Nobody I Would Rather Have On This Team

I have thought about it and it makes sense. There is one player on the Orioles that is preferable to every player in baseball. At least for me, at least for this team, at least for right now.
He came up an Oriole.
He wants to be in Baltimore.
He does great charity work in the community.
He is a leader.
He never complains.
He isn't loud, obnoxious, or cocky.
He does his job no matter what.
He plays through injuries, the most recent one a hamate bone fracture until finally he couldn't play anymore.
He has a rocket arm.
He has dealt with the losing with class while striving to dig out of this horrible record of losing this franchise has had.
He is the posterboy of everything right with baseball.
The team was collapsing while he was gone and with his return looks like a playoff team again.
He is OUR leadoff hitter.
He is someone WE can be proud of.
He loves Baltimore and wants to bring the team back to where they belong.
He is #21.
Of course I am talking about Nick Markakis.

This guy is the real deal. Last night, he came through again for the Orioles. Markakis huge home run that was the difference last night. The homer was Markakis's 11th of the season. He drove in 2 and went 2-4 in the game. Markakis now has an average of .287. His OBP is .352, the best on the team. It seems even when nobody else is hitting, this guy comes through.

There was one other Oriole hitting last night though. His name was Mark Reynolds. No, I am not joking, Reynolds came to play last night. The former power hitter was 3-3 in the game with 2 doubles and an RBI. Reynolds now has 20 doubles on the season. He raised his average to .212, which isn't good, but from Reynolds I will take it. You can't argue with 3-3. Reynolds was even smart enough to congratulate the star of the team.

This all happened in a 3-1 victory for the Orioles. So, the RBIs are accounted for, but not the pitching. Once again the Oriole starting pitching was fantastic. Chris Tillman, was able to extend the Oriole's scoreless innings pitched streak to 28. Their all-time streak is 30. Tillman took his into the 8th inning, but gave up a run there. It would have been interesting to see if Buck had brought in Strop a little sooner. If that had happened the streak may now be tied at 30. However, let's be thankful for Tillman's gem. Tillman gave up only that one run in the 8th inning for 7 1/3 innings of brilliance. He lowered his ERA to 2.38. That's right, Chris Tillman's ERA is 2.38. Chew on that one for a second.

Tillman wasn't the only dominant pitcher last night. As I pointed to earlier, Pedro Strop did his thing last night.  Strop only pitched 2/3 inning, but as always, came through. The power arm continues to dominate. He now has an ERA of 1.29 and picked up his 18th hold. Strop is one of the few players that can challenge Markakis for Most Valuable Oriole. Another is Jim Johnson. The Orioles closer again took the mound in the 9th, and again came through. Another scoreless ninth, another save for Jim Johnson. This one is number 33 on the season. That Orioles save record will not be up much longer.

-Noland