Pedro Alvarez, 2016 Topps #367

(Cheesy Photoshop alert!)

I hope you could forgive my pessimism as the Orioles staggered into Yankee Stadium last Thursday in the midst of a five-game losing streak. A four-game weekend series against the powerful New York lineup did not seem like the prescription for what ailed the Birds. So naturally, the O's took three of four from the pinstripers, including a pair of bizarre extra-inning contests:

-Thursday brought Andrew Cashner (6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K) his first win as an Oriole, and the O's rallied for five seventh-inning runs. Adam Jones' two-run homer off of Masahiro Tanaka gave Baltimore a lead they wouldn't relinquish en route to a 5-2 final score.

-Friday's game stretched into the wee hours of Saturday morning, as it took 14 innings and nearly five and a half hours for the Birds to escape with a 7-3 victory. It looked like a Mychal Givens wild pitch would end it in the bottom of the eleventh, but Caleb Joseph chased down the ball and tossed it to former shortstop Givens, who slid into home plate just ahead of baserunner Didi Gregorius and tagged him out. After an umpire review, it was determined that Givens had not obstructed Didi's path to the dish. That set the stage (eventually) for Pedro Alvarez's grand slam to provide the winning margin.

-After dropping Saturday afternoon's game, the Orioles sealed the series win with a rousing comeback on Sunday. Mike Wright put the O's in a five-run hole in the first inning, but a pair of two-run homers by Anthony Santander (his first as a big leaguer) and Danny Valencia helped Baltimore briefly take the lead in the top of the seventh inning. The Yankees tied it up in the home half of that inning, and it remained a stalemate until the top of the twelfth. That's when Craig Gentry's two-out single through the left side of the infield plated Pedro Alvarez. 8-7, Orioles. The drama persisted in the Yankees' final ups, with Brad Brach walking two batters and mishandling a Brett Gardner bunt to create a bases-loaded, no-outs jam with sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton due to hit. Judge tapped a grounder back to the mound, with Brach, Caleb Joseph, and Tim Beckham collaborating on a deft 1-2-5 double play to wipe out the two lead runners. Then Brach earned the save by striking out Stanton swinging, the fifth K of the day for the 2017 MLB home run leader.

In recent years, the Orioles have made a habit out of proving their detractors wrong. If they want to keep it up in 2018, it is absolutely alright with me.

J. J. Hardy, 2016 Topps #233

One of the troubling realities of being a baseball fan is that you can form attachments to players, only to see them leave your favorite team. Guys get hurt, they decline, they're released or traded or just sign elsewhere as a free agent. It seemed like a foregone conclusion for a while that J. J. Hardy would not be an Oriole in 2018, but in some ways I'm just coming to terms with it nonetheless. Pedro Alvarez recently re-signed with the O's on a minor league deal, and was assigned jersey number two. As shown above, that was J. J.'s number for the past seven years. But he hadn't topped 115 games played since 2014, and hadn't been even league-average as a hitter since 2013. So at age 35, it's not really surprising that Hardy is no longer in Baltimore. In fact, he hasn't signed anywhere.

But J. J. Hardy will be fondly remembered by O's fans. He contributed to three playoff teams, and was a Gold Glover at shortstop for three straight years (2012-2014), for what that's worth. For me, I'll remember that he scored the go-ahead run on Delmon Young's bases-clearing double in the second game of the 2014 AL Division Series, and I'll remember shouting along to Camden Yards PA announcer Ryan Wagner's distinctive call: "J! J! HARDY!" If his 13-year MLB career is truly over, J. J. should feel a real sense of pride. He totaled 188 home runs, with a 30-homer season in 2011. In addition to the aforementioned Gold Gloves, he was a two-time All-Star (2007 and 2013) and a 2013 Silver Slugger awardee. I hope he can find something else to keep him busy after baseball.

Chris Tillman, 2016 Topps #477

I can't sit still. A do-or-die playoff game against the loathsome, obnoxious, cantankerous, preening Blue Jays is the perfect time to write my first blog post in two and a half months, right?

Hopefully I'll be back a lot sooner with my next post, but let me say that we're all doing well here at the home base. Baby Finn is splendid, Janet is healthy, and I'm not any more sleep-deprived than I was before fatherhood. Now, then...

Come on, Tilly. You've got this.

Zach Britton, 2016 Topps #63

Major League Baseball took an All-Star break, and so did I. Sure, mine lasted twice as long as theirs, but who's counting? The important thing is that Zach Britton ensured the Orioles' home field advantage in the World Series by saving the American League's 4-2 win in last Tuesday's All-Star Game. That's nothing new for the lefty, who has also nailed down each of Baltimore's last six wins. He's a perfect 29-for-29 in save opportunities in 2016 (I'm knocking on wood as I type), and has already racked up 102 saves in less than three seasons as the O's closer. In the next week or two, he should pass Tippy Martinez (105) for third on the team's all-time leaderboard. Then he'll set his sights on Jim Johnson (122), with Gregg Olson (160) still on top for now.

This 2016 Topps card is brand new to my collection, since I decided that I wanted to commemorate my son's birth with a factory set of this year's cards. I haven't sorted them all out yet, but initially I like the fairly no-frills design. The cloudy flourish in opposite corners I could do without. Full-bleed photos look so clean and neat; why mess with that? I'll also note that the first Oriole I pulled out of the box was Henry Urrutia, who appeared in all of ten games for the club in 2015. An odd choice to be featured in the set, but I still have warm fuzzies thanks to his walkoff home run against the Mets last August 19, so I'll just roll with it.