Baltimore Orioles: J.J. Hardy is Double Pesky

Baltimore Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy hit a pair of home runs and drove in five to lead the O’s to a 9-5 win over the Boston Red Sox.

The unique feature of Hardy’s two homers is that they both were short shots near the famous right-field line Pesky Pole at Fenway Park. Mark Trumbo added a monster shot above the green monster, showing that there are multiple ways to hit home runs.

When asked on the O’s radio broadcast after the game as to how he managed to do it twice, Hardy replied, “I don’t know how I even did it once!”  He was laughing about it, but admitted that both balls would likely not be hits anywhere else, and that they were likely aided by the wind. The first homer hit off the top of the short wall and would have to be almost the shortest homer imaginable.

In that same postgame interview, Hardy commented that not only was he being teased about it by teammates, but an umpire also chimed in, telling him, “I see you got smarter today.”  This in reference to the shot that Hardy did hit on Monday off the top of the wall in deep left-center field.

J.J. has not historically had a great deal of success at Fenway. Coming into the game, having played 41 times in Boston’s storied stadium, Hardy was hitting just .205 with four home runs. He now has equaled the Fenway career homers total of the namesake of the pole. Johnny Pesky, Boston infielder in the 1940s, only hit six total homers there (and just 17 over his total slap-hitting career. And the story of him curving one around the pole may well be more apocryphal than real.

But Hardy’s two two-run homers and sac-fly RBI were real and gave him five runs batted in for the evening, leading the Orioles to another win in their improbable 7-0 start on the young season.

The Orioles are getting away with starters not going deep into games, as again they received only five innings from Mike Wright. Of course it was 15 days between appearances for him, and five innings is all you could hope for. Dylan Bundy gave the Birds 2.1 good innings to follow.

Surely Buck Showalter wanted to get through a game without having to go to Darren O’Day or Zach Britton. The hope was for T.J. McFarland to finish off the final five outs. He got four before O’Day had to be called upon for the final out.

More from Baltimore Orioles

• What other Baltimore Orioles Offseason Storylines will you be interested in seeing?
• Baltimore Orioles to Face Numerous Playoff Contenders Down the Stretch
• Baltimore Orioles Showing Encouraging Signs During Recent Wins
• The Baltimore Orioles and the Expanded September Roster
• Orioles Josh Rogers Expectations in his Major League Debut

How long can the O’s pitching staff keep up with this pattern?

It can be successful if there are multiple relievers who can pitch multiple innings. So it is good to see Bundy doing this. Of course McFarland has made this his calling card. Currently with Wright and Vance Worley as starters, there is also Tyler Wilson who can go several innings. Mychal Givens can be called upn for more than three outs, and O’Day as well has done this.

So the Orioles can keep this up for a while, though two or three short starts in a row could create a problem really fast. And then there is the issue of how to reintroduce Kevin Gausman and Brian Matusz back into the mix, along with who will be replaced by them.

So here again (as we’ll post all season) is our prorated calculation of the chances of the Orioles to set club or all-time records for home runs and strikeouts, adding three more home runs and nine K’s …

Again, so far, so good for Orioles pitching. But Buck is likely going to need to be a master at bullpen manipulation throughout this season, that is if the Orioles hope to be the first undefeated team in the history of the game!  Actually, just staying unbeaten for another day is a sufficient immediate goal. Hoping to give the Orioles a deep start today will be Ubaldo Jimenez.