WE MADE IT, EVERYONE!

A positive run differential! We’re not a statistical anomaly anymore!

90 wins is a huge accomplishment, too. Just last year, this team had nothing even resembling a chance at making it to 90 wins, but here we are now. 90 wins. It just feels weird to say it, doesn’t it?

The 90th win this season was an absolute slugfest in which the Orioles beat up on the Red Sox, a team that you normally would expect to be in the general area of 90 wins. Chris Tillman went eight incredible innings, but Troy Patton was brought in for the ninth, denying Tilly of his first-ever complete game. Eh, it’s a win, at least.

We have five games left in the regular season. If we win them all, we’d be a 95-win baseball team. Even if we don’t win all five, we’ve almost got a playoff spot locked down. That alone has made this season pretty darn worthwhile. Beating the odds is one of the best feelings in the entire world.

Oooooooooooooooooooooh.

I liked this game a lot. I liked the first two innings the best because we scored seven runs total in them, which was really, really awesome, but overall I liked the entire game quite a bit.

Once again, we had a fine start from Chris Tillman, who went six innings against his former club and only gave up one run on three hits. Zach Phillips followed, giving up a second run on a solo homer, but his 1.2 innings of work were otherwise not so bad. He did walk a batter, though. Luis Ayala finished the night up and was somewhat rusty, giving up a double followed by a home run and then struggling to continue before being relieved by Tommy Hunter. Hunter loaded the bases and then miraculously did not give up a home run, instead notching a strikeout to end the game.

This win was probably most important because it means now we’re only half a game behind the Yankees. It puts just the teensiest bit more pressure on them to stay ahead because we’re less than a game back. It’s all mental, sure, but sometimes it’s the mental things that matter most at this stage of the season. Mentally, the Orioles are locked in, and it shows in how they’ve been playing overall during this stretch run. I’m excited. It’s late at night and I should be going to bed, but I’m excited, almost too excited to sleep.

I’m going to try to go to bed. If you’re reading this at the moment it’s posting and you’re not on the West Coast, you should go to bed, too.

The easiest way to recap this game would be to put a big photo of Mark Reynolds in here and leave it at that, since he’s really the reason we won today (he drove in four runs on two homers – a solo shot and a three-run blast), but that’s a little too easy, so we’re going to have to come up with something else here.

We could also talk about the way the Yankees went through about one million relief pitchers in the eighth inning, or how Randy Wolf relieved Chris Tillman (right elbow stiffness) early on and pitched fairly well. There’s lots of things that we could discuss at length about this particular game, the 133rd the Orioles have played this year.

What I really want to talk about, however, is just how important this game actually was.

The Orioles won, yes, but they were losing initially. They rallied to take a 5-3 lead, which they extended to an 8-3 lead in the eighth inning for some extra insurance (because, as we saw yesterday, you can never have too much of that). They knew more than any of us that they needed to take this game. Not only does it put them just two games out of first place in the AL East (with five games left against the Yankees to play), but it also proves that they’re able to beat good teams.

This entire stretch has proven that, to be honest – they swept the AL Central-leading White Sox and have now taken two of three from the Yankees this weekend. Not bad at all, I’d say. The best bit of all of this is that whilst the Yankees now have to take on the Rays, who are always thrilled to play the spoiler, the Orioles get to go and play against the Blue Jays up in Toronto – and as we saw in the last series, the Blue Jays are not themselves as of late. The Orioles winning this series against the Yankees is a really, really big deal because it’s put them in an advantageous situation: most of the teams they’ll be seeing for the rest of the year are teams they know they can beat. Here’s the remaining schedule:

• 9/3 – 9/5: @ Blue Jays
• 9/6 – 9/9: vs. Yankees
• 9/11 – 9/13: vs. Rays
• 9/14 – 9/16: @ Athletics
• 9/17 – 9/19: @ Mariners
• 9/21 – 9/23: @ Red Sox
• 9/24 – 9/26 vs. Blue Jays (including the makeup doubleheader on 9/24)
• 9/28 – 9/30: vs. Red Sox
• 10/1 – 10/3: @ Rays

With the exception of that West Coast swing that’s going to keep me up way too late for about a week, the remaining games are all against the AL East. The Orioles know they can beat Boston and Toronto at this point, and they’ve done well against Tampa Bay, as well. Knowing that they can beat the Yankees as well has to motivate them at least somewhat and encourage them towards really making a push for the division.

The one series I’m really worried about is the one against Oakland, to be honest. That…that’ll be tough. I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed on that one since at this point we need to win as many games as we possibly can (there are only twenty-nine left).

For now, though, let’s just relax a little bit and be happy with ourselves for performing well this past weekend. We did what we needed to do, I’d say.

How in the hell did we just do it again? We’re completely unstoppable at this rate.

It took no time at all for the Orioles to get to Chris Sale. The Orioles put up three runs in the second inning, eventually chasing Sale after only four innings (only one game after he struck out thirteen batters – against the Yankees, no less). On the flip side, Chris Tillman only allowed one hit over his seven innings of virtually flawless work, raising his record to an astounding 7-2 on the year. It’s like we actually can’t lose anymore.

I mean, we can lose, but we don’t seem to be doing that, now, do we?

Our win, coupled with tonight’s Rays loss, means we’re now in second place in the division again. We’re only 3.5 games back of the Yankees. The division itself is still up for grabs. We’re now tied with Oakland for first in the Wild Card. There are only 34 games left to play.

This is doable, you guys. We’re playing well enough to make this happen. I’m not going to be too optimistic because I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I actually believe that this team has what it takes to be competitive going forward.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited.

I’m trying to think of what to write about this game. I’ve been sitting here with this post open for the better part of a half hour, and all I can think of is the fact that Chris Tillman had another good start. He’s actually been surprisingly good for the Orioles this year – tonight he went 6.2 innings and only gave up one run until the very end when he had a two-run homer smacked off of him in the sixth.

It was a one-run game up until the sixth inning, actually. That was when the Orioles put up a four-spot against Scott Feldman which was capped off by Nate McLouth’s first home run as an Oriole. He couldn’t have picked a better time since his two-run homer was the difference in this game. Attaboy, Nate – welcome to the team!

This win was huge for the team because it means that the Orioles clinched at least a .500 road trip. It’s also huge because right now, the Orioles and the Rays are tied for the lead in the Wild Card. They’d be the two teams in the one-game playoff. It’s strange to think about, but the Orioles might actually be in a game exactly forty games from now, the storied Game 163. Aren’t you glad we’ve got Robert Andino right about now?

I’d love to see this team win tomorrow. It would be incredible to see them take two of three from the Rangers after struggling against them earlier in the year. They’re oozing with confidence right now and I LOVE that. They’re playing like it.

I couldn’t think of a good picture to include with this post, so here’s a happy Harp seal pup.

Well, I suppose we can’t win every single game, but I really wanted this one because we’d have gained a game on the Yankees and that would have been fantastic. I keep picturing this team surging in September and overtaking them, and to do that you kind of need to win baseball games like this one.

Buchholz was pretty darn solid tonight, though. He started off iffy, giving up a home run to Mark Reynolds, noted Red Sox killer, but he settled in and that’s probably a pretty good part of why we lost. The bit where Luis Ayala gave up three runs is part of that, too, of course. Tillman did give up three runs of his own, as well, but that’s better than I often expect from the kid, at least. The game was tied for a while, but Ayala pretty much decided that was stupid and had a bad inning.

Need to cheer up since we didn’t gain a game on the Yankees like we were all hoping to tonight? Here you go:

GANGNAM STYLE! It’ll never fail to cheer you up, believe me.

This still rings true even in August. I can’t believe it.

We won again! This team just amazes me.

Tonight belongs to Chris Tillman, who went 7.1 innings and only gave up one run. He also notched five strikeouts and only walked one batter on the night. On a day when we lost Jim Thome until September, which is at the very least a kick in the morale, Tillman came out and was completely solid, the latest in a string of strong performances from a starting pitcher. Tillman’s command was incredible tonight, which is even better than just having good stuff – the reason I complain all the time about Tommy Hunter is that he has that habit of letting his command slip and giving up home runs.

To be honest, our pitchers have been pretty solid lately, which is exactly what we need. It’s such a relief to know that we’ve got the staff working well to keep us in games regardless of whether we score late, like we did yesterday, or early, like we did today (all our runs came in the second inning this evening). It’s nice to know that we’ve got some security here – as long as the bats keep up, then we’re in decent shape for the last two months.

It’s a little tough to write these posts for games that happen during the Olympics. I know nobody cares about baseball when the Olympics are on. Knowing that the Orioles are doing such a good job of holding the fort down whilst all of Baltimore’s eyes are elsewhere (i.e. on Michael Phelps and company) is making this easier on me, though – everyone’s going to come back to such a pleasant surprise when they see that we’re currently only 5.5 games back in the AL East.

That’s not a typo, I swear.

I guess we don’t need anything after all. Screw the trade deadline, we’re fine!

Here’s a brief synopsis of what happened, which you probably missed since you were probably watching the Olympics tonight:

• Chris Tillman gives up five runs in the first inning. Three of these runs score before he records an out.
• The Orioles score seven runs in the second inning to make up for it.
• Chris Tillman settles down and goes four more innings, not giving the Yankees anything else.
• Over the course of the rest of the game, the Orioles score four more runs.
• The Orioles bullpen is solid and doesn’t let the Yankees score, either.
• The end.

This is the sort of game that really makes you think this team’s found itself again. A win that convincing has to tell you that they’re feeling it again all of a sudden. They’re confident, they’re not intimidated anymore, and they’re able to go out there and actually have fun with baseball. When they’re having fun with baseball, they’re hitting and scoring and not relying entirely on home runs. They’re pitching well, too – not that the bullpen’s ever had a problem or anything, but seeing Tillman overcome those early struggles and settle down to give the team some extra support from the mound shows maturity.

In a sense, this team is growing up and understanding what they have to do to win, and that’s what’s making the difference for them right now.

One more day until they get a much-needed day off. Let’s finish this run on a high note and sweep!

I spy with my little eye a Rube Goldberg machine. And a winning baseball team, but not in this picture.

This game happened whilst I was at work. Naturally, since I was unable to see even a second of it, the Orioles won. We’re going to play I Spy with the MLB.com recap now and find some interesting things about this team.

Chris Tillman won again. It’s amazing to think that he’s doing so well given his struggles, but there’s something different about him that is plainly visible. Do you know what it is?

Joe Maddon does:

The Rays were unable to get anything going off Tillman until the seventh, when a pair of doubles — including a two-run double from Sam Fuld — forced his exit in favor of reliever Darren O’Day. The biggest difference, according to Rays manager Joe Maddon? Confidence.

“He’s definitely a more confident pitcher than maybe the last time we did see him,” Maddon said. “I thought he pitched well. He did not give in.”

What a difference believing in yourself makes, huh?

Also, just look at this quote from the same article and tell me what you see here:

That lead came courtesy of a five-run fifth inning, a rare offensive outburst from a lineup that has struggled for the better part of six weeks. Facing Shields, the Orioles put runners on first and second one out into the fifth inning, with Nick Markakis singling and J.J. Hardy taking Shields’ pitch off his ribs. After Jim Thome walked to load the bases, Adam Jones punched a two-run single into left field to give the O’s the lead. Matt Wieters worked a walk to reload the bases and Davis emptied them on a double into the left-center field gap.

First off, let’s get the concern out of the way – Hardy’s x-rays came back negative. He’s fine; it’s just a bruise. Now that we’ve gone through that, let’s look at exactly what the key element was here that allowed the team to score five runs in one inning (with four of the RBI on the day coming from Chris Davis).

I think it’s confidence again, and here’s why.

Once you see someone in your lineup get a hit, you begin to realize that the pitcher on the mound is hittable. Once you realize the pitcher is hittable, you believe that you can get a hit, too. When your entire team believes that you can all get hits, you actually focus and get them. The hits come in bunches, and you score runs. Only one run today came on a homer (Chris Davis hit a solo shot in the seventh), with the rest being a bunch of smaller consecutive hits. That’s exactly what this team needs to do to get the job done. Home runs aren’t always the answer, but confidence always is.

One more thing before we’re done – we know what was wrong with Gonzalez last night, even if he won’t blame his struggles on it – he has the flu, or something very much like it. Apparently several people in the clubhouse are struggling with the same illness, so here’s some metaphorical chicken soup for you all – YOU WON A GAME, PITCHED WELL AND DIDN’T SCORE ALL YOUR RUNS ON THE LONG BALL. YOU’RE GOOD AT BASEBALL. REMEMBER THAT. Feel better, everyone, and remember that you’re better than you think at this game!

Really, we need you to be confident. Oakland’s coming in tomorrow.

I wrote a post about Chris Tillman winning another game and the Orioles giving him three runs, which was not much compared to last night but enough since Tilly only gave up one run (on a solo homer in the first inning) over 6.2 innings pitched.

Then my phone ate the post.

Fortunately, most people don’t read game recaps on Saturdays. Unfortunately, people not reading game recaps on Saturdays makes me sad, and I want to change that. Starting tonight, each Saturday I’m going to post something completely ridiculous in my game recap so that you have to come back to the site to see what it is.

I’ll start with what’s available on my phone for this week. Random fact about me: for three years, I’ve been the reigning Galaga champion in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Here’s my high score, located at Pavillion Arcade on Jenkinson’s Boardwalk: