Rob Long: Has Anyone Noticed?
While the city continues to debate over whether the Baltimore Ravens were screwed by the NFL officials or not, the Baltimore Orioles won another game in the midst of the American League play-off push.
The O's jumped out to an early lead Monday night on the road against the Seattle Mariners. Nate McClouth led off with a homerun against Hector Noesi. Mark Reynolds knocked in a run on an infield single and Manny Machado drove in another run with an RBI single to center.
Matt Wieters continued to rip it up in September by adding a homerun in the fourth to put the O's up 9-1. The Birds would cruise to win 10-4, moving to just a half game behind the New York Yankees in the AL East and three games ahead of the Los Angeles Angels for the second Wild Card spot.
Meanwhile, McClouth has done well since taken over for Nick Markakis in the lead-off spot on Sunday, September 9th. He's gone 10 for 31 (.323) with four multi-hit games, two homeruns and three runs batted in.
Why should anyone be surprised though? This is what the O's have done this season. They've empitomized the cliche of "Next Man Up."
The baseball season isn't over in Baltimore. It's September 18th and the Baltimore Orioles are at the center of the play-off picture and not to play spoiler. There are two games remaining against the Mariners and then it's a race to the finish against the American League East.
Rob Long
