Bob Haynie: Orioles Continue Their Extra Inning Streak
If you stayed up until almost 4am Eastern time Wednesday morning, you would have been witness to yet another dramatic Baltimore Orioles victory.
The Birds won their 14th consecutive extra inning game by rallying past the Seattle Mariners 4-2.
By the way, the game went 18 innings.
Why have the Orioles been so successful in extra innings games? Well, you have to start with the bullpen.
Against the Mariners on Tuesday, Baltimore relievers tossed 12.2 scoreless innings. The 'pen's dominance kept the Orioles in the game and the offense finally broke through in the 9th inning to tie the contest at 2-2.
Former starters Jake Arrieta, Brian Matusz and Tommy Hunter have all adjusted to their rolls as relief pitchers and were all very important to Tuesday night's win.
Clutch hitting helps in long games.
Backup catcher Taylor Teagarden has seven hits on the season. But he has made the most of them by driving in eight runs.
It's mid-September and the Orioles are still winning.
They're for real.
Time for us to stop trying to figure how or why they're winning.
Just let them do their thing.
BH
