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Steve Davis: O's Do The Little Things

Tuesday's 9-3 win over the Blue Jays had a lot of great components.

Good starting pitching from Bud Norris. He wasn't his best, but that's a good offensive team and holding them to 2 runs into the 6th is good.

The bullpen did its job. Matusz finished the 6th, got into trouble in the 7th, was bailed out by Hunter getting a double play, and then Miller and McFarland in the 8th and 9th.

They hit, Really hit. 3 homers, 14 hits. The offensive has come alive. After scoring more than 4 runs just once in 14 games, the O's have scored 7 and 9 in back to back games.

There were some things that just don't show up in box scores. I want to point out some things in the 6th inning. Markakis was down 0-2, and managed to draw a walk. Then, next batter, Machado grounds into a possible double play, but Markakis delivers a great slide to break it up. Then, with Jones on first, there's another double play ball to end the inning, but Jones slides in hard to second to break up a double play. So, the Orioles keep the inning going with good base running and patience at the plate. Cruz then delivered an RBI single that wouldn't have been possible without the other guys doing things that don't show up in box scores.

It's those things that help explain a 5 game lead in the AL East for the Orioles.
 


 

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