Orioles Win in 15

Adam Jones homered in the 15th inning to give the Orioles a 4-3 win over the Kansas City Royals last night. Jones' 12th homer on the season leads the team and keeps the Orioles in 1st place. It is amazing how much Jones is mashing this year. With 12 homers in 38 games, Adam Jones is currently on pace to hit 51 home runs on the season. That would be the most home runs by an Oriole since Brady Anderson had the magical 50 home run season in 1996. It would also make the price to extend Jones skyrocket. Let's see if they get some sort of extension done soon.

The pitching staff was the big story today as they only gave up three runs over 15 innings. Starter Tommy Hunter, only gave up 2 runs in 7 innings. Now the Orioles have 4 quality starts in 11 days and look to be rebounding from the stretch of poor pitching. Back to back quality starts is a good thing. Hunter obviously was not alone in his brilliance on the mound. Dana Eveland threw three scoreless innings for the birds, in the 10-12 innings to keep the score tied. The performance from Eveland was huge. After Eveland was the winning pitcher....Kevin Gregg. Yes, Kevin Gregg got the win last night. Gregg pitched well in one of his first appearances since the 17 inning marathon against Boston. The save went to the great Jim Johnson. Johnson recorded his 13th save of the year and looks to be headed to the all star game. Ironically, the all star game is going to be in Kansas City where the O's were last night. I will have my all star ballot posted sometime in the next week.

There were other Oriole hitters that came through last night. JJ Hardy went 3-6 with a double, raising his average to .261. Nick Markakis went 2-7 and also had a double. Wilson Betemit went 2-7 with a home run and a double. Chris Davis also had multiple hits as he went 2-4. This is the most notable Davis news since he got the win last week. Finally, Xavier Avery was 2-6 last night. Avery had two singles and also had a sacrifice bunt. Seeing how poor the Orioles have been at bunting lately, it was nice to see Avery lay one down. This guy can play.

-Noland