masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgNEW YORK – Is anyone surprised that the Orioles are playing a wild card game in Toronto? It seemed like the logical spot to meet up again. The planets were aligned.
Of course, you remain in a state of shock if you kept insisting that the Orioles were finished, that they should have been sellers, that they quit and didn’t deserve your love. And certainly not your dollars.
This team had a fork stuck in it so many times, I’m surprised the beer and champagne consumed yesterday didn’t turn the…

NEW YORK – Is anyone surprised that the Orioles are playing a wild card game in Toronto? It seemed like the logical spot to meet up again. The planets were aligned.

Of course, you remain in a state of shock if you kept insisting that the Orioles were finished, that they should have been sellers, that they quit and didn’t deserve your love. And certainly not your dollars.

This team had a fork stuck in it so many times, I’m surprised the beer and champagne consumed yesterday didn’t turn the players into human sprinklers.

Manager Buck Showalter wouldn’t gloat, saying life’s too short “to have those emotions.” Executive vice president Dan Duquette noted how the prognosticators never pick them and he wasn’t sure why. Players seem to enjoy proving everyone wrong. They thrive on it. It fuels them.

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If the Orioles were picked to finish last and they made the playoffs, overcoming injuries and massive slumps and deficiencies in the rotation, shouldn’t Showalter be in serious consideration for American League Manager of the Year?

“Buck does a great job year-in and year-out,” Duquette said. “I believe he gives his best every time he’s out there on the field.”

The moves don’t always work, of course. He’s going to be second- and third-guessed for letting Wade Miley start the seventh inning Saturday afternoon. But this season has to rank among his finest, right up there with 1999 when he guided the second-year Diamondbacks to 100 victories and somehow was denied NL Manager of the Year.

Zach Britton didn’t earn a save yesterday, entering with the Orioles ahead 5-1 in the eighth inning, but he nailed down another win. He went 47-for-47 in save opportunities and ended the regular season with a 0.54 ERA.

It may not get him the Cy Young Award, but it’s historic and he absolutely must be in the discussion. Otherwise, just create a rule stating that relievers are ineligible.

Britton also will receive Most Valuable Player votes, though he won’t win the award. His value to the Orioles can’t be debated. He blows one save and the Orioles may be sitting home today.

In ranking the locker-covered celebrations, I’d say that yesterdays’ fell somewhere in the middle. Not nearly as raucous as the wild card win in Arlington, Tx. in 2012 or the division-clincher at Camden Yards in 2014. Not quite as subdued as the Division Series clincher in Detroit that followed.

Players seemed distracted yesterday by the Blue Jays game that played on every television above their heads. They hung on every pitch during the Red Sox’s rally in the eighth inning, letting out a collective groan when a fly ball to left field hooked foul.

Don’t get me wrong, they had a blast. But they looked and sounded like a team that wasn’t satisfied to earn the second wild card. The bar definitely has been raised in the Duquette-Showalter era.

How does Showalter compared this year’s team to the others that made the playoffs?

“Every year is different,” he said. “There are so many opportunities that say, ‘This may not work out this year.’ It went by quick for me because this team was involved in the competition right from Day 1 and never really got away from it.

“You go through periods where you’ve got a chance to win the division, you’ve got a chance to be a wild card, then you’ve got a chance even not to be in it. You don’t overcome that without having a real strong mentality. So many times we started to say something to these guys, and I just backed off. They got it.

“Sometimes the best managing you do is the managing you don’t do.”

Showalter is faced with some difficult roster decisions in Toronto. He won’t need five or six starters, but he’s taking more than one in case of an unexpected early exit. And does he hand the ball to Chris Tillman or Ubaldo Jimenez, both challenged over their careers to win at Rogers Centre?

Dylan Bundy could pitch out of the bullpen, but I’m more curious about the Division Series if the Orioles advance. They’ll obviously need more than one or two starters, but not the full complement.

Michael Bourn seems like a lock among the outfielders, but the same can’t be said for Drew Stubbs, acquired on the same day. Would the Orioles stick with Nolan Reimold ahead of Stubbs?

Ryan Flaherty never plays, but I can’t imagine him being left behind since he’s so valuable as a backup at just about every position. He played third base, second, first, shortstop, left field and right field this season and also pitched one inning. He was a viable backup to Adam Jones in center field before the Orioles picked up Bourn and Stubbs.

Someone get him behind the plate. Just for one inning.

The wild card game starts at 8:08 p.m. Tuesday on TBS. Not 8 p.m. or 8:05 or even 8:10. Left-hander Francisco Liriano is expected to start for the Blue Jays, but it isn’t official.

I’m flying into Toronto in the morning and I believe it’s my first visit since the ballpark’s name changed from SkyDome to Rogers Centre. I’m not even sure that I’m allowed past the border, but I’m willing to find out.

Colleague Steve Melewski will join me and we’ll have lots to pass along from the workout. He’s become a veteran of this trip and will make sure I don’t get lost – or worse.