Wild Card

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - When the Orioles left Baltimore for their final series of the regular season, manager Buck Showalter said that one of his team's main goals was to make sure it hadn't played its final game at Camden Yards of 2012. And the one thing the Orioles could control entering their regular-season finale against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night was ensuring a home playoff game with a win. But at the end of a season in which they overcame obstacles and resuscitated baseball in Baltimore, the Orioles' bats fell silent against the best pitching staff in the game.

SARASOTA, Fla. - For most of the past two decades, the American League East has been considered the toughest division in baseball, primarily because it contained the sport's two financial behemoths, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Each year since the wild-card spot was created in 1995, one of those two has made the playoffs. Eight times in those 17 years they've done it together. Ever so slightly, though, things have been shifting in the AL East. In 2008, the low-budget Tampa Bay Rays emerged from a franchise-spanning slumber to win the division while the Yankees failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the strike-shortened 1994 season.

Orioles first baseman Mark Reynolds refused to call his two-homer game against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday his first step to redemption. He'd rather footnote it as one good night. Reynolds, who had struggled with his power stroke all year, is beginning to heat up at the plate, as his manager and teammates predicted would eventually happen during the course of the season. Reynolds, who averaged 37 homers the last three seasons, had built up too strong a power-hitting resume to remain in a season-long funk, they argued.

The Orioles are coming off a 93-win season in which they improved their record from 2011 by 24 games, finished second in the mighty American League East and appeared in the playoffs for the first time since 1997. But heading into 2013, the Orioles, who have kept their roster mostly intact, can count Vegas oddsmakers, national baseball analysts and sabermetricians among their many doubters. Historians are likely betting against them, too. Of the 14 previous teams to improve by 22 wins or more in the wild-card era, all regressed the following season, according to Sports Illustrated, and only one of those teams made the playoffs.

Saints in great spot Ken Murray Baltimore Sun This might be the best wild-card field in recent memory. I like the chances of three of the four to win at least one game, and the fourth, the Jets, could win. A wild-card team has reached the conference championship game the last three years, so there is precedence. The teams in the best position to pull that off are the Saints and Packers in the NFC. The Saints get the biggest break of the first round with a game against the Seahawks.

T he Ravens are 3 1/2 -point underdogs heading into Sunday's playoff game at New England. But that suits the Ravens just fine. In their 14-year existence, the Ravens play best in their first game of the playoffs when they aren't expected to win. When they've entered the playoffs as AFC North champions (2003 and 2006), the Ravens were upset in their first games. When they've been wild cards (2000, 2001 and 2008), the Ravens have never lost in the opening round. But Ravens wide receiver Derrick Mason refuses to play up the underdog role.

Chargers will surprise Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times The stunner here is the Chargers. I think they are going to sneak into the postseason, despite their six-game losing streak, by winning their final two games at Detroit and Oakland and relying on the Dolphins to beat the Jets in Week 17. So I have the sixth-seeded Chargers playing at Houston in the first round, and Baltimore at Denver in the other AFC wild-card game....

Tickets are sold out for possible Orioles home games in the wild-card and American League Division Series rounds of the playoffs, a club spokesman said Monday. The news came as the Orioles returned to Baltimore to begin their final homestand of the season with a one-game lead for the top spot in the AL wild-card race. Tickets for the wild card and Games 1 and 2 of the division series were gone within an hour after they went on sale to the public Saturday morning, said Orioles spokesman Greg Bader.

Wild-card round Friday, both on TBS NL - St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves, 5:07 p.m. AL - Baltimore Orioles at Texas Rangers, 8:37 p.m.   Division Series All games on TBS Saturday ALDS Game 1 - Oakland Athletics at Detroit Tigers, 6:07 p.m. NLDS Game 1 - Cincinnati Reds at San Francisco Giants, 9:37 p.m. Sunday ALDS Game 1 - New York Yankees at Baltimore/Texas NLDS Game 1 - Washington Nationals...

Gut check: Good idea Steve Gould Baltimore Sun My gut reaction was that baseball's postseason is fine as it is, and adding an additional wild-card team in each league would simply cheapen the meaning of making the playoffs. Then I remembered my gut reaction is usually wrong. Since the inception of the current playoff format in 2005, wild-card teams are 17-15 in division series, meaning that, overall, the supposed underdog in those first-round matchups isn't one at all. Adding an extra wild-card team in each league would not only provide teams with added incentive to finish with the best record in their league — thereby earning a first-round bye — but it would also provide more opportunities for competitive teams to make the playoffs and possibly knock off a division winner in the opening round.

Bob in Ellicott City: Joe Flacco was on in Sunday's playoff game and showed mobility and pocket awareness not always evident. I am, however, puzzled as to why you never see Flacco doing his homework on the sidelines. All the other great quarterbacks are pouring over pictures, interpreting game schematics or talking things over with their team members or offensive coordinators. Joe is always just sitting on the bench! What am I missing? Bob, you aren't missing anything. If that is the way Flacco prefers to operate, I don't mind as long as he is successful.

SUNDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS M. bask. Iowa@Michigan BIGTENNoon Syracuse@South Florida MASNNoon Temple@Kansas 13, 94:30 Wisconsin@Nebraska BIGTEN4:30 Wichita State@Bradley ESPNU5:30 Florida@Yale NBCSP5:30 Northwestern@Minnesota BIGTEN7 North Carolina@Virginia ESPNU8 Tulsa@Southern Methodist FCS8 W. bask. St. John's@Rutgers ESPNU11:30 a.m. Virginia@Miami CSN1 Florida State@Maryland ESPNU1:30 Penn State@Michigan State BIGTEN2:15 Vanderbilt@Mississippi ESPNU3:30 NBA Washington@Miami CSN6 C. foot.

Every week, I hope to bring you a quick Q&A with someone who covers the Ravens' opponent that week. This week, I chatted with reporter Mike Chappell, who covers the Indianapolis Colts for The Indianapolis Star. MV: Chuck Pagano was well-liked in his time here, and fans quickly fell in love with his energy and one-liners during his one year as defensive coordinator. It is encouraging to see him return to the sideline after getting treatment with leukemia. What was the coaching dynamic like when Bruce Arians was the interim head coach, and how has it been in the past week or so with Pagano back with the team?

Each Wednesday, blogger Matt Vensel will highlight five statistics that really mean something for the Ravens. 17.3 -- percentage of snaps in 2012 for Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco in which he attempted a deep throw. According to Pro Football Focus, Joe Flacco threw the ball downfield more often than any quarterback in the NFL, with 17.3 percent of his throws traveling 20 or more yards. And the Ravens set a new franchise record with 41 completions of 25-plus yards. But you can cherry-pick stats on either side of the spectrum to say whether all those deep throws were a good thing or a bad thing.

A few thousand tickets for the Ravens' wild-card playoff game will go on sale this morning at 10. The Ravens will play at M&T Bank Stadium on either Jan. 5 or Jan. 6 against the Indianapolis Colts or Cincinnati Bengals. If the New England Patriots win on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, the Ravens will face the Colts. If the Patriots lose, the Ravens will play the Bengals for the third time this season. Tickets can be bought online or over the phone. There are no sales at the M&T Bank Stadium box office.

COWBOYS @REDSKINS Sunday, 8:20p.m. TV: Chs. 11, 4 Radio: 980AM Line: Redskins by 3 The Washington Redskins should know by the time they take the field Sunday night at FedEx Field to face the Dallas Cowboys whether the game will be a playoffs-or-bust deal for them. The Redskins and Cowboys will be playing with the NFC East title at stake. The NFL announced Sunday night that the game was being moved to 8:20 p.m. under the sport's flexible-scheduling arrangement with NBC. So while there is a scenario in which the Redskins could reach the NFC playoffs as a wild-card team even if they lose to the Cowboys, it already will have played out before the prime-time game in Landover.

Cal Ripken Jr. will be in the broadcast booth for TBS during the wild-card and division series rounds. The Hall of Fame former Oriole has previously served as a studio analyst for TBS's postseason coverage, but he made his in-booth debut during an Orioles-Yankees game at Camden Yards earlier this month. Ripken will join play-by-play voice Ernie Johnson and John Smoltz for wild-card and division round coverage. It has not yet been determined which games and series that crew will work.

Head coach John Harbaugh and several players quickly offered the reminder after today's embarrassing 34-17 loss to the Denver Broncos that the Ravens still have everything that they wanted to accomplish this season right in front of them. Then, several hours later, the Ravens finally put one goal behind them, courtesy of their biggest rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. With the Steelers' 27-24 overtime loss to Dallas, the Ravens clinched a playoff berth despite being in the midst of a three-game losing streak.