Baltimore Orioles

[Lil' Lavery]

Well, who (besides us Oriole fans of course) expected the Orioles to be in 1st in the AL East right now? Not only that, but for their 2nd baseman, who had never hit more than 5 HR in a season before, to be tied for the lead in HR (7), T3rd in the majors in SB, 4th in the AL in Batting AVG, T2nd in the AL in RBI, and to be 2nd in the majors in hits?
Besides the greatness of Brian Roberts this season, Tejada is having another terrific year, with a major league leading 22 RBI. The Orioles are 1st in the AL in batting avg, hitting .292. They are 2nd in the AL in runs, 1 behind Boston (107) with 106. Not to mention, they are tops in HR, with 26, which is especially astounding considering they didnt have a ton of power in 2004.
Yet, the most amazing part of the Orioles so far is their pitching. Only the astounding Marlins staff has more complete games. Despite a couple rocky starts for Sidney Ponson, Erik Bedard, and Daniel Cabrera, the three have appeared to settle down and along with ace Rodrigo Lopez, who is doing very well so far, are giving the Orioles a very potent rotation. Bruce Chen has been doing acceptably for the 5th man of the rotation.