Baltimore Orioles: Feel-Good Win Over Yankees

Sep 23, 2014; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter (2) reacts to making the last out of the game in front of Baltimore Orioles catcher Nick Hundley (40) at Yankee Stadium. The Orioles defeated the Yankees 5-4. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Orioles registered a 5-4 win over the New York Yankees on Tuesday evening that contained a number of positives that should make O’s fans feel a little bit better in this odd final week of the regular season. It is a strange time of kinda competing, while kinda resting and getting oriented and prepared for the playoffs to begin in another week.

The Orioles pounded out a total of 17 hits, including 14 singles. So that is 17x more hits than they pounded out Monday night. If they can keep up that trend of 17x more hits each night, it would be 289 on Wednesday night and 4913 on Thursday evening … just sayin’. You can’t get this sort of analysis just anywhere!

Even so, with 17 hits, one would expect a few more runs than simply five; but the hits were very spread out over the game. The Orioles had baserunners in every inning. Four of the Orioles had 13 of the 17 hits, with Nick Markakis getting four, while Nelson Cruz, Kelly Johnson, and Nick Hundley had three hits each. This was the fifth game this season where Markakis has gotten four hits; and since he has been struggling a bit lately, it is good to see him come alive again.

Nelson Cruz leads the AL in home runs by 3 with a total of 40

Cruz hit his 40th home run, which puts him three homers ahead of Houston’s Chris Carter for the AL lead. Markakis and Johnson also hit home runs.

Also regarding Cruz, it has been great to see the way that he has hit to all fields of late and beaten the shifts on numerous occasions. He still hits home runs while doing this – which is what Chris Davis is somehow going to need to learn to do if he wants to be a top drawer offensive threat again.

Hundley has been hitting well, while Caleb Joseph’s bat has gone into a deep sleep. Though I think Joseph is the player with a future in Baltimore, it may be that Hundley should play something like two-thirds of the games in the playoffs. Over his past 10 games, Hundley is 8-for-31 with two home runs, and over his past 20 games he is 19-for-64 (.297) with three homers.

Ubaldo Jimenez got his second consecutive win, and he will apparently get to start the final game of the season in Toronto – where much of the bullpen will get some final tune-up time in the game. That Jimenez can finish the season on a positive and contributory note may well be very significant for his winter and for next year. The Orioles are going to need this guy to put it back together and make the investment worthwhile.

It was great to see Zach Britton come on and get the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth inning. Though giving up a high-chopping infield single, he come right back to strike out Derek Jeter. Britton had some nasty stuff going on.