Wouldn't it be great for baseball if the Baltimore Orioles beat out both the Yankees and the Red Sox for the AL East? The Orioles have now won five straight and have been the first team other than the Yankees or the Red Sox in more than two years to lead the division. It was known that the Orioles had a great lineup, but the team is also getting just enough pitching to stay on top.

Javy Lopez is batting .463 and is showing people that last year was not a career year. Fellow newcomer, Miguel Tejada is batting .365. Melvin Mora is batting .320. Rafael Palmeiro is defying those who questioned his age by playing first base every day while batting .311 and leading the team in RBI. Diego Segui is also batting .333.

The funny thing is that they haven't yet started hitting for power. They have only hit thirteen homers in twelve games but have scored six runs a game. Just wait until they get their home run swings going. With the above average pitching they are seeing, the Orioles could be very surprising and very dangerous.

Whether the Orioles can hold on to the division lead remains to be seen. Although it seems unlikely, their vast improvement and improvements in the Tampa Bay and Toronto clubs, it seems unlikely that the wild card team will come from the AL East.


Dontrelle Willis showed he was human tonight. He won his third start in a row and still has a perfect 0.00 ERA, but he did go 0-3 batting to fall all the way down to .667 for his batting average. What a fantastic story. The fans in Florida really have exciting players to root for don't they?