The Baltimore Orioles beat a pair of recent Cy Young award winners to capture the first two games of their ALDS showdown against the Tigers. The locale will change for Game 3, as the series shifts to Detroit, but the task remains the same -- try to overcome another Cy Young starter, this time left-hander David Price. If the Orioles can take just one of their next three games, they will win their first postseason series since the 1997 ALDS.
Orioles vs. Tigers, 2014 ALDS Game 3: Start time, TV schedule and how to watch online
The Orioles face yet another Cy Young starter while the Tigers try to avoid being swept in the ALDS.
Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
Right-hander Miguel Gonzalez was originally listed as Baltimore's starter for Sunday, but the team has decided to go with righty Bud Norris instead. Although Norris lost both of his starts against the Tigers in 2014, he finished the year strong by going 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA in five September outings -- he didn't allow a single run in three of those games. The reason for the switch is not injury-related, but rather a judgment call from manager Buck Showalter.
“We’re going to go day‑to‑day,” Showalter said on Saturday. “We knew if certain things happened the first two games, Bud would pitch. If things happened the first two games, Miguel would and that gives us a chance to bring Bud back in Game 5 and satisfy a lot of ‘what-ifs’.
“We just didn’t to want commit to something until we got Game 1 under our belt and Game 2 under our belt and get to the off‑day,” he said, “and the players most importantly knew where we were going.”
Meanwhile, Price has been solid since being acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays at the trade deadline but has not been the dominant force that the Tigers were expecting. His 3.59 ERA in 11 starts for Detroit was only good for a 111 ERA+ and wasn't much better than the 3.65 mark posted by Norris 28 games for the Orioles. The Tigers also might be without speedy center fielder Rajai Davis, who will be a game-time decision due to a pelvic sprain.
Must Reads
If the first two games were any indication, the Orioles will not be intimidated by Price's strong resume. They scored five off of Max Scherzer in Game 1 en route to a 12-3 victory, and knocked out Justin Verlander after just five innings in Game 2 before mounting a game-winning comeback against relievers Joba Chamberlain and Joakim Soria. Nelson Cruz, J.J. Hardy and Nick Markakis have homered for Baltimore, and Delmon Young continued his inexplicable career-long October dominance by notching the game-winning three-run double off of Soria on Friday. The Tigers have already hit five home runs, including two by J.D. Martinez.
Game time: 3:45 p.m. ET
TV: TBS
Radio: ESPN Radio (affiliate locator)
Streaming: Postseason.tv
See More:
More in: MLB 2014 ALDS: Orioles sweep Tigers
