Baltimore Orioles, J.J. Hardy defeat the “Pesky” BoSox

The Baltimore Orioles defeated Boston 9-5 to advance to 7-0 on the year; Mark Trumbo and J.J. Hardy came up big in the lineup.

Who came up bigger for the Baltimore Orioles last night – J.J. Hardy or Mark Trumbo? It’s really tough to say; I suppose that if we had to pick one guy it would probably be Hardy. Not only did he hit two separate two-run homers, but he wrapped both of them around the “Pesky Pole” in right field at Fenway.

While that’s one of the only spots in baseball where one can basically hit a cheap home run, the angle makes it tough to do. Hardy basically hit two of them to virtually the same place in the ballpark. MASN cameras even caught one of the umpires laughing with him about it between innings. If you’re able to pull off a stunt like to Pesky Pole homers in the same game, you’re probably making a run at AL offensive player of the week.

The O’s were able to get Mike Wright the win, in essence because of when they took the lead. Wright’s line: 5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 4 K. It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, but Wright was a trooper for sure. In cold conditions combined with a powerful BoSox lineup at Fenway, Wright did okay for himself. 

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He did begin inauspiciously however, as Ortiz gave Boston an early lead with a two-run homer in the first. The Birds trailed until the fourth, when Hardy hit his first two-run homer. Boston would take the lead back an inning later however on a Betts RBI-double to left field. Wright would uncork a wild pitch later in the inning which scored another run, and the Birds trailed 4-2.

But come the sixth inning (with Wright done for the night but still the pitcher of record), it was suddenly tied again. Trumbo smacked a two-run home run of his own, this one over the monster in left field. Later in the inning Hardy (who just

wanted to prove he could manufacture a run without homering) gave the O’s the lead with a sac fly-RBI.

The Orioles showed a well-balanced offensive attack all night, and they got run production from almost every part of the lineup in some manner. Wieters would add a two-RBI single in the seventh, and later in the inning Hardy would smack his second Pesky Pole homer of the game. Ortiz would bring Boston back to within four with an RBI-double in the last of the eighth, however the game was all but over after Hardy’s second home run. Not to mention that the Oriole bullpen is solid.

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Yesterday I wrote that the O’s had two shots to win a game in order to win the series in Boston. So while there’s possibly still some pressure because they’re still undefeated, that takes a lot of pressure off of tonight’s series finale. Either way, the O’s will leave Boston with a series victory.

Again, the story of the game was Hardy and his Pesky Pole homers. Hardy’s teammates had a field day with him when all was said and done, as was told by Showalter after the game (quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko, MASNsports):

"They’re giving him grief. They were kind of kidding him about the first one, and as soon as it left the bat, the second one, we thought, ‘That one’s got a chance, too.’ A nice little wind blowing out there in the corner. They hit one that when I looked up, I thought was out, but the wind had stopped blowing. A lot of things went our way today."

Showalter seems to wink at you with every quote in a sense. He’s a guy who famously “holds guys accountable” and so forth. However in the quote above he says “a lot of things went our way today.” If you were to reverse that quote after a loss and say things didn’t go our way, it would sound like you were making an excuse. 

Next: Baltimore Orioles: 3 reasons to the Orioles opening week success

The series in Boston concludes tonight before the O’s head to Texas. Ubaldo Jimenez will take to the bump for the Birds, and he’ll be opposed by Boston’s Joe Kelly. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.