Another look at Bowie's rally the last two games to win the championship

If the Double-A Bowie Baysox winning their first Eastern League championship last night was not impressive enough, there are a few other stats that might impress you.

During the regular season, Reading went 5-2 against Bowie and scored 40 runs in those five wins. They added nine runs in a Game 3 victory to take a 2-1 series lead. Against that offense, which led the league in runs and needing two straight wins for a championship, Bowie pitching gave up a combined three runs on 10 hits in the last two games as Reading went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

In the Eastern League semifinal series, Bowie lost the series opener and then outscored Altoona 21-3 over the next three games to advance. In the championship series, Bowie was down 2-1 after three games and then outscored Reading 16-3 over the last two games.

Bowie went 6-3 in the playoffs, scoring 58 runs with a team batting average of .283 and a team ERA of 2.72. The Baysox were a complete team led by an excellent staff and they deserved their title.

In Game 5 last night, Bowie starter Joe Gunkel gave up one run in four innings on three days' rest. Then Nick Additon came on and gave up one run in four innings on two days' rest. He had started Game 2 Wednesday night. Impressive job by both.

"I just wanted to do anything I could to help this team win," Additon said. "It feels unbelievable. Nine years in the minors and this is my first championship. Could not have been more fun. I loved every minute of it and that is the most fun I've ever had in baseball."

Bowie outfielder Mike Yastrzemski had 10 extra-base hits in nine playoff games. He hit .406 with six doubles, two triples, two homers and six RBIs. He said the Bowie veterans helped the youngsters to win games.

"We all wanted to have fun and win," Yastrzemski said. "We have some guys that have big league experience in that locker room that pushed us further than we could have gone. Guys like Ozzie Martinez and Brandon Snyder. You can't say enough about what they bring to the table.

"Personally, just getting an opportunity like this to continue the season and to progress was great. We just focused on winning. You lost focus on numbers, you lost focus of production and anything else except for winning."

Bowie first baseman Trey Mancini felt playing in the postseason is good for a player's development.

"I think it is really important as a player to be on a championship team," he said. "Because you are going to play in pressure situations and you have to stay loose. On this team, everyone had each other's back. It really does help your development playing in these kind of games, for sure."

Some players came up big for Bowie in the playoffs:

* Quincy Latimore hit .351 with three homers and 14 RBIs. He led all players in playoff RBIs.

* Garabez Rosa, named MVP of the playoffs, hit .385 with three homers and 10 RBIs. He homered twice in the Game 5 win.

* Ozzie Martinez hit .367 with four RBIs.

* David Hess went 2-0 with an ERA of 0.64.

* Additon went 3-0 with an ERA of 1.59.

If you missed some of the coverage from last night, click here to read the game story and see some celebration pictures. Click here to check out some quotes from Dan Duquette, Gary Kendall and several players after the win. Click here to see the video of the final out on milb.com with Baysox broadcaster Adam Pohl on the call.

Congrats to the entire Baysox organization, which is filled with some wonderful people, both on and off the field. Kendall is a championship manager, but I knew that long before last night. When I interviewed some Bowie players during the previous series, I could tell they were driven to win. They were. There were a lot of scouts in Bowie for this series and many came to see some top prospects on the Reading team. But Bowie was the team that played the best. After 23 years of waiting, the Bowie Baysox are most deserving champions. It was a pleasure and honor to cover that team this season.

As for the Orioles: The Orioles picked up an important 2-1 win last night as Adam Jones knocked in both runs and Wei-Yin Chen gave their rotation a much-needed strong outing. The Orioles have won five of their last seven games and eight of 11. They remain 4 1/2 games behind Houston for the second wild card and they are also trailing Los Angeles by three games, Minnesota by two and Cleveland by a half-game.

Is there enough time to catch all those teams? That seems quite unlikely, but the Orioles are finishing strong and winning just enough to keep the end of this year at least somewhat interesting. They have 14 games to play in the 2015 season.