So, how about that Manny Machado kid, eh? Pretty good, isn’t he?

Machado was the difference in tonight’s game against the Red Sox. With the score knotted at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh, Machado stepped up to the plate and hit a line drive home run out to left. It was visually stunning – and psychologically, too, at least for Boston since we won and all that.

Jim Johnson, who will appear in my next cartoon for Camden Depot tomorrow morning trying to perform an antiquated science, now has 49 saves. I think that’s pretty damn incredible.

Oh, and we’re tied for first place with the Yankees again. I have a feeling they’re starting to find us very, very annoying, especially since we decided to take Steve Pearce back. He’s been everywhere this year, it seems, but he’ll get to finish things up with us.

Now we’ve got a bit of a conundrum here. There are four games left to play. If we’re tied with the Yankees still after those four games, we have to have a one-game playoff to determine who wins the division and who plays in the Wild Card one-game playoff. Yeah. Both teams would make the postseason – Tampa Bay’s elimination number is 1 right now, so it’s almost a lock at this point – but there would be two one-game playoffs, and one team would be playing in both of them. Annoying, MLB. Just saying.

Anyway, let’s go out and get a sweep tomorrow because then we’d have 92 wins and that would be neat.

Miguel Gonzalez, guys.

Not only was he absolutely amazing tonight, going seven full innings and only giving up one run (on a solo homer to Mark Trumbo; he also gave up only two more hits), but he was pitching in front of his family and friends…and he wore this glove.

Screencap by me.

Gonzalez was originally signed as a rookie free agent by the Angels in 2005. This little tribute to Nick Adenhart made me tear up a tiny bit because it was a subtle tribute, but a very fitting and kind one.

After Gonzalez was out of the game, Darren O’Day came in to pitch the eighth inning, and although he got two outs he surrendered a second solo shot, this one off the bat of Mike Trout. When this was followed by a Torii Hunter triple, the Orioles opted to walk Pujols and have Troy Patton come in and get the next out. He succeeded, and Jim Johnson closed the door, as usual.

In terms of offense, Steve Pearce took care of that one for us tonight by smashing a three-run homer off of C.J. Wilson in the fifth. That was really all the Orioles needed tonight since they got such a strong pitching performance. Miguel Gonzalez, you are not Mike Gonzalez and you can most definitely stay in the rotation if you keep doing this. Right now, we like you a lot more than Bad Arrieta.

I like the look of the Orioles again all of a sudden. Huh. Lack of sleep and decent games will do that to a person.

Somehow, I think most umpires would call this one. (Image courtesy of Net 54.)

There was a balk. It gave us a run.

Actually, there was a lot more to this game than that, but the Orioles’ two runs came on a Mark Reynolds sacrifice fly that scored Adam Jones and a balk that brought Steve Pearce home from third. I’m not a big fan of the whole balk rule to begin with because it’s so open to the individual interpretations of each umpire, but when it gives you a run it’s hard to be angry about it. The run from the balk wasn’t even the deciding run in this game, given the score, but the fact remains that it was there, so I’m taking this opportunity to rant about it.

I really hate the fact that the balk is something different each time it happens. There, I said it. Each umpire interprets what counts as a balk for each pitcher differently, so there’s no consistency in what actions are called balks and what actions aren’t. Statistics in general mean the same thing every time you see them – a hit is a hit, a strikeout is a strikeout, a walk is a walk, and so on. The strike zone of each individual umpire is going to vary somewhat, but the statistics still sport a certain amount of consistency. With the balk, that’s not the case, and therefore I’m never thrilled when anybody scores on a balk.

Even when it’s my own team.

Anyway, the Orioles won and Wei-Yin Chen went seven innings strong again before handing the game over to the magical bullpen of doom (should that be Magical Bullpen of Doom?). Combined, three of them took care of the eighth and Jim Johnson handled the ninth with the skill that we’ve become accustomed to around here. This team’s absolutely built on pitching this season, no denying it.

Now the Orioles get to come to me and play three games against the Mets. I rather like this because it means I get to watch them on my TV instead of the computer. Yay!

This is probably the only time I'll ever use a racehorse as a synonym for baseball. (Image from Wikipedia.)

The Orioles came right out of the gate on this one, and I couldn’t be happier – especially since all four runs they plated in the first inning scored with two outs. After a great battle in which Chris Davis ended up walking, Matt Wieters singled, driving in Brian Roberts from second base, and Mark Reynolds followed it up with a double, which was enough to get Davis in. Steve Pearce then smacked a double of his own, bringing Weets and Reynolds home.

That’s the kind of offense I really like – as much as I adore watching a team really gut it out and squeak through runs in the later innings of a well-fought pitchers duel, watching the Orioles burst out of the gate like Secretariat is exciting and encouraging. The team strung together hits – and a walk – and was able to push across a ton of runs all with two outs. Not only did they not give up when they had two outs ahead of them, but they absolutely dominated and kept piling on the offense, providing run support for Tommy Hunter, who last won a game the day before my birthday. (I turned 23 on April 25th.)

The scoring didn’t stop there, though. In the third, Matt Wieters knocked a ground-rule double, driving in another run to make the score 5-0. Then he drove in two more runs in the fourth, putting the Orioles up 7-0 and increasing his RBI total to three. Reynolds added a double (his second) in the fourth, as well, and Pearce hammered the nail into the coffin with an absolutely gigantic homer to left field. 10-0 Orioles after only four innings.

Tommy Hunter began to struggle in the fifth, allowing a bloop hit and a single before recording two consecutive outs. Then Tommy did what he does best – he gave up a home run to Rod Barajas, and the Pirates were suddenly on the board. After one more single, he escaped the inning, but that home run issue remains, and it’s making me – and surely others, as well – somewhat nervous. It’s the seventeenth homer Hunter’s given up already this season. That’s not a pretty statistic.

Two more runs scored for the Pirates in the top of the sixth, but the Orioles immediately answered with two consecutive doubles from Adam Jones and Matt Wieters, which added a run.

Darren O’Day took over the pitching for Hunter in the seventh, recording three outs without doing that whole ‘give up a home run’ thing that Hunter seems to do an awful lot. Dana Eveland followed in the eighth, and although he recorded two outs he managed to get himself into a position where he ended up with two men on before recording the third one on a flyout to Adam Jones.

The bottom of the eighth made me change the title again: now it’s the Wieters, Pearce and Reynolds Show, as the latter hit a bomb out to left field, the crowning achievement on his four-hit night.

A run came across in the top of the ninth, but at this point, it was pretty much irrelevant…because…

…tonight was a good night offensively:

• Mark Reynolds: 4 hits
• God Matt Wieters: 4 RBI
• Steve Pearce: 5 RBI

I like winning. I think it’s time to go and try that in the city where they make my favorite soda.*

*My terminal addiction to Coca-Cola should be copied or praised by absolutely nobody.