Orioles only worried about themselves

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Yankees won again last night, and the Orioles didn't seem to care in the least. The Red Sox rolled over again, like a puppy begging to have its belly rubbed. They're not exactly rallying around embattled manager Bobby Valentine. Instead, they're holding the door open and giving him a shove. He's the only guy they can get out these days. When the result of last night's Yankees game was relayed to center fielder Adam Jones, he replied, "We don't care." He meant all three words of it. "We didn't take care of our business," he said. "We can't control other people. We lost. That's something we had control over. When it comes to the Yankees, you can't control them, can't control whether they win or lose." Too bad the visiting clubhouse at Tropicana Field doesn't provide joysticks for that series. Of course, the Orioles have the right idea. If they scoreboard watch, they take their eyes off the task at hand. They have to beat the Rays. Otherwise, it doesn't matter what happens in the Bronx. "The Rays are always good," Jones said. "We've played against these guys 60 times, and every game has always been the same. They play until that last out is made and so do we." The Orioles proved it again last night by putting the tying runs on base in the ninth after trailing 5-1. "The 27th out wasn't made," Jones said, "so until that out is made, we're going to go hard as we can go." And try to ignore what everyone else is doing. The Orioles aren't completely ignoring the scoreboard. They stayed on the field after the final out of Sunday's game to check the ninth inning of Game 1 of the Angels-Rangers doubleheader. They didn't want their charter to take off from the Jacksonville airport, where they had an unscheduled landing, until the last outs were recorded in Game 2. You can be sure that they know the wild card standings and how the Athletics have tied them. They also know that Oakland holds the tiebreaker and would host a one-game playoff on Friday. We all know the Orioles have no interest in making that trip.



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