ARLINGTON, Texas — Buck Showalter and the Baltimore Orioles will get another chance to overtake the New York Yankees. The surprising O's have already beaten some big odds, getting past the two-time defending AL champion Texas Rangers and their Japanese ace, Yu Darvish, in the win-or-go-home wild-card playoff. Joe Saunders pitched effectively into the sixth inning at a place where he had never won, Adam Jones delivered the tiebreaking sacrifice fly and the Orioles, in the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, eliminated the Rangers 5-1 Friday. “With our team it's just a bunch of guys that raised the bar and wouldn't give in and still haven't. Now they get a chance to win to roll the dice, and there's a lot of good card players in there,” said Showalter, their manager. The Orioles advanced to play the East champion Yankees, the AL's top seed — the teams split 18 games this season. The best-of-five division series starts Sunday at Camden Yards. The upstart Orioles spent the whole second half chasing New York, never passing them and falling just short in a neck-and-neck race for the division title. Turns out, the Yankees haven't brushed off these Birds just yet. “Real proud of everybody. Tacking on runs were big, knew they were going to run at you,” Showalter said. “But just a real proud moment for us.” After twice coming with a strike of winning last year's World Series, this season is over that quickly for the Rangers, who were in first place for a majors-high 178 days this season. Texas loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth before David Murphy flied out to end it. “We just didn't get it done,” manager Ron Washington said. The Rangers lost the AL West crown on the final day of the regular season, after being swept in three games at Oakland for a stretch of nine losses their last 13 games. “I'm not stunned, I was right there watching it,” Washington said. Their worst slump of the season came at the wrong time for Texas, which a week ago had a four-game division lead with six games to play. Because of that, they couldn't avoid the majors' new winner-take-all postseason openers, and then couldn't get past their Orioles with their top pitcher on the mound. Wiped out by San Francisco in the 2010 World Series, the Rangers twice came within a strike of their first World Series championship last October against St. Louis. When the Rangers committed more than $107 million last winter to acquire Darvish, they did so anticipating that he'd be on the mound for many big games. They never would have expected him being outdueled in a playoff game by Saunders, a late-season addition by the Orioles who had lost all six of his previous starts with a 9.38 ERA at Rangers Ballpark. Saunders quickly gave up the Orioles' 1-0 lead in the first, but that was the only run he allowed in 5 2/3 innings. The left-hander struck out four and walked one. Even though it was the postseason, the Orioles stuck to the regular Friday night uniforms — including black tops and caps with script O's instead of the traditional smiling cartoon bird. Cardinals 6, Braves 3: David Freese and the St. Louis Cardinals rediscovered their postseason touch. Chipper Jones and the Braves kept throwing the ball away. And the Atlanta fans turned Turner Field into a trash heap. They said anything could happen in baseball's first wild-card playoff. Boy, did it ever. In a game protested by the Braves, Matt Holliday homered and the defending World Series champion Cardinals took advantage of three Atlanta throwing errors — the most crucial of them by the retiring Jones — to take the winner-take-all playoff 6-3 tonight. MLB executive Joe Torre said the protest was denied. St. Louis advanced to face Washington in the best-of-five division round, beginning Sunday at Busch Stadium. The Braves are done for this season, the recipients of another heartbreaking loss in the playoffs. The 40-year-old Jones is all done, period. He managed an infield hit in his final at-bat but threw away a double play ball in the fourth, which led to a three-run inning that wiped out Atlanta's early 2-0 lead behind Kris Medlen. “Ultimately, I feel I'm the one to blame,” Jones said. “That should have been a tailor-made double play.” But this one-and-done game will be remembered for the eighth, when a disputed call on a fly ball that dropped in short leftfield cost the Braves a chance at extending Jones' career. The Braves thought they had the bases loaded with one out after the ball fell between two fielders, who got mixed up over who had called for it. But leftfield umpire Sam Holbrook called Andrelton Simmons out under the infield fly rule — even though the ball landed at least 50 feet beyond the dirt. When the fans realized what had happened, they littered the field with cups, popcorn holders and other trash, leading to a 19-minute delay as the Cardinals retreated to their dugout. “It was scary at first,” St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina said. “I've never seen that before.” Holbrook and umpiring supervisor Charlie Reliford defended the call. Asked if he thought he made the proper ruling after seeing the replay, Holbrook replied, “Absolutely.” Braves president John Schuerholz apologized for the actions of the crowd, saying a “small group of those fans acted in a manner that was uncharacteristic and unacceptable.” The barrage left Holbrook fearing for his safety. “When cans are flying past your head, yeah, a little bit,” he said. The stoppage only delayed the inevitable. When play finally resumed, Brian McCann walked but Michael Bourn struck out to end the threat. Dan Uggla grounded out with two aboard in the ninth to end it, leading to one more wave of trash throwing as the umps scurried off the field. The infield fly is a complicated rule, designed to prevent infielders from intentionally dropping a popup with more than one runner on base and perhaps get an extra out. No one could ever remember it being applied like this. And, after past postseasons dotted by contested calls, this play will certainly lead to another slew of October cries for more instant replay. — Agencies
