Baseball is a pretty weird sport. The Orioles had five hits in the first game of today's doubleheader. They were all home runs, and the O's won 6-5. At the beginning of the game, each of the first three batters (Ryan Flaherty, J. J. Hardy, and Nick Markakis) hit home runs. It was the first time in American League history that a team opened a game with back-to-back-to-back home runs; it had only happened in the National League three times. The most recent team to perform the feat was the Brewers in 2007. Incidentally, Hardy was the second batter in that game as well. Rangers starter Colby Lewis proceeded to retire the next 18 Oriole batters in a row, striking out 12 of them. Then the bottom of the seventh started with an Adam Jones homer, a Matt Wieters walk, and a Wilson Betemit homer. It was just enough to support a great start by Wei-Yin Chen, who saved the Birds' bullpen with seven and two-thirds innings of two-run ball. Luis Ayala and Jim Johnson conspired on a three-run ninth inning to make things interesting, but the O's escaped with their first win against Texas in their last eight tries. Baseball, man.
Hey, we get to share a trivia question! The '87 Padres with the triumvirate of Wynne, Gwynn and Kruk were the first N.L. team. That's always been one of my favorite questions along with "Who holds the record for longest hitting streak by an A.L. switch hitter?"
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