LA2

In 1965 and '66, the Orioles had Bob Johnson and Davey Johnson and my ten-year-old mind wondered if they were related--there was even a slight facial resemblance and they were both non-slugging infielders. Then they had two Robinsons. It wasn't until a few years later that there was either a Johnson (aside from LBJ) or Robinson (aside from "Lost in Space" and that Swiss family in a tree house) in my daily non-baseball-fan life, possibly because i went to a very small school (there were maybe 53 students in my graduating class and a lot of them were Jewish). I have often thought that, more than even literature or the newspapers, it was baseball that introduced me to a vast number of common American names. I knew no Smiths, Wilsons, Whites, Browns, etc. except through baseball.

That's interesting. I would have originally guessed that the resurgences of Hays, Mullins, Valaika, and DJ, the continually hot Iglesias and Mountcastle, and the subtraction of Davis and Smith, Jr. would have bolstered the team stats more during the last 20 games.

After that worrisome beginning of the season, Hayes has come back from his injury blazing. He, Mountcastle, Santander, Mancini, and Nunez not a bad power MOO. (Maybe Severino and Ruiz too?)

I think the similarity in their names annoys him j/k. Nine straight scoreless outings should be cheered, not meh'd; that's 1/6 of the elapsed season. 1.50ERA+, 12.6 SO/9, and an increase of SO/W from .83 to 2.0 to 2.5 during 2018-20 is quite an improvement--maybe even more significant than how many of only 5 inherited runners scored.

Hard to stuff even one "eon" into less than 48 innings pitched over three seasons by a reliever who is presently 25 years old. Give him and us a break. Chris Davis--that's someone whose seasons can engulf "eons of terrible"....

It's very frustrating that we couldn't take advantage of Toronto getting decimated the last 10 games or so to pass them into the playoffs (especially given how we lost the wild card game to the Jays the last time we were in the postseason). But in general the Orioles have been surprisingly fun to follow and long ago surpassed the number of wins I had predicted before the season started. And to think they did so without their top two starting pitchers, centerfielder, and shortstop much of the time--and then, after the trade deadline, the back end of their bullpen! Well, that's baseball, even in a 60-game season. I thoroughly enjoyed the overperformances by journeymen and optimistic glimpses into the future given by youngsters from our farm system.

I'm sure Hanser isn't depressed about batting eighth, but he's probably wondering.

Hope he gets a lecture in the dugout, maybe some practice on it tomorrow. Certainly miss Schoop's and Hardy's tagging.

Severino another pleasant surprise. Nunez doing about what everyone expected, I suspect.

Powerful Atlanta lineup certainly due after yesterday. I just hope we get 5 innings or something close to an old Bundy-like QS out of Eshelman.

.330 / .376 / .409 / .785 (115 OPS+)--That was Iglesias's line from 234 plate appearances with the Red Sox in 2013. .300 / .347 /.370 / .717 playing full-time with the Tigers in 2015. Has hit a lot more doubles and drawn much fewer walks this season compared to those.

Mountcastle's swings seem to have his whole body smoothly coordinated and balanced even during a rather long swing. Reminds me a little of Longoria's follow-through.

Iglesias continuing his hot hitting.

I thought it might be the Ynoa we know from the O's, but it's not. Both leadoff hitters K'd on 3 pitches. Unusual these days, I wd think.

Yeah I know, I meant game thread.