I'll say the over/under on this game is now 16 innings. — David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield) September 19, 2012

Yes, I just cited my own tweet. I wrote that last night in the 10th inning of the Orioles-Mariners game and I was only half-joking. After all, the Orioles have a good bullpen, the Mariners have a good bullpen, the Mariners can't hit and the game was at Safeco Field. I made it through 13 innings before calling it a night. When I woke up this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see the game lasted 18 innings and not at all surprised that the Orioles, once again, pulled out an extra-innings victory.

That's 14 wins in a row in extra frames (including nine on the road), the most since the 1949 Indians won 17 such games in a row. It's really a remarkable achievement. You can say it speaks volumes about Baltimore's grit and determination and clutchiness, but mostly it speaks to a terrific bullpen. Tuesday's win was one of the best considering Mariners rookie Erasmo Ramirez had dominated the Orioles for eight innings, taking a two-hit shutout into the ninth inning, showing electric stuff with a 93-95 mph fastball with movement and diving changeup. I had no problem when Mariners manager Eric Wedge left Ramirez in to go for the shutout; he'd thrown just 95 pitches. But the first two batters singled to knock out Ramirez, J.J. Hardy put down the sac bunt and Chris Davis singled off Tom Wilhelmsen to tie it up.

Three hours later, the Orioles won as the bullpen threw 12.2 scoreless innings. Because of that heavy workload by the pen, the Orioles recalled top prospect Dylan Bundy and he'll be available tonight as a long reliever, with Joe Saunders starting.

Somebody asked me the other day if the Orioles make the playoffs if they'll have the worst ace ever for a playoff team. Wei-Yin Chen leads the staff with 2.8 bWAR (Jason Hammel, limited to 20 starts, is at 2.7), although his raw numbers don't blow anyone away (12-9, 4.00 ERA). Remarkably, Chen is the only pitcher on the staff who will qualify for the ERA title. Tommy Hunter is second on the team with 126 innings and he's now in the bullpen.

As it turns, not having an ace with a WAR above 3.0 isn't all that rare. I checked the past 10 seasons and found the following playoff teams:

There are a lot of steroid-era pitching staffs on there; not sure if that's just a coincidence or a reflection that it was more difficult to post a decent WAR in those seasons. Certainly, the fact that Baltimore has had just one starter remain in the rotation all year is a rare thing for a playoff team, but we have seen that before. Is it worth noting that none of those teams won the World Series, and only the 2002 Giants reached it? Maybe. We found 10 playoff teams out of a total of 40, so the statistical odds would be 2 or 3 World Series winners.

Plus, the Orioles need to get to the playoffs first before we worry about their chances of winning. Needless to say, just getting there would be an amazing accomplishment.