A sold out crowd of 46,450 rocked Camden Yards today as the Baltimore Orioles played against the Texas Rangers in the first game of the ALDS. This would be the Orioles’ first playoff game at home since 2014. Unfortunately for the Orioles and their fans, the team would lose 3-2 with a pivotal play happening late in the game to stop an Orioles comeback.

Kyle Bradish would take the start for the Orioles in his first career playoff start and overall he pitched decently, but not to what the Orioles were expecting. Bradish only lasted 4.2 innings giving up 7 hits and 2 earned runs while striking out 9 Rangers batters. He struck out five of the first eight batters he faced. The longevity can be seen as the bigger issue as the Orioles ended up using 5 pitchers after Bradish for the rest of the game. 

Bradish found himself in trouble in the fourth inning after striking out Robbie Grossman for the first out of the inning. Bradish would allow four consecutive hits starting with an Adolis Garcia double, followed by an Evan Carter double to score Garcia for the first run of the game. Jonah Heim would then hit a single to score Carter. Nathaniel Lowe singled after Heim to put runners on first and second, before Bradish would get Josh Jung to fly out to right field. Leody Taveras then singled to load the bases before Bradish got Marcus Semien to strike out to end the inning. 

The Orioles cut the two run lead to one in the bottom of the fourth when Anthony Santander walked and Ryan Mountcastle followed by hitting a double to score Santander. A couple of innings later in the sixth, the Rangers would get that run back in the form of a Josh Jung solo homer. In the bottom of the sixth, Santander would return and smash his own solo shot 420 feet.

Although this would end up being the final score, the Orioles had their chances in every inning for the rest of the game, getting at least one runner on base in each inning. More prominently in the ninth inning, Gunnar Henderson would hit a single to right field. With Aaron Hicks batting and in a 2-1 count, Henderson attempted to steal second but got thrown out by Jonah Heim. Hicks would strike out two pitches later and Adam Frazier would ground out two pitches after that to end the game. It is obviously very difficult to say what would have happened if Henderson does not get caught there. The crowd definitely would have gotten even louder instead of the gut wrenching shock the crowd actually received. Hicks and Frazier also would have gotten pitched differently. Ultimately, that play is one of the plays that makes the playoffs, the playoffs. A truly aggressive play that can alter the dynamic of a game in seconds. 

Look for more aggressive plays moving forward in this series tomorrow at 4:07 PM ET. Grayson Rodriguez will take the mound for the Orioles, and just as Bradish, will be making his first playoff start of his career. Across him for the Rangers is Jordan Montgomery, who has some experience in the playoffs. In three appearances, Montgomery has started in two games and came out of the bullpen. In total he has pitched 13.2 innings and has only allowed 1 run while striking out 12. Most recently, Montgomery threw 7 innings shutting out the Tampa Bay Rays to win game one of the Wild Card series.