Bird Watching - Orioles Take the Yankees and White Sox Series
With two series wins this week the Orioles are now 41-36 and only 1.5 games back of Toronto. The Blue Jays had a few key players go down with injuries and they seem to be remembering that they are in fact, the Toronto Blue Jays. Going 6-10 in their last 16, Toronto is starting to sputter which is good news for the Birds, as they are surging now.
h/t Ryan H.
Yankee Spanky
Even though the Orioles lost a heartbreaker to the Yankees on Friday night, you gotta love the way they responded after that. The Orioles waxed the floor with the Yankees, winning the next two games by the combined score of 14-1, including handing Masahiro Tanaka his second loss.
The O’s came into the Bronx and whooped the Yanks ass in their own house. If Zach Britton didn’t leave a pitch letter high to Beltran, this would have been a sweep, but hey 2 outta 3 ain’t bad. Plus, the Orioles embarrassed them on old timers day. Way to get shut out on “JETERS LAST OLD TIMERS DAY AS AN ACTIVE PLAYER.” So tired of this Jeter shit.
Lots of highlights from this series, Tillman outdueling Tanaka, Caleb Joseph hitting his first career HR, me winning $20 from a Yankee fan who bet on Tanaka beating the O’s, Jonathan Schoop hitting his second home run off Tanaka, and J.J. Hardy getting his first dinger of the year, complete with a fantastic silent treatment celebration. This was a huge series for the Birds and it was great to see them fight back after such a shitty loss.
h/t Gordon Dixon
White Sux
Orioles started and ended the White Sox series with a bang.
Game 1 they knocked around Chris Sale but only got two runs off him. The offense struggled that game and looked like a loss until the Orioles put together a rally which allowed Crush Davis hit a walk off 3-run home run. Not bad for a guy who didn’t play until the ninth. His walk off celebration was also a strike.
In typical Orioles fashion they make some scrub from the White Sox look like Randy Johnson and lost game 2. Then for the second time in three nights, they beat the shit out of the White Sox bullpen and get the walk off win. Down four in the bottom of the 8th and in danger of being shut out by some guy on his third team this year, Nelson Cruz hit a game tying grand slam and is again tied for first in the MLB for home runs. Then in extras they scooped the W when David Lough scored from third on a wild pitch. That loss was so White Sox it hurts.
Two series in a row it looked like they would be down and out but they came back to win both- gotta love the fight in this team right now. The offense continues to mash the ball in June and leads the league in homers this month with 35, 11 of them coming in the six games against the Yanks and White Sox. I had to throw it in there that the Orioles beat both Tanaka and Chris Sale in back-to-back games, not the easiest pitchers to face, well unless you’re the Orioles I guess. Keep slurping these guys up, we’ll just hit them out of the park.
Upcoming Schedule
With 13 of their next 18 at home before the All star break, the Orioles can gain some serious ground over the next few weeks. They’ve won three series in a row and that should continue as they face the Rays and Rangers, a combined 23 games under .500. Going 6-2 or 5-3 in this eight game stand would be huge for the Orioles.
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