Kevin Gausman, 2014 Topps Heritage #377

My nascent Camden Yards win streak may have been cut short at three with last night's 2-1 heartbreaker, but that doesn't mean that there weren't any memorable moments. On a personal level, my sister and I won the team's seat upgrade promotion. Since the paid attendance was a cozy 10,614, and the actual number of butts in seats was significantly less for a Monday evening game in April, I encouraged Liz to text our seat location to the promotional number. I figured the odds were in our favor, at least moreso than they've ever been before. So wouldn't you know that when I returned from a third-inning beer run, she was in possession of two tickets for Section 37? I'm quite fond of our usual vantage point in Section 340, but it was nice to be a bit closer to the action. Plus, it's always a cheap thrill to see yourself on the scoreboard. Here's a crummy picture of our upgraded view, courtesy of my iPhone.

As you can see, we were right below the press box, in the last row before you reach the box seats. That meant that we had an excellent view of Kevin Gausman's historical seventh inning. Gausman was a hard-luck loser last night, allowing two runs on four hits in eight innings, with seven strikeouts against just one walk. Yonder Alonso's second-inning homer held up for the Indians, since the O's flaccid bats couldn't produce anything beyond Chance Sisco's second-inning RBI single.

Anyhow, I was pleased to see Gausman mow down Alonso, Yan Gomes, and Bradley Zimmer in order in the top of the seventh. It was all the more impressive because he struck out the side. But I didn't realize until I read the recap this morning that he disposed of all three Cleveland batters on three pitches apiece. It's come to be known as an "immaculate inning", and despite the increasing frequency of strikeouts in today's MLB, it's still pretty rare. There have been 90 such innings on record, making it a less common occurrence than a cycle or a no-hitter. 85 different pitchers have had a three-K, nine-pitch inning, including a record high of eight last season. (Sandy Koufax had three of them.) Kevin is the first pitcher to throw an immaculate inning in 2018, and the first Oriole to do so since B. J. Ryan blew away Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, and Richie Sexson on September 5, 1999. I guess there's just something about the Indians.

I'm glad to know that I witnessed a little bit of history...even if the significance escaped me at the time.

Nick Markakis, 2014 Topps Heritage #106

I haven't been buying many cards lately, because we're moving to a new house at the end of the month (way to bury the lede, Kevin), and all of this cardboard really adds up. But Target went and slapped a $12.99 sticker on a blaster box of 2014 Heritage, and I still haven't wrapped up that ding-danged set yet, so I didn't put the box down after it threw itself into my hands. I didn't do too badly, either. I got a dozen base cards that I needed, and though the few short prints in the blaster were dupes for me, maybe they'll serve as trade bait if anyone else is still working on this set. What's more, each and every one of the eight packs featured a Purple Refractor parallel. I didn't get any personal favorites, so the shiny purple versions of Carlos Santana, Strasburg, Sale, Cano, Arenado, Kimbrel, Josh Hamilton, and Carlos Gomez are also all available for the right offer. One other rarity I pulled was a black-back parallel of the Michael Brantley card. Supposedly every card in the set has a parallel version with this variation, but I couldn't find a listed insertion ratio; it seems that they're pretty rare. Maybe I'll just hold on to that one. At any rate, I certainly got more than I expected out of a marked-down blaster.

Adam Jones, 2014 Topps Heritage #78

After back-to-back walkoff wins, the Orioles decided to do things the easy way today. Remember how they went hitless in Seattle on Wednesday afternoon? How about my Thursday blog post, where I tried to put a positive spin on things by reminiscing about Baltimore's team-record 26-hit outburst in 1980? Well, today the Birds did some clubberin' against Athletics pitching, spraying a record-tying 26 hits all over Camden Yards in an 18-2 laugher. Gerardo Parra collected five hits in the first six innings, including his second homer in as many days. Designated hitter and Charm City native Steve Clevenger had his first career four-hit game. There were three hits apiece by Manny Machado, Adam Jones (who had a two-homer day, giving him 22 in 2015), Jonathan Schoop, and Caleb Joseph (who had the fourth and final O's home run). Things got really out of hand in the fifth inning, when the Birds batted 13 times and collected 10 hits and nine runs. In the late innings, Buck Showalter gave many of his starters a breather, and even forfeited his DH by subbing Clevenger in for Chris Davis at first base. That led to a surreal scene in the bottom of the eighth, as erstwhile Oakland first baseman Ike Davis pitched to rookie O's reliever Jason Garcia, batting for the first (and possibly last) time in his career. Naturally, Garcia walked on four pitches, thanks to Showalter's insistence that he not actually swing the bat. With the victory, the O's briefly moved into a tie with the Angels for the second wild card spot. As I type this post, the Halos are tied with the Royals in the tenth inning. Just for tonight, I guess I'll root for KC.

Jonathan Schoop, 2014 Topps Heritage #49

We're three weeks into July, and the Orioles just got their first series win of the month with a 9-3 win over the Tigers in today's rubber match. Jonathan Schoop's three-run homer off of Justin Verlander highlighted a six-run fourth inning, as the O's chased the former Cy Young and MVP after just 3.2 innings of work. There were still plenty of tense moments; the Tigers and Orioles each had 14 hits, but Baltimore reversed their recent fortune by going 6-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Detroit went 3-for-12 and stranded 13 runners, compared to five left on base for the Birds. If the O's are going to make a move in the second half, Schoop could be a big part of it. He missed two and a half months with a knee injury, but has hit six home runs in only 18 games (62 plate appearances). He also made a number of dazzling defense plays in this weekend's series, further bolstering the team's already strong collection of gloves. Now the Orioles head to Yankee Stadium with a razor-thin hold on second place in the American League East, hoping to cut into New York's four-game division lead. Buckle up.

Chris Tillman, 2014 Topps Heritage #290

One down, 161 to go.

I waited patiently (sorta) for six long months for Orioles baseball, and I was rewarded with a crisp 6-2 win over the retooling Rays in a re-purposed Sam's Club in Tampa. There were so many performances worth mentioning:

-Chris Tillman notched his first Opening Day win with 6.2 innings of one-run ball, pitching around three walks.

-Caleb Joseph continued with last season's Matt Wieters impression, participating in three putouts on the basepaths and adding a double and a run scored.

-Alejandro de Aza played the role of leadoff hitter to perfection, scoring the team's first run in the first inning and grinding out a pair of ten-pitch at-bats. His two-run homer off of Chris Archer in the fifth inning provided the winning margin for the O's.

-Steve Pearce proved that he's not planning to turn into a pumpkin just yet, adding a home run of his own and stealing a late insurance run with a heads-up slide under the lackadaisical tag of Rays catcher Rene Rivera.

-Travis Snider was a suitable replacement for the departed Nick Markakis, debuting as an Oriole with three hits, two RBI, a diving catch in right field, and a laser throw to put out James Loney on a run-scoring attempt.

-Ryan Flaherty(!) capped the scoring with a solo home run in the ninth inning, bucking his own slow-starting trend; he started off both 2013 and 2014 with 0-for-17 skids.

And so the Orioles begin the 2015 season the way they ended the 2014 season: atop the American League East.

Buck Showalter, 2014 Topps Heritage #323

Buck Showalter, who looks completely at home on a 50-year-old card design, is now a three-time Manager of the Year. The O's manager has done it in his own quirky style, of course, by winning each of his MOTY honors a full decade after the last: the first came in 1994 with the Yankees, the next in 2004 with the Rangers, and now the 2014 Orioles. He joins Tony LaRussa as the only managers to ever win the award with three different teams. There's something about Buck pulling 96 wins out of a team that got a combined 235 out of a potential 486 games played from Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, and Chris Davis that resonated with the voters, who put him atop 25 of the 30 ballots cast. He's the first Baltimore skipper to be named tops in the American League since Davey Johnson, whose personality clashes with owner Peter Angelos led to his hasty exit after piloting the club's last American League East Champion in 1997. Luckily, Showalter seems to have a much more complementary relationship with the big boss. The Orioles were a few fortunate bounces away from a World Series this year, and I have a lot of confidence that they'll get another shot at it in 2015. I'd forgotten that such a feeling was possible.

Bud Norris, 2014 Topps Heritage #417

Bud Norris gave the Orioles 6.1 innings of two-hit baseball, striking out six en route to a 2-1 ALDS-clinching victory today. The O's, who were treated as something of an underdog, swept the Tigers despite facing the last three Cy Young Award winners in succession. Thursday was Max Scherzer. Friday they outlasted Justin Verlander. And this afternoon, they bested old Tampa Bay nemesis David Price. Price flinched before postseason novice Norris, as Nelson Cruz hooked a fly ball just inside the right field foul pole with Adam Jones aboard to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead. Zach Britton made things tense by yielding back-to-back doubles to the Martinezes to begin the ninth, but closed out the one-run win with a double play grounder off the bat of questionable pinch hitter Hernan Perez.

Kansas City is five outs away from wrapping up an even more surprising ALDS sweep of the 98-win Angels. If that result holds, the Orioles will have home field advantage in the American League Championship Series and will host the Royals in the opener on Friday. The Birds are four wins away from a return to the World Series.

J. J. Hardy, 2014 Topps Heritage #410

J.J. Hardy's long, powerless nightmare is over. In the eighth inning of today's 6-1 victory over the Yankees, the Orioles' shortstop finally hit his first home run of the 2014 season. It came in his 65th game of the year, but it's also worth mentioning that he didn't go deep in the final 23 games of 2013. All told, that's an 87-game, 361-plate-appearance drought that has been mercifully ended. Since Hardy's last longball on September 5, 2013, the O's have enjoyed multiple homers from such luminaries as Delmon Young, Ryan Flaherty, and David Lough. Now the Birds are within a game of second place and only trail the first-place Blue Jays by two and a half (one in the loss column). It's shaping up to be an interesting summer.

Wei-Yin Chen, 2014 Topps Heritage #86

Okay, no home run for J. J. Hardy last night, and he committed yet another error. Apparently I don't have mystical jersey-relic-related powers. Duly noted. But I did have a grand night at the ballpark with my wife and my sister, thanks in large part to Wei-Yin Chen. The 28-year-old southpaw turned in his best start of the year and one of the best in his two-plus seasons in Baltimore thus far, combining with Darren O'Day and Zach Britton to shut out the Red Sox for the second time in three games.

Chen retired the first 11 batters he faced before Dustin Pedroia laced a hit into the right field corner. But Boston's scrawny second baseman had the nerve to test Nick Markakis' throwing arm and was gunned out at second base to end the fourth inning. In innings five through seven, Chen allowed a single per frame but coaxed three double play grounders to keep the Beantowners from mounting any serious threats. He also struck out a season-high seven Red Sox batters in earning his seventh win, already matching last year's victory total in ten less starts. Meanwhile, the O's offense gave Wei-Yin an early cushion with a three-spot in the first off of young Rubby de la Rosa. A Steve Pearce walk, an Adam Jones RBI double, and a Chris Davis two-run homer did the trick. Nick Hundley chipped in with a two-out single in the fourth to plate Hardy, as the newish Oriole catcher had his first multi-hit game since arriving in a trade with the Padres last month.

After six and a half innings played under threatening skies, a thunderstorm arrived emphatically during the seventh-inning stretch. We waited out half of the ensuing one hour and 40 minute rain delay, enjoying some 1983 World Series highlights (narrated by Mel Allen!) on the center field video board. But with the clock pushing past 10:00 with no announced restart time on a Wednesday night and the Birds comfortably ahead, we decided to head home. I caught the end of the game on TV, including run-scoring walks by Jonathan Schoop and Markakis to push the advantage to 6-0 in the eighth inning. One flawless inning from Britton later, and the Orioles were in the win column, closing to within 4.5 games of first-place Toronto just in time for the Blue Jays to arrive for a four-game weekend series.

All that, and I got this excellent "Oriole Way" promotional giveaway tee!

Chris Davis and Adam Jones, 2014 Topps Heritage #5

I'm still enjoying this year's Topps Heritage offering, so much so that I finally sucked it up and bought a hobby box today. Chris Davis sitting in the top RBI spot on the American League Leaders card offers a nice parallel to Brooks Robinson's top billing on the 1965 Topps AL RBI Leaders card. Adam Jones drops in to make it a two-for-one deal.

Still, there's something funky about this picture of Crush. I think they just went a bit too crazy with the Photoshop filters. Davis looks blocky, like a computer-generated image of himself. I'm guessing that's the batting cage behind him that looks like an inky black wave rising up to swallow the first baseman. Run, Chris! Run!

Mike Belfiore, 2014 Topps Heritage #74

Last night I opened a blister pack of 2014 Heritage that I'd grabbed at Target while Easter basket shopping a week earlier. The lone Oriole among those 30 cards was a guy whose O's career lasted all of a single 1.1 inning relief appearance last September. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mike Belfiore sneak onto the checklist for this set; I'd assumed that he'd be just another obscure player who wouldn't be represented in my team collection.

The quick and dirty on Belfiore, in case he escaped your attention in 2013: He was a first-round compensatory pick by the Diamondbacks out of Boston College back in 2009. Three years later, Arizona traded him to the Birds for failed third base prospect Josh Bell. The lefty finished the 2012 season with a 2.71 ERA in 40 relief appearances, including a 2.85 mark in 28 games at AA Bowie. Mike struck out 10.6 men per nine innings, and had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3-to-1. The Orioles were sufficiently impressed, adding him to the 40-man roster at the end of the year. He spent most of 2013 at AAA Norfolk, with similarly encouraging numbers: a 3.18 ERA in 37 games (76.1 innings), 9.7 K/9 IP, and 2.83 K/BB. Belfiore actually got promoted to the majors on three separate occasions last year, but had to wait until the last of those callups to make his big league debut.

On September 27, 2013, he was called upon with two outs in the eighth inning and the visiting Red Sox leading 8-3. David Ortiz greeted him rudely with a three-run homer , and the southpaw walked Mike Napoli before Daniel Nava grounded into a force play at second base. Returning for the ninth inning, Mike served up a first-pitch homer to Jonny Gomes to push Boston's lead to 12-3. The rookie settled down from there, sandwiching a single between a popout and a double-play grounder to leave his earned run average at 13.50. Flash forward to the beginning of the current season, when the O's designated Belfiore for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Evan Meek and Delmon Young. He was claimed by the Tigers and assigned to AAA Toledo, where the 25-year-old has had a rough go of it thus far (7 ER in 8.2 IP). But for all of that, he did get his name and face on a card...even if he did have to share it with some other bozo.

David Lough, 2014 Topps Heritage #278

When Janet and I entered the ballpark for last night's game, a matchup of Orioles' fifth starter Bud Norris and Blue Jays' second-year pitcher Drew Hutchison, I certainly didn't expect a pitching duel. But Bud and Drew were both up to the task, trading zeroes for six innings. When Jonathan Schoop drove a double into the gap off of Toronto reliever Neil Wagner in the seventh, with David Lough racing around to score from first base, it looked like Norris might squeak out the win. Looks can be deceiving, though. New O's closer Tommy Hunter got two quick outs in the ninth and quickly ran the count to 0-2 against Jays center fielder Colby Rasmus. When he threw a third straight curveball, Rasmus tried - and seemingly failed - to check his swing. But fill-in third base umpire Jeff Gosney, working his first-ever MLB game, denied catcher Steve Clevenger's appeal. Rasmus powered Hunter's next pitch over the right-center field fence for a deflating, game-tying home run.

When the Birds allowed both Steve Lombardozzi and Lough to bat in the bottom of the ninth, leaving the more powerful Steve Pearce, Matt Wieters, and Delmon Young on the bench, I sarcastically tweeted my approval of the move. Shows what I know, right? Both men were retired in the ninth, but the game pushed on into the 10th, 11th, and 12th innings with the score still knotted 1-1. In the bottom of the 12th, the Orioles finally figured out Blue Jays reliever Todd Redmond in his fourth inning of work. J. J. Hardy smoked a ball into deep right field, but Jose Bautista made a great leaping catch to rob the O's shortstop of extra bases. But neither Bautista nor Colby Rasmus could track down Steve Lombardozzi's drive to center field, and the second baseman motored all the way into third base with a triple. That set the stage for Lough, who'd been struggling with concussion symptoms and entered the game batting .105, to play the hero by belting a line drive over third base for the walkoff hit. Now I've been to two games at Camden Yards in 2014, and they're the only two games the Birds have won at home in the young season. Both were 2-1 finals, with Zach Britton picking up the win in relief each time. I'm hoping that's a coincidence and not a trend...I don't think my heart can take many more razor-thin games like that.