Who stood out in the Orioles’ 11-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics to earn a series win on Sunday afternoon?
In the spirit of hockey’s “three stars” system with the addition of home plate for honorable mentions and other notes, we go around the bases after the 30th game of the 2016 season.
1st — Manny Machado continues to make us search for new adjectives to describe his play as he homered twice — including his second grand slam of the season — and drove in a career-high six runs to pace a Baltimore offensive attack that hit a season-high six home runs. His first long ball immediately got the Orioles back in the game after falling behind 3-0 in the top of the first while his eighth-inning grand slam removed any lingering doubt about the final outcome. He concluded Sunday with a .350 batting average and a 1.094 on-base plus slugging percentage and continues to play like the AL Most Valuable Player through the first 30 games of 2016.
2nd — Chris Tillman was neither lucky nor sharp in giving up three runs in the opening inning, but he was able to grind through command issues and gained a feel for his secondary pitches to complete 6 1/3 innings. Not known as a strikeout pitcher throughout his career, Tillman has now struck out 25 batters over his last three starts spanning 20 innings. Perhaps even more amazing than his strikeout rate is the fact that the right-hander has only allowed one homer over his 38 1/3 innings this season. Tillman struck out four of the last five batters he faced, once again getting stronger as he pitched deeper into a game.
3rd — Mark Trumbo hit a two-run shot in the third to open up a three-run lead for the Orioles and received an assist from the sun in the fifth to pick up the Orioles’ first triple of the season. The right fielder finished a double short of the cycle, but he continues to be Baltimore’s second-best offensive player behind Machado with a .325 average and a .976 OPS.
Home — Joey Rickard hit his third home run of the season, reached base three times, and made a few strong defensive plays, including a spectacular diving catch in left-center to take away an extra-base hit from Mark Canha leading off the third. … Jonathan Schoop went 3-for-4 with a home run to extend his season-high hitting streak to 11 games and has elevated his batting average to .257. … Pedro Alvarez hit his second homer of the season and became the first hitter in 2016 to land a ball on Eutaw Street. It was the 83rd long ball to land on Eutaw Street in the 25-year history of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. … Tyler Wilson takes the hill in Minnesota on Monday night while the Twins will start right-hander Jose Berrios.
