Red Sox

Congrats to the Orioles on a terrific season, and boos to the Red Sox, who got a chance to pay us back for losing to us last year ("The suspense comes down to the final day," Oct. 3). Unlike the O's, the Sox couldn't find the pride to field the best team they could. I've seen Little Leaguers play with more heart then the Sox. We gave them the Bambino and this is how they repay us? Dan Shannahan, Fullerton

Orioles third-base coach DeMarlo Hale has been rumored to be a candidate for the Boston Red Sox managerial job now that Bobby Valentine has been fired. Hale, 51, spent six seasons on former Boston manager Terry Francona's staff, including two years as Francona's bench coach, before joining the Orioles this season. He said he hasn't heard anything from the Red Sox organization regarding the job and one industry source said there hadn't been a formal interview request for Hale yet. Hale said he'd have interest, but it's not something he is considering right now. “I'd have to think about it, no question, but right now my focus is this team, what we've accomplished so far and what is ahead of us,” Hale said.

- If the Orioles were hoping that what went around might come around after the way they battled to the last dramatic moment of the 2011 regular season and propelled the Tampa Bay Raysinto the playoffs, they are probably going to be disappointed. The Rays were not in a position to show any gratitude when they faced the Orioles on Monday night in the first game of the final regular season series of 2012. They still had something to play for with the second wild-card playoff berth still in doubt for at least one more night, and they came into the series with three very good starting pitchers lined up against the Orioles.

Orioles closer Jim Johnson has been exceptionally predictable this season: He almost always shuts the door on the opposition, and he always shuts down the questioning after a game when the attention drifts toward him. On Sunday, the Orioles' regular-season home finale, featured both as Johnson picked up his league- and personal-best 50th save in Baltimore's 6-3 win against Boston. What does Johnson think about becoming just the 10th pitcher since saves became an official statistic in 1969 to log 50 in one season?

On a day honoring arguably the greatest third baseman of all time -- legendary Orioles Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson -- the rookie phenom now patrolling the hot corner for Baltimore showed a little of what he can do. Twenty-year-old third baseman Manny Machado stood attentively in the Orioles dugout as Robinson -- a sculpture of him just unveiled in the plaza behind center field at Camden Yards -- stood on the field and stirred up an announced sellout...

On the first anniversary of the Orioles' memorable Game 162 walk-off win over the Boston Red Sox, it was evident how much these teams have gone in opposite directions. In some ways, that night a year ago marked a rebirth of baseball in Baltimore as the Orioles played the role of spoiler, doing their part in Boston's historic collapse. To most inside the Orioles clubhouse, that day is history. They still respect what that night meant, but these Orioles are in a much different place this September.

You see the jerseys every time the Orioles play at Camden Yards, often on boys born 20 years after the man shelved his famous mitt - No. 5. Robinson. The combination of that name and that number will always stir the souls of those who watched Brooks Robinson make impossible play after impossible play along the third-base line at Memorial Stadium. But even their children and grandchildren, who never glimpsed his magician's act, have heard the stories of Robinson's kindness - the way anybody could run into him at the mall and receive not only an autograph but a few minutes of genial conversation with a Hall of Famer.

BOSTON -- There's something about playing the Red Sox that has brought out the best in Orioles first baseman Mark Reynolds. After Reynolds' solo homer in the fourth inning of Saturday's game at Fenway Park, Reynolds is 16-for-36 (.444) in 11 games against Boston this season with four doubles, six homers, nine runs and 16 RBIs. He took a 2-0 sinker from Boston starter Aaron Cook over the Green Monster in left field to give the Orioles a brief 3-1 lead. Reynolds also had two hits and drove in a run in Friday's series opener against the Sox, a 4-2 Orioles win. He entered Saturday's game hitting /435/.563/.826 with two homers and eight RBIs in seven games this season at Fenway Park Sixteen of Reynolds' 22 homers and 40 of his 67 RBIs have come against the AL East.

BOSTON - When the Orioles acquired Jim Thome in early July, they did so hoping the 42-year-old had enough hits left in his bat to help get them get to the postseason for the first time in 15 years. Thome himself said being thrust into a pennant race re-energized him, but it was soon after that a herniated disk left the likely Hall of Famer's season in limbo. Thome returned to the starting lineup Saturday for the first time in eight weeks, and the veteran designated hitter provided his team with his biggest hit in an Orioles uniform.

BOSTON - Orioles closer Jim Johnson often refers to his teammates as a bunch of grinders, a group of blue-collar players who pay little attention to individual accolades and instead focus on doing the unnoticed essentials that lead to winning. Johnson uses the grinder term because it bears reference to the gritty third-liners of a hockey team (he's a die-hard New York Rangers fan), the guys who lay down hits instead of scoring goals. So when Johnson set a new Orioles single-season record with his 46th save to close out a 4-2 win over the Boston Red Sox on Friday night, he didn't get caught up in the mark.