Chris Davis, 2017 Topps Fire #113

As I continue searching for ways to fill the void left in my everyday life without baseball, and to keep my housebound preschooler from climbing the walls, I have discovered the Orioles Digital Kids' Corner. Once a week, the team's official YouTube account is updated with a video of a current team member reading a bedtime story to their children. A few days ago, we watched Chris Davis read "The Wonderful Things You Will Be" to his three young daughters. It's an endearing glimpse into the personal lives of these guys. Though if I'm being honest, it also soothes my ego a bit to know that while I wouldn't be able to hit a 95 mph fastball if you gave me a few million swings at it, I'm a much more dynamic narrator than most of the clubhouse.

Seriously. You should hear my Grover voice. (I also do a mean Cookie Monster.)

Chris Davis, 2015 Topps Allen and Ginter #170

Somebody at Topps saw a prototype of this card and said, YES. This is what I want. Do you know the creepy portraits where it looks like the eyes are following you? We've captured that. Chris Davis' baleful baby blues will bore a hole right through your soul. Print it!

Chris Davis, 2015 Topps Archives #205

One week into the 2018 season, Chris Davis has gotten off to a start that is...to use the scientific term, hot garbage. He has two singles in 25 at-bats, has walked three times, and struck out six. That's an .080 batting average and a robust .258 OPS. He's now whiffed 1,208 times in 908 games as an Oriole, bringing him within 97 K's of the franchise record that it took Cal Ripken Jr. 3,001 games to set. I'm not saying that Chris Davis should get all of the blame for the team's ooooogly 1-5 start, but he sure isn't helping. But hey, he's got four more years on his contract after this season to make it up to us. No, I'm not screaming. It must have been you.

B'More Boppers, 2017 Topps #36

I'm brushing off the dust for the first blog post of 2018, some ten years and two days since I began this little adventure. At the very least, I want to say I've had a more active offseason than the Orioles. Well, I actually don't want to say that at all, but I may as well clear the below-sea-level bar that Dan Duquette and Co. have set for me.

I'm trying to live a more purposeful life in some ways in this new year, prioritizing methods of self-care and day-to-day living that have gotten lost in the shuffle. That includes my writing, so here I am for as long as I can stick to it. Today's card came from my stocking, because my wife (and Santa Claus) knows what I like. So, how have you all been? As for me:

-First and foremost, I'm currently the father of a very active and curious 18-month-old. I can barely believe it myself. Finn is growing and learning every day, and he makes us laugh and melt and throw up our hands in frustration all at the same time. We brought him along to seven games at Camden Yards last year, and he ran up an impressive 6-0 mark before Dylan Bundy and a snoozy O's offense let him down in a 7-4 loss to the Yankees on September 4. But he seems to love the sights and sounds of the ballpark. When we rolled the dice and took Finn to his first night game on August 5 (my birthday, don'tcha know), he quite pointedly stayed awake and mostly alert throughout the club's 5-2 comeback win over Detroit. Staying up three-plus hours past bedtime and cheering for a three-homer outburst from Adam Jones, Tim Beckham, and Welington Castillo took its toll, of course...the kiddo was out cold in his car seat before we made it onto I-95 for the trip home.

I don't know if Finn will have a consistent love for baseball throughout childhood, but the early signs are good. One of his newest words is "hat", and he'll point to his bitty Oriole Bird cap on its perch by the kitchen door. When we take it down for him, he'll wear it around the house as he plays.

-My wife Janet has now officially been cancer-free since her surgery in September 2016. She finished radiation just before Christmas 2016, and wrapped up a clinical trial of an oral chemo drug last May. Her oncologist's preferred target is three years from the initial diagnosis - March 1, 2019 in this case. It seems so far away, but we will get there.

-As I alluded to above, it's as frustrating to be an Oriole fan right now as it has been in...five or more years, easily. The Birds just had their first losing season since 2011, and they truly earned it with some putrid starting pitching and a handful of lame offensive performances (paging Mark Trumbo). As the Yankees begin loading up on big names again, Baltimore...stands pat. They've already missed their window to trade Zach Britton for anything of value, and now he's out until at least July with an Achilles tear. They fielded offers for Manny Machado (who, to my frustration, they did not manage to extend at any point in the past six seasons, during which time it should have been priorities #1-10 on their list), unsurprisingly couldn't find anyone willing to part with two MLB-ready starting pitchers for a one-season rental, and backed off from declarations of Manny's availability. So, if you're not tearing down and rebuilding, what are you doing? Reloading for the season ahead? Forget that. Here's the list of pitchers that the Orioles have signed this offseason who project to join Bundy and Kevin Gausman in the rotation, addressing the screaming need for a team whose starters barfed up a 5.70 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, and .837 OPS allowed in 2017:


...Oops. C'mon, guys. Get creative, get aggressive, get...somebody. Mike Mussina isn't walking through that door, and if you don't wake up, even the likes of Lance Lynn, Alex Cobb, and Jaime Garcia will be off limits.

-I don't want to end on a down note. Otherwise, life is good. We are rolling with the punches and doing what we can to make our world a little bit better. I hope you are too. As always, thanks for reading. Welcome back.

Chris Davis, 2014 Topps Power Players #PP-209

For the first time in the team's 63 seasons in Baltimore, the Orioles have started the year with six straight wins. That's 6-0.

Today brought another first: I watched a couple of innings from the dentist's chair.

By the time I got to the dentist's office, it was already the fifth inning and momentum had swung back and forth and back again. In their home opener, the Red Sox jumped out to a 3-0 lead by the time O's starter Yovani Gallardo recorded his first out. But the Birds rallied with a five-spot off of big-bucks Boston pitcher David Price in the top of the third, via a two-run single by Chris Davis and a three-run homer by still-new Oriole Mark Trumbo. An inning later, the Sawx plated a pair to tie the score at five-all.

The O's helped keep me distracted while the hygienist scraped away at my teeth with her little metal pick (don't you just love that?). I'm grateful that the dentist's TVs were tuned to MASN, instead of their usual default setting of HGTV. They took another short-lived lead in the sixth inning while I was getting my pearly whites cleaned, thanks to back-to-back doubles by J. J. Hardy and Jonathan Schoop. But by the time I was back in my car and headed for the beltway, it was a tie game again. I'll admit that I was worried.

Thankfully the O's were just saving the rest of the fireworks until I could get home and tune back in. I wasn't sure how they would handle flamethrowing closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning, but Caleb Joseph and Manny Machado both drew walks to give Davis another shot at playing the hero. With two outs, the slugging first baseman crushed a 97mph fastball 449 feet to center field. Just what Earl Weaver ordered. Zach Britton created some tension in the home half of the ninth, serving up a leadoff homer to Mookie Betts and allowing the next two batters to reach on a single and a walk. But with David Ortiz representing the go-ahead run, Zach bore down and slammed the door. Double play grounder, strikeout of Hanley Ramirez, 9-7 final. Last year, the Orioles never enjoyed more than a half-game lead in the American League East. As the sun set this evening, they were up 2.5 games on the second-place Yankees. I'll take it.

Chris Davis, 2014 Panini Donruss #5

He's baaaaaaaack! Of course, he never officially left. At about eight this morning, news broke that Chris Davis and the Orioles had agreed to a seven-year, $161 million contract. This ends a lengthy staring contest between the O's and their most prolific power hitter. "Crush" has given me and the rest of Charm City a lot to cheer about in four-plus years with the team. Although I have my reservations about the Birds breaking the bank from now through age 37 for a player with such an uneven career record, I don't think there's any question that they're better in 2016 with Davis than they'd be without him. I'd like to think that Chris chose to remain in Baltimore in part because he wants to be the first player to hit the B&O Warehouse on the fly in an official game. That's what they call unfinished business.

There's still a month until pitchers and catchers report, and there may be moves left to make; there are certainly several significant free agents on the market. (I wouldn't mind a short-term splurge for Yoenis Cespedes or Justin Upton if the opportunity arises, and Doug Fister would be an intriguing rebound candidate in the rotation, for instance.) But the four major free agents from the Orioles - Davis, Darren O'Day, Wei-Yin Chen, and Matt Wieters - have all come off the board, and all but Chen are staying put. I wouldn't have predicted that, but then again, I came to terms long ago with just how little I really know about baseball.

Chris Davis, 2015 Topps Orioles Team Set #BO-12

I won't be around these parts for the rest of the week, so I leave you with tonight's hero, Chris Davis. My sister and I endured the stifling heat and humidity to attend tonight's pregame Social Media gathering at the Upper Deck Rooftop Bar in Camden Yards. We dined on Esskay franks, picked up our #BirdlandSocial tees, and listened to the Q and A with Roch Kubatko and Jim Palmer. Afterward we took our seats in Section 352, down the third-base line and fairly near home plate, giving us an excellent vantage point for Chris Davis' go-ahead three-run homer in the first inning and his two-run shot past the reach of Nick Markakis in the second. It was the tenth multi-home run game of Crush's career, and if memory serves me correct, it's the third such game that I've seen live. He also made a fantastic running grab of an A. J. Pierzynski fly ball to deep right field in the eighth inning, when the Braves were making a late bid to get back in the game. That's four in a row for the Birds. It's good to have a productive Chris Davis in the lineup again.

Chris Davis, 2014 Topps Heritage Chrome #475

Good news! Chris Davis has regained his therapeutic use exemption for Adderall, which should have several positive implications for the 2015 season. Firstly, after he sits out Opening Day, completing the 25-game suspension he received this past September, the first baseman will be free to play for the Orioles without the threat of an additional 80-game ban hanging over him for any further positive tests for the stimulant. Second, if you aren't cynical enough to believe that Davis is gaming the system (and in his favor, Ken Rosenthal reported that the slugger has been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD), then he should be back on track with his treatment. One could assume that he'll be better equipped to rebound from 2014's on-field struggles, and in fact if he wasn't getting regular and proper treatment for his disorder prior to this point, that could help explain his dropoff from the prior season. At any rate, I'm just glad that the O's will have one less off-field worry next year.

Chris Davis, 2013 Topps Update All-Star Stitches #ASR-CD

Sometimes I feel like the ups and downs of a 162-game baseball season are going to give me whiplash. Mere hours after I lamented Steve Pearce's inability to deliver a timely grand slam in Monday night's loss to the Rays, Chris Davis blasted an 0-2 pitch from Erik Bedard (remember him?) that clanked off of the left field foul pole for a grand slam, giving the Orioles a 5-0 lead in the third inning of last night's game. Of course, the O's rarely make things easy (and fine, I guess their opponents get some of the credit), so within three innings Tampa Bay had whittled that big lead down to 5-4. Enter Pearce himself, who parked a Brad Boxberger pitch over the left field fence in the seventh inning for two big insurance runs. Ultimately the Birds won 7-5 thanks in large part to a grand slam and a Steve Pearce home run. You can't always get what you want, but when you do, it sure is wonderful.

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!

Chris Davis, 2013 Bowman Chrome #102

Last night Chris Davis doubled his 2014 home run total in one game, hitting home runs in three straight at-bats against three different pitchers. It's been a tough start to the year for Crush, including a two-week stay on the disabled list with an oblique strain, but Tuesday's outburst was very encouraging. It was the second time in Davis' O's career that he's gone deep thrice in a single game; I was there for the first one back on August 24, 2012. If the slugging first baseman wants something to shoot for, there have only been two Baltimore hitters to have three three-homer games: Boog Powell and Eddie Murray. That would be pretty elite company.

Chris Davis, 2014 Topps Heritage Then and Now #TAN-RD

Aw, crap. Now they've gone and done it.

I've spent the last three-plus years steadfastly avoiding new Topps products, chiefly as my own stubborn small-scale protest against their monopoly on MLB-licensed baseball cards. But Topps has also made it easier on me by rolling out some uninspired merchandise in recent years. Even when I read other collectors' reviews of the new stuff, or bought the occasional pack out of curiosity, there was nothing under the Topps banner that really got its hooks in me. So leave it to 2014 Heritage to break my resolve.

This year's Heritage set gets its design from the 1965 Topps set, a vintage that holds a special place in my heart thanks to the five and a half years that I spent collecting and blogging about it. To date, it's my only completed set pre-1982. So my curiosity was piqued from the word 'go'. When fellow '65-enthusiast Max (who had just as much to do with the completion of my set as I did) wrote up his Heritage box break and gave it a glowing review, I knew that I was doomed. My errands just happened to take me to Target after work yesterday, and three packs of 2014 Heritage jumped into my hand. So it began.

If I wasn't already on board with this set, this Mat Latos card would have been the clincher. The beefy righthander's cheesy grin was the first thing that greeted me upon opening my very first pack. As an added bonus, Topps didn't half-ass the design. Same color scheme and fonts as the 1965 sets, and as Max pointed out, they incorporated post-1965 teams into the pre-existing border/pennant/text color combos. (Curiously, the Nationals share the Orioles' gray/orange/black scheme. I'm sure that won't ruffle any feathers in D.C.!)

Here's a World Series subset card, mimicking the live-action shots in the original set. It's a fortuitous coincidence that the Cardinals were in both the '64 and '13 World Series. I'm glad the bizarre conclusion of Game 3 gets its own highlight card.

You've got to have the Giant Rookie Trophy, which is far superior to the latter-day Rookie Cup. Of course, not even the trophy can distract attention from Jedd Gyorko's unsettling intensity.

The card backs are a well-crafted tribute to the real thing as well. That pleasing light blue color, the playful player name font, and of course, cartoons and factoids where space permits. I've yet to see any doodles that stand up to the best and silliest artwork from 1965, but it also doesn't look like they just recycled a handful of generic caricatures.

Though my attitude towards inserts leans in the direction of "empty nuisance that impedes set-building", the few inserts I pulled from my three packs at least were designed to fit comfortably into the 1965 Topps aesthetic. The Frank Robinson-Chris Davis combo at the top of this post recognizes the top run producers of both the 1965 and 2013 seasons, with '65 runner-up Robby joining '13 RBI champ Crush because of their Baltimore ties...and probably because Frank is a flashier name than Deron Johnson.

Of course, Topps is gonna Topps, and the last 75 cards of the 500-card set are still annoyingly short-printed (a 15% chunk), but at least I know what I'm facing. I'm still 104 cards away from finishing off my 2008 Heritage set, the only other TH project that I've attempted in earnest. But even a hobby box's worth of 2014 Heritage would go a long way in scratching that itch. I'll also do my level best to ignore the multiple base card variations, or at least to discount them as necessary for true set completion.

While part of me feels like I'm capitulating, I really don't believe that's the case. This set is the perfect storm of elements that attract me to a particular brand or set. The flagship Topps set has been crushingly stagnant since about 2009, and also tends to suffer from insert bloat. So my previous Topps embargo won't be a complete thing of the past. Meanwhile, the second half of the 1960s delivered a number of my least favorite card designs, so even the nostalgia-heavy Heritage line won't keep my interest once the 1965 tribute has passed. I'll sink the majority of my collecting efforts into growing my vintage collection, and periodically shake my fist ineffectually at the industry giant.

Chris Davis and Adam Jones, 2014 Topps #153

Alright, alright. I broke down and bought myself a hanger box of 2014 Topps at Target, just so I could try it before I knock it. It's at least a better value than the blasters ($10 for 72 cards as opposed to $20 for 81 cards). The design is inoffensive, the inserts are boring, and there are too damned many parallels. I'm not telling you anything you haven't heard elsewhere, probably. But I'll do you a solid and share the first Oriole card that I pulled in 2014...it's a two-for-one deal! It's still a rare thrill to see orange and black on league leader cards, and Chris Davis' race to 53 homers was such a marvel that it's easy to overlook the fact that he also edged Miguel Cabrera in the RBI ledger, 138 to 137. Adam Jones was a distant third with 108 driven in, but who cares? I didn't do too badly with my box in all, as I also plucked out a Chris Tillman base card, a Manny Machado insert, an Ian Desmond bat relic, and the early clubhouse leader for non-O's card of the year. Now, back to my regularly-scheduled programming, which is filled with days of not buying new Topps products.

Chris Davis, 2013 Topps Allen and Ginter #288

It's time to put a bow on the 2013 regular season. Congratulations to the Orioles, who weathered a September swoon to finished tied for third in the American League East with an 85-77 record. For the first time since 1996 and 1997, the O's posted consecutive winning years. They set a major league record for the fewest total errors, with 54. They were also MLB's runaway home run leader with 212, thanks in large part to a record-setting effort by 2013's Most Valuable Oriole, first baseman Chris Davis.

"Crush" hit a Baltimore-record 53 home runs and added 42 doubles and a league-leading 138 RBI. His 96 total extra-base hits were also a Birds' team record and were sufficient to lead the majors. The only other players to ever tally at least 50 homers and 40 doubles in a single season are a pair of guys with their own Charm City ties: Babe Ruth and Albert Belle.

I would like to personally thank Chris Davis for bringing a little bit of excitement to each and every one of his 673 plate appearances this season. You can't put a price tag on the feeling of anticipation that comes from knowing that a player could create instant offense with every powerful swing of the bat. It'll be a tough act to follow in 2014, but I look forward to watching Chris try.

Chris Davis, 2013 Topps #119

I just had to post a Chris Davis card on the day that he gets honored with a Superman-esque t-shirt giveaway. The legend of "Crush" just keeps on growing, as another recent hot streak has him leading the major leagues with 17 home runs, a .728 slugging percentage, and a 1.165 OPS. I feel like I've seen him hit (at least) one home run in every game I've attended since the beginning of 2012, and it's not far from the truth. (Running tally: 18 HR in 25 games.) Will he come up big again on his big night? Will he get to celebrate with Adam Jones in their own inimitable gesture? I've got a good feeling.

Chris Davis, 2012 Topps Heritage High Numbers #H621

I took a rare off-day from posting yesterday, for the best possible reason. I asked my girlfriend Janet to marry me, and she said yes...about a dozen times. I told her that I would take that as a "yes".

The past nine-plus months with Janet have been some of the happiest of my life. We've even been to a few great Orioles games together. Our first Oriole Park date was on Friday, August 24, 2012, when Chris Davis nearly singlehandedly carried the O's to a 6-4 victory over the Blue Jays. "Crush" Davis had three of Baltimore's eight hits that night, each of them home runs, and drove in four. He's pretty much been on a roll ever since, and today was named the American League Player of the Month for April. In the first month of the 2013 season, he batted .348/.442/.728 with a league-leading nine home runs as well as 28 RBI. But I still think that I'm having a better year.

Chris Davis, 2012 Topps #151

Man, I really need to diversify my Chris Davis collection. This is the third card I've posted of the O's slugging first baseman, and the other two were parallels of this base card. That's what I get for boycotting new Topps products and being too lazy to initiate trades with others.

Anyhow, I'm looking for the silver lining of last night's ugly 8-7 walkoff loss to the Rays. Sure, Wei-Yin Chen ran out of gas in the sixth inning, which is something of a trend in his brief Orioles career. Sure, Luis Ayala and Pedro Strop each blew a late-inning lead, and Tommy Hunter doomed the Birds by doing what he does best: tossing up a meatball to Matt Joyce for a game-ending homer. But Chris Davis is a flat-out beast, an unstoppable, hulking monster who was made to send baseballs to heaven.

Last night, Davis was 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles and another towering three-run homer, and he had four RBI total. Through two games (smallest of sample sizes!), he has a .625 average, a .667 on-base percentage, a 1.625 slugging percentage, two home runs, and seven RBI. He has at least a share of the league lead in doubles, total bases, RBI, slugging, OPS, and OPS+ (586...again, 100 is average!). Hell, let's just go right off the deep end and project Chris' two-game totals through a full 162-game season. Were Davis to keep up his pace - and I see no reason why he shouldn't - he would finish the year with 162 doubles, 162 home runs, and 567 RBI. Those would all be major league records, I think.

EDIT: I obviously wrote the above before today's 6-3 win over the Rays. Chris went 2-for-3 with a double and a home run, drove in four more runs, and was hit by a pitch. The updated totals: .636/.692/1.727, three doubles, three homers, 11 RBI. As I write this, he's outproduced the Marlins 11-1, and he is now the first player in Orioles history to hit 10 home runs in a span of 10 regular-season games (dating back to last season, of course). Mercy.

Okay, let me take my tongue out of my cheek and provide a serious update on the Brian Roberts Comeback Watch: 2-for-4 with a game-tying double in the ninth inning off of Fernando Rodney, who blew only two of his 50 save attempts in 2012. That's Brian's first extra-base hit since May 4, 2011. I don't think I can tell you how badly I want the O's senior player to be back in his 2009 form...or at least reasonably close to it.

EDIT: Brian singled in the ninth inning today, stole second base with a headfirst slide, and came up favoring his right knee. He had to be helped off the field. Dammit.

Chris Davis, 2012 Topps Orioles Team Set #BALT5

I want to write about the euphoria I felt at the conclusion of yesterday's 17-inning cavalcade of the bizarre, but I don't know if it will make any sense. If it comes across as disjointed, that's probably fitting; I turned the game on and off and on and off again throughout the afternoon and evening. I still kept tabs by watching MLB Network's whip-around coverage, figuring that they would show anything pertinent either live or on a slight delay. In the 15th, Ed called to ask if I was watching and I told him disgustedly that every time I switched over to MASN, it seemed like the Orioles were hitting into a double play. But I kept hoping, seemingly in vain, that this team that had blown a 5-0 lead and repeatedly come up empty against an army of Boston relievers, would scratch across a single run so that they could get out of town before their own excellent bullpen (add that to the list of things you never thought you'd hear) finally cracked or ran out of pitchers. A loss in such a marathon game would be disappointing, but wouldn't tarnish the team's first back-to-back series wins in New York and Boston since 1992. However, a win would bring their first three-game road sweep of the Red Sox since 1994, a return to first place in the American League East, and another reminder that the Orioles are no longer an easy 'W' on the schedule.

When it became apparent that designated hitter Chris Davis, who to that point in the game was 0-for-7 with five strikeouts and a double-play grounder, would take the mound in the bottom of the 16th, I flipped back to MASN and set down the remote. There's always a special delight in the absurd when a position player is called upon to pitch, and it's an especially rare treat in Baltimore. Only five other non-pitchers had toed the rubber in team history, and the last of those was Manny Alexander in 1996. Manny was predictably horrible, but that game had already been lost. Were the O's throwing in the towel by trotting out Davis? Not quite, as it happened.

Davis, who did some pitching in high school and also dabbled in it at junior college, looked like a natural...other than his frequently changing arm slot. He sat around 90 mph with his fastball in the 16th inning, and struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia by getting him to chase a wicked changeup. Rookie Will Middlebrooks (who hours earlier had tied the game with a fifth-inning grand slam over the Green Monster) put a charge into one, but Adam Jones tracked it down in center field for out number two. It looked like Chris' big league pitching debut would feature a 1-2-3 inning, but Wilson Betemit muffed a Marlon Byrd grounder to give the Sox a second chance. When Mike Aviles followed with a ringing double to left-center field, I was certain that Chris Davis would unjustly be hung with a loss. But Adam Jones fired off a strong throw to cutoff man J. J. Hardy, and Hardy's relay throw beat Byrd to the plate. The runner collided with Matt Wieters, who hung on and casually showed the ball to Byrd and the umpire with a sly grin. There would be a 17th inning.

Not wanting to be left out, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine called upon a position player of his own to pitch the 17th: outfielder Darnell McDonald, who was of course the Orioles' first-round draft pick in 1997. McDonald had pinch run for designated hitter David Ortiz in the eighth inning, meaning that both teams forfeited their DH without making a substitution. McDonald actually pitched an inning for Boston last season, giving up a pair of runs on two walks and a hit in one inning. Let's just say that he's not nearly the pitcher that Chris Davis is. Topping out at 83 mph, Darnell walked Wilson Betemit to lead off. With Hardy (4-for-7 with two homers at that point) at bat, Betemit inexplicably tried to steal second base and was out by a mile. Hardy doubled to left, Markakis walked on four pitches, and then Adam Jones launched a batting practice-caliber fastball over the Monster. It started to sink in: Chris Davis was in line for the win. First he grounded out to second base, leaving him at 0-for-8 on the day.

Davis flirted with disaster in his second inning of work, as he couldn't field a line drive comebacker from Ryan Sweeney and walked Dustin Pedroia on five pitches. That brought powerful first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to the plate as the potential tying run with nobody out. Incredibly, Chris struck out Gonzalez on three pitches, saddling Boston's cleanup hitter with an 0-for-8 of his own. Now he faced his counterpart, Darnell McDonald. Capping his rough inning, Darnell grounded the second pitch he saw to Hardy, who started the game-ending double play. That's five straight wins for the Orioles, and we just won't mention what happened with the Rangers tonight.

So, to sum up: Chris Davis pitched two scoreless innings to become:

1. The first position player to earn a win in an American League game since Rocky Colavito in 1968.
2. The first position player to start at another position and earn a win since Babe Ruth in 1925.
3. The first pitcher to earn a win while going 0-for-8 at bat since Rube Waddell in 1905.

Sometimes baseball is just too much fun.

Chris Davis, 2012 Topps Gold Foil #151

It was miserably cold and damp at Oriole Park at Camden Yards last night, but that didn't seem to bother Chris Davis. The Birds' slugging first baseman went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and 4 RBI, and he put the exclamation point on a 10-1 rout of the Athletics with a seventh-inning home run. He launched the ball 418 feet down the right field line for his first career homer onto Eutaw Street. It was Chris' fourth home run of the season and his third of the home stand, as he looks to shake the "AAAA" label that he acquired with the Texas Rangers. So far, so good: in this young season, Davis is hitting .313 and slugging .582. He's even striking out a bit less, though 17 K's in 67 at-bats doesn't exactly make him Tony Gwynn. It would be nice if the O's had a legitimate first baseman for the first time since...what, Rafael Palmeiro? We'll see how the next 140 games go.