The Baltimore Orioles outfield defense put them over the top on Thursday

On Thursday night in Chicago, the Baltimore Orioles started their weekend series against the Chicago White Sox with a 4-0 victory, thanks in large part to a 3 RBI game from Adley Rutschmanand 5 2/3 shutout innings from Dean Kremer.

However, the big story of the game was the Orioles outfield, with Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins, and Anthony Santander each making big catches to preserve the win. Let’s take a closer look at how this outfield trio pulled it off on Thursday night.

The big story was Hays, who has been on quite a run lately. Adding to his all-star game case after hitting for the cycle on Wednesday night, Hays threw out Gavin Sheets trying to score in the fourth inning, firing the ball 96.4 miles an hour toward the plate, notching his sixth outfield assist of the season, second-best in the AL and tied for third-best in the majors.

The Baltimore Orioles outfield defense put them over the top on Thursday

In the eighth inning, Hays covered 75 feet, covering 28.4 feet per second in right field, lunging as he got to the foul line to take away a possible hit from Jake Burger, holding the runner at first and giving the Baltimore Orioles their second out of the inning.

Another significant contributor was the man patrolling center field, Mullins. His first gem came in the sixth inning when Jose Abreu hit a ball into the right-center field gap; Mullins got on his horse, using his incredible speed to cover 102 feet and rob Abreu of an extra-base hit at the warning track.

Right after Hays made his incredible catch in the eighth inning, it was time for Mullins to do it again. Sheets stung one into the gap, and again, Mullins got on his horse, running a total of 87 feet, and sprinting at 29.1 feet per second, took away the hit from Sheets to end the inning.

Santander, although he wasn’t as busy as Mullins or Hays, had a pretty important catch in his own right. With the Baltimore  Orioles ahead 3-0 in the seventh inning and one runners on, Santander had just 3.5 seconds to run down a ball hit by Andrew Vaughn, and he made the catch on the warning track.

The Baltimore Orioles are putting together an excellent defensive season in the outfield. Hays has +1 DRS, Santander has a not-so-great -2 DRS, and Mullins has a sterling +5 DRS, giving this outfield trio a combined +4 DRS in the outfield, according to FanGraphs.