Steve Davis: Game Balls For Orioles Sweep
There's plenty of game balls worthy of being handed out after the Orioles swept the Indians with a pair of shutouts in the doubleheader. The last time the O's had shutouts in both games of a doubleheader was 1974.
The obvious choice is Ubaldo Jimenez, who was so awful last year and is now the best pitcher in the rotation. 8 shutout innings, no walks, 7 K's. That's they they gave him the four year deal. He was absolutely dominant, and is now 5-1 at home.
If not him, Chris Tillman, who has looked as bad as Jimenez did last year, becoming completely unreliable. However, he looked like the ace again Sunday, going 7 shutout innings and surrendering 0 walks.
Another worthy choice of a game ball would be Manny Machado, who stretched his hit streak to 10 games, during which he is hitting over .400, and made another incredible barehanded play at third.
Chris Davis would get some votes too. RBI double in Game 1, another home run in Game 2, and unselfishly playing right field in both games.
That said, I will go with Travis Snider. His diving stab in left was ESPN's number one 1 in the Top 10, plus he belted a home run. The coolest thing, though, was how he met with an 8 year old fan, Wyatt Anthony, that used to live in Pittsburgh and now lives in Thailand, and Snider is his favorite player. He is back in the states this month and drove down from Pittsburgh just to meet Snider. The Orioles gave him the "Orange Carpet" treatment and Snider even did batting practice with the boy. Snider gets my game ball.