The Birds took two of three from the New York Yankees over the weekend, pushing their lead in the AL East to 5.0 games over the third-place Evil Empire and 4.0 games over the Toronto Blue Jays (who lost 2/3 in Tampa). The O’s are 52-42 at the All-Star break, and life is good in Birdland.
Let’s take a look at the highlights…
Friday
Friday night’s game was an exciting one, as the Birds walked it off in extras.
But first, former Oriole Brian Roberts homered on the first pitch he saw as a visitor in Camden Yards.
Not gonna lie…I cracked a smile.
Miguel Gonzalez continued his strong run, throwing eight innings and holding New York to just two runs.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get the win, as the game went to extras. Following a Manny Machado leadoff double, Nick Hundley came to the plate with one out and walked it off…
Earning his first pie in the process!
Saturday
There wasn’t much to celebrate on Saturday, as the O’s got shut out (hey, in a day game…imagine that!), but there were some defensive highlights at least…
Nick Markakis and Ryan Flaherty teamed up to throw out Derek Jeter at home:
Chris Tillman wasn’t bad, but received no run support.
Adam Jones cut down Jacoby Ellsbury at the plate:
Markakis had a nice sliding grab:
Sunday
The Birds took a rain-shortened game on Sunday, as the heavens opened up in the bottom of the fifth inning. After a two-hour-plus delay, the umps called the game and gave the O’s the win. Woot.
Kevin Gausman gave up a leadoff home run to Brett Gardner, then settled in and allowed nothing further through the rest of the game (five innings of work).
Nick Markakis gunned down Mark Teixeira trying to stretch a single into a double to end the first inning.
Chris Davis provided what ended up being the deciding blow when he hit his 15th home run of the year to give the O’s a 2-1 lead in the 4th.
As the weather front that would ultimately cause the game to be shortened started to move in, things got a bit wacky inside the stadium. Nick Markakis’ face after catching this ball is priceless…
