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Baltimore Orioles open a huge homestand tonight

By Domenic A. Vadala

Aug 14, 2016; San Francisco, CA, USA; Baltimore Orioles celebrate their 8-7 win over the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 14, 2016; San Francisco, CA, USA; Baltimore Orioles celebrate their 8-7 win over the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Baltimore Orioles have Boston coming to town for two games, and Houston on their heels, It has the feel of a big homestand for a team in a pennant race.

The homestand that the Baltimore Orioles will begin tonight at Oriole Park at Camden Yards has a pretty big feel to it. With the Bo Sox coming to town only one game back in the standings (of the Orioles and Toronto), the beginning of the homestand certainly is. But the Orioles shouldn’t be looking past Houston on the backside either.

Houston’s a team that’s given the Orioles some fits in the past couple of seasons. In the tradition of Tampa and Kansas City, their attitude is anything you can do I can do better. Being eight back in the standings, they certainly aren’t in the position the Orioles are in. But they’d also certainly love to play spoiler.

This is a bit of a strange homestand in the sense that the Birds have one of those dreaded two-game series’ against a division rival in Boston. Then Houston comes to town for four games. I suppose they had to do it like that because they wanted to give the Birds a day off after the west coast trip, but it’s still strange to see a division rival in town for only two games.

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    • This is only a six-game homestand, but you get the feel that it’s big. This in the wake of Sunday’s improbable 8-7 win over San Francisco. One key in baseball is that you never want to let yesterday bleed into today. So while it’s good that they had an off day following that game to kind of decompress, they also will want to keep it in the backs of their minds.

    Momentum is a big thing in sports, and after that game the O’s certaeinly have some momentum. And they need to take that into this eight-game homestand. Incidentally, the homestand concludes with the Washington Nationals in town for two games before the O’s return the favor immediately and head down the pike to DC for two games next Wednesday and Thursday…

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    …that’s right, the annual mid-Atlantic “Battle of the Beltways” is almost upon us. Next week should be an intense but fun week in the region. If the attendance and atmosphere at the games in both parks are any indication, the fans really seem to like them. Admittedly I’m a bit partial to the games in Washington, as I’m not a fan of the DH and I like seeing Oriole pitchers hit. But that’s just me!

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    The homestand begins tonight, as I said with Boston coming to town. Yovani Gallardo will be on the mound for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Boston’s Eduardo Rodriguez. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.

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