino]]. Andino had success against the Red Sox as he hit .300 versus their pitching and was having an excellent series. Andino laced the 1-1 pitch towards Carl Crawford who was playing a bit too far deep and slid and trapped the ball. Reimold made a mad dash towards home. After Reimold slid to score the winning run, he and Andino were mobbed by their teammates, as they knew that they had just eliminated the Red Sox.

The Orioles' win broke ESPN's viewership record for a [[Wednesday Night Baseball|Wednesday Night game]] bringing in a 1.6 rating, 1.546M household impressions, and 2.116M viewers. It also broke Major League Baseball's record for internet traffic in one day.<ref>{{cite news|title=Orioles win over Red Sox most watched Wednesday night ESPN game since 1998|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bal-orioles-finale-against-red-sox-most-watched-espn-game-since-1998-20110929,0,5994840,print.story|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721160153/http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bal-orioles-finale-against-red-sox-most-watched-espn-game-since-1998-20110929,0,5994840,print.story|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 21, 2012|newspaper=The Baltimore Sun|date=September 30, 2011|accessdateaccess-date=September 30, 2011|first=David|last=Zurawik}}{{Dead link|date=August 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The game itself made national headlines as well the next morning on Headline News, CNN, Fox News, and many other international news media outlets.

{{quoteblockquote|Here's the 1-1 delivery...That is into left field, anddddddddd...NO, IT'S TRAPPED! THE ORIOLES COMING TO THE PLATE, REIMOLD! THEY DID IT! THEY DID IT! THEY DID IT! THE ORIOLES HAVE BEATEN THE RED SOX! TWO RUNS! BOTTOM OF THE NINTH INNING!|Gary Thorne on MASN.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_09_28_bosmlb_balmlb_1&mode=recap_away&c_id=bos#gid=2011_09_28_bosmlb_balmlb_1&mode=video|title=Andino's walk-off single|date=September 29, 2011|accessdateaccess-date=October 1, 2011|work=MLB.com}}</ref>}}

{{quoteblockquote|The chance to end the season with a walk-off... Here comes the 1-1 delivery... Andino... LINE DRIVE! Into left, Crawford coming on! He trapped it! HERE COMES REIMOLD! HERE COMES THE THROW! IT IS TOO LATE! AND THE ORIOLES HAVE WON THE GAME! In the bottom of the Ninth inning! And they're going crazy! They are belting each other! They're jumping on each other! And right now it looks as though the Orioles had won the pennant! But all they did was possibly eliminate the Boston Red Sox.|Joe Angel on WBAL-AM.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_09_28_bosmlb_balmlb_1&mode=recap_away&c_id=bos#gid=2011_09_28_bosmlb_balmlb_1&mode=video|title=Must C: Clutch|date=September 29, 2011|accessdateaccess-date=October 1, 2011|work=MLB.com}}</ref>}}

:{| align="center" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="border:1px solid #aaa"

| 6 || April 7 || [[Detroit Tigers|Tigers]] || 9–5 || '''[[Jim Johnson (right-handed pitcher)|Johnson]]''' (1–0) || [[Brad Thomas (baseballer)|Thomas]] (0–1) || || 11,648 || 5–1

| 64 || June 14 || @ [[Toronto Blue Jays|Blue Jays]] || 5–6 <small>(11)</small> || [[Shawn Camp (baseball)|Camp]] (1–1) || '''[[Koji Uehara|Uehara]]''' (1–1) || || 15,592 || 30–34

| 78 || June 30 || [[St. Louis Cardinals|Cardinals]] || 6–9 || [[Jaime García (baseball)|García]] (7–3) || '''[[Brian Matusz|Matusz]]''' (1–4) || [[Juan Salas|Salas]] (13) || 28,340 || 35–43

|| [[Andrew Bailey (baseball)|Bailey]] (15) || 20,448 || 47–74

| 135 || September 1 || [[Toronto Blue Jays|Blue Jays]] || 6–8 || [[Shawn Camp (baseball)|Camp]] (2–3) || '''[[Willie Eyre|Eyre]]''' (1–1) || [[Frank Francisco|Francisco]] (12) || 11,617 || 54–81

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"

! style="background:#ddf; width:2518%;"| Player

| style="text-align:left" | [[Ryan Adams (baseball)|Ryan Adams]]

|<center> .281</center>

| style="text-align:left" | [[Robert Andino]]

|<center> .263</center>

| style="text-align:left" | [[Matt Angle]]

|<center> .177</center>

| style="text-align:left" | [[Jake Arrieta]]

|<center> .250</center>

| style="text-align:left" | [[Josh Bell (baseball, born 1986)|Josh Bell]]

|<center> .164</center>

| style="text-align:left" | [[Zach Britton]]

|<center> .625</center>

| style="text-align:left" | [[Blake Davis (baseball)|Blake Davis]]

|<center> .254</center>

| style="text-align:left" | [[Chris Davis (baseball)|Chris Davis]]

|<center> .276</center>

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"

! style="background:#ddf; width:2518%;"| Player

| style="text-align:left" | [[Jeremy Accardo]]

|level16=[[Double-A (baseball)|AA]] |team16=[[Bowie Baysox]]|league16=[[Eastern League (baseball1938–2020)|Eastern League]]|manager16=[[Gary Kendall (baseball)|Gary Kendall]]

*[http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=bal 2011 Baltimore Orioles season at Official site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606094848/http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=bal |date=June 6, 2011 }}