After four days of working at an anime convention doing cartooning-like things, I got to drive back home…to find that the Orioles won again.

Series win against the Phillies. Cliff Lee is still winless in 2012 (I honestly feel bad for the fellow). And to top it off, this weekend I got to see these people:

I think this was a pretty good weekend on the whole, but let’s talk about why today was good for the Orioles because, well, that’s kind of the point of this website.

The Orioles now have a 9-2 record in extras. That’s insane, to be honest. If any game they’re involved in goes into extras, the odds are roughly 82% in their favor – they’ve now won that many times past regulation game length. This time, it was a shorter affair, with Adam Jones scoring on a Matt Wieters double in the tenth inning, but nevertheless the ridiculous stat stands taller and taller with each passing win.

Things ended up falling on the shoulders of the bullpen this afternoon as they bailed out Jason Hammel, who apparently was quite hot today:

The bullpen’s effort came in support of Orioles’ starter Jason Hammel, who battled through six innings while sweating through three jerseys, matching a season-high 115 pitches in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees.

Sometimes I miss being at Gettysburg and running down to Camden Yards in the warmer months. Nope, not today!

To be fair, though, Hammel did struggle with his fastball command today, which is a bit of an issue, but it’s really hard to pitch well when you’re dehydrated beyond belief.

The Phillies piled on most of their runs in the second, adding one more in the fourth after the Orioles initially led the game with one run in the bottom of the first. In the bottom of the fourth, though, the Orioles scored three runs, and the game remained tied until the bottom of the tenth. Yeah, it was one of those bullpen games.

Also, poor Steve Tolleson. Kid hits the game-tying homer in the fourth and this is what’s written about him:

With Baltimore down in the fourth, 4-1, the rarely used Tolleson provided the game-tying three-run homer off Phillies left-hander Cliff Lee, who finished with four runs on seven hits and two walks in six innings. Lee took another no-decision to prolong his winless start to the season.

Rarely used. I don’t think he needs that rubbed in, but at least he went yard today!

I like this winning thing. I think I’ll go to sleep happy now.