FanPost

2014 ALDS, Game 2: The Game That Rocked My World

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

The setting: October 3, 2014. Noon. Camden Yards.

I took a mental health day and left plans for a substitute teacher, along with about five of my colleagues. The husband and I gathered our orange gear and I packed the usual bag of snacks.

It didn't start off well. We went through a few pitchers - Chen, Gausman, Brach - and spent most of the game losing and hoping for something, anything, to happen.

Then the Detroit bullpen took the field. More than 48,000 voices united to hail the entrance of Joba. Was this our chance?

Down 6 to 3 in the bottom of the 8th, @simplyAJ10 simply took a bad pitch and took his free base. Nelson Cruz singled, and #TeamSteve Pearce followed with another to send AJ home, and suddenly the momentum swung. Those of us in the stands stood and screamed with all our might. Dare we hope?

Exit Joba. Enter Joakim Soria. A walk to JJ Hardy loads the bases, and Delmon Young comes to the plate. Soria releases the pitch and...SMACK. Down into the left field corner goes the baseball. Fans are screaming, jumping up and down, counting as the runners work their way around the basepaths. One...two...and JJ with the slide! Young stands on second and the score is 7 to 6, with your Baltimore Birds on top! Seven Nation Army chants rock the yard, and I fear for a moment that the concrete stands over our heads just might not hold. Strangers embrace each other as we make such a raucous noise surely they can hear us in Detroit.

We all know the ending. Zach Britton goes 1, 2, 3 and yet again the Orioles have come from behind to get the win.

I have a video on my phone that captures the sheer magnitude of that Seven Nation Army chant as the yard shakes. I watch it every now and then as a reminder of what was, and what can be again. Chills, every time. Maybe 2016 is the year the magic happens again. I dare to hope.

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