ANAHEIM, Calif., Aug. 10 -— Dare we even say it? Is there any useful reason to point out that, following their thorough 11-3 crushing of the Anaheim Angels on Tuesday night, the surging Baltimore Orioles, winners of eight in a row, are now only -— gulp! -— seven games back in the American League wild card race?
We wouldn't want to be held responsible for getting fans' hopes up falsely or for compelling the front office to start making more short-sighted moves, in pursuit of what is surely a pipe dream, with no fewer than five teams still ahead of the Orioles in the race.
Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts scores past Angels catcher Josh Paul on a David Newhan hit during the fifth inning on Tuesday. Roberts had four hits and scored three runs.
(Chris Carlson - AP)
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No, better not to mention it at all.
And yet, the numbers are right there for anyone who seeks them out: The Orioles are on their longest winning streak in five years. They are just three games under .500 and alone in third place for the first time in nearly two months. They are 17-9 since the all-star break. And they are beating good teams.
Win No. 8 in this current streak came on a balmy night at Angel Stadium, against the wild-card-leading Angels. It featured a season-high 20-hit attack by the offense, backing a workman-like six-inning effort from rookie right-hander Daniel Cabrera (9-5). The Orioles stranded a staggering 16 baserunners, but got more than enough of them home to win.
"You don't want to leave runners on base," Orioles Manager Lee Mazzilli said, "but I feel good about this lineup. I feel this team can strike at any time."
Two years ago, the Orioles had an identical 54-57 record and were also alone in third place at this juncture, before crashing to a 95-loss finish.
But that team did not have a lineup like this one. This Orioles lineup, which features no fewer than six .300-plus hitters these days, is so stacked, Mazzilli decided he could do without right fielder Jay Gibbons -— a 100-RBI man last season -- who was activated from the disabled list before the game but took a seat on the bench.
"He's going to play," Mazzilli said of Gibbons. "But we’re playing well right now and we're going to keep the guys in there who are hot."
These days, that means everybody. By the time Angels starter Aaron Sele (7-1) was dispatched in the fifth inning Tuesday night—having already thrown 103 pitches and no doubt induced sleep in many of the 43,068 in attendance—every Orioles starter already had collected at least one hit.
For the night, leadoff man Brian Roberts went 4 for 5 and scored three runs. Miguel Tejada, the majors’ RBI leader, drove in five runs with a pair of singles and a three-run homer.
David Newhan, a hometown kid who attended nearby Esperanza High, had three singles and three RBI. Larry Bigbie homered to left-center off Sele in the second, Bigbie's 13th of the season and fourth in his last six games.
"Everything is clicking right now," Newhan said. "It's nice to be a part of it."
Cabrera's start marked a return to the site of his first big-league beating; after winning his first two starts in the majors following his surprise promotion from Class AA, he was pounded for nine hits and six runs in an 8-3 loss here on May 23.
