The Rise of the Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are playing out of their minds this season. A popular pick to finish 4th or last in their division in March, they sit just a game back behind the $200 million New York Yankees. The Orioles currently hold the second Wild-Card spot, which would set them up for a one game playoff against the Oakland Athletics. The most improbable number this year for the Baltimore Orioles has nothing to do with individual player statistics. It is 29. Make it negative 29. The Baltimore Orioles have been outscored by 29 runs this year. They are 16 games over .500 and are the only team over .500 that has been outscored. It's simply ridiculous. 

So what have the Orioles done to win baseball games? They simply have had magic in the air. They seem to just come up with timely hitting, solid relief pitching, and that will to win. They rank in the bottom half of the AL in ERA, Quality Starts, BAA, and walks. They are 9th in the AL in runs, 10th in AVG, and 11th in OBP. Their formula to success doesn't make any sense, but hey if it ain't broke don't fix it. They just keep winning games.

The Orioles do have positives to their team of course, as they are 2nd in the AL in HR right behind the NYY. They have a lot of players that can hit for power, as 7 players have hit double-digit homeruns this year. Adam Jones is having a great season hitting .288 with 29 homeruns. Despite all this power though, no player will break 100 RBIs, which is just flat out crazy. 

The Orioles are playing some weird, but good baseball and we can only hope they can continue (unless you're a Yankee fan). The Orioles have a pretty tough schedule to finish the season, but hey, nobody thought they could keep this up all year, so why count them out now?