Rob Long: Back To Business
After the Baltimore Orioles lost three straight to the Chicago Cubs, fans began to panic a little. Come on, admit it, you did. We've found about Manny Machado's season ending surgery, the team loses three in a row and the dots were connected. The team was down because they just found out they lost their Platinum Glove corner infielder and the results were three straight losses to a bad team.
You can go with that if you want, but there's another way to look at it. I know it's an easy way to look at it but it's baseball. The best team in the league is going to lose multiple games to the worst team in the league if they play them enough. The O's caught the Cubs at the wrong time and they lost three.
What the Orioles needed were the friendly confines of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, not Wrigley. It's worked in the first two games at least as they've taken two from the Tampa Bay Rays behind a strong performance by Chris Tillman on Monday.
While the bats were on fire Monday, they did just enough Tuesday to pace the Birds as the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays both lose. The O's are now seven up on the Yankees and a whopping 10 games up on the Jays.
There's a side in all O's fans that wants to celebrate winning the American League East already for the first time since 1997. There's also a side in us that wants to duct tape shut the mouth of anyone who speaks of such an accomplishment before it actually happens. Either way, it's real folks. You can't hide from it. Despite the low batting averages that are in this lineup every night this team just continues to win. There's something special about the 2014 Baltimore Orioles.
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