The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers 5-1 in Friday's inaugural Wild Card 'win-or-go-home'playoff game for the right to play the New York Yankees.
With this defeat the two-time championRangers, have been knocked out.
Joe Saunder's effective pitching in the sixth inning and Adam Jones' tiebreaking sacrifice fly helped the Orioles eliminate the Rangers for the first time in 15 years in the playoffs.
The Associated Press quoted an elated Showalter, the Orioles' manager as saying: "With our team it's just a bunch of guys that raised the bar and wouldn't give in and still haven't.
"Now they get a chance to win to roll the dice, and there's a lot of good card players in there. Real proud of everybody. Tacking on runs were big, knew they were going to run at you. But just a real proud moment for us.
"Our guys approached it and we talked about it being sudden life instead of sudden death, and we played that way. You've got to seize the opportunity. We don't get many."
The Orioles will now play the Yankees, the East champions and AL's top seed. The best of five division series will begin at the Camden Yards Sunday.
The Rangers who looked very impressive this season and came within close to winning the World Series last season have made a rather early exit this year. Their manager Ron Washington obviously disappointed said: "We just didn't get it done. I'm not stunned, I was right there watching it."
The Rangers had earlier lost the AL West title when the Athletics swept them in three games. They suffered as many as nine losses in their previous 13 games.
After committing more than $107 million last winter to acquire Yu Darvish, the Rangers certainly expected him to be on the mound for many big and crucial games.
Darvish said through a translator, "Me and my teammates and the Rangers' fans, I don't think we all thought that it would end this early. I mean, right now, no. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do tomorrow."
Saunders added: "Our main job tonight was be as calm as we could and not try to do too much. I think we did that to the best. We just clawed and scratched our way to a couple runs and played great defense.
"I love being the underdog. To knock off the defending two-time champs from the past couple of years is pretty amazing, I think."
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