O is for Offense

Last night was a big night for the O's. They got their 50th win of the season. Before the season began I predicted the Orioles would struggle to win 50 games. Sometimes it's good to be wrong. It's not even August and while the O's might be in the cellar of the AL East, they are only 5 games below .500. Which really isn't that bad. At least not when you look at our records for the last 10 years. I'm practically giddy.

But while hammering the Yankees 13-4, the Orioles did much more than beat my preseason expectations. There were many big milestone nights. Not only did the O's stop the Yanks 10 game home win streak. So they have managed to beat 2 really hot teams in 2 days after an abysmal previous 10 games. They also had their best offensive night in years. Every batter in the lineup had a hit. And some of those hits were major milestones.

Adam Jones, the young rising star outfielder, had his first career grand slam. A memorable moment for him. This was a great night to do it. But it was not the only career milestone of the night. Brian Roberts hit his 250th career double. That's right 250. Talk about a lot of good hits and stretching a good number of singles as well. The little man has legs. And finally Ramon Hernandez hit his 1,000th hit. How about that for a good night for the team.

Also our pitching is starting to turn around. After a good outing by Olsen, Guthrie showed he still deserves the ace spot by pitching into the 7th before allowing a run and being taken out of the game. So it looks like its on a the Orioles are on an upswing. Let home they can keep it going and creep back up to .500. It was a true night of Orioles Magic.