Baltimore Orioles Claim Best Record in Baseball

Let's take a moment to appreciate that this isn't the second week of the season. Teams are fully settled in and mostly finished working out the kinks in their lineup and pitching rotation. And through 28 games, the Baltimore Orioles are 19-9, good for the best record in the majors and first place in the AL East. They're a half-game ahead of Tampa Bay, five games ahead of New York and seven-and-a-half games ahead of Boston.

First-baseman Chris Davis celebrating his first win and first appearance as a major league pitcher.
(AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Baltimore fans have had very little to celebrate over the past 14 years. It has been hard to appreciate the emergence of young stars like Matt Wieters, Adam Jones and Jake Arrieta because they've all been against the backdrop of losing seasons.While 28 impressive games shouldn't have anyone buying playoff tickets or forecasting another "Why not?" season, we should be excited by this.

It's not like they've been winning in ordinary fashion, either. Thanks to ESPN's crack team of Statistics and Information investigators, we know the following things about yesterday's marathon 17-inning, six-plus hour Orioles win:

• It was the first time two position players pitched in the same game since 1925.
• Chris Davis became the first American League position player to record a win since 1968.
• Chris Davis was the only player to earn the platinum sombrero in 2011, and the first one to earn it in 2012 ("Platinum Sombrero" refers to a player who strikes out five times in a single game)
• Davis was the first player to go 0-8 and be credited as the winning pitcher since 1905.
• Adam Jones' home run in the 17th inning was the first by an Orioles hitter since 1967.
• Adrian Gonzalez went 0-8 on the day, his last at-bat a strikeout by Chris Davis. According to Elias Sports Bureau, no cleanup hitter in the history of baseball has ever gone 0-8.

Check out the highlights of that game here. For whatever reason, blogger won't allow me to embed the video in my post.

The Orioles have also been breaking plenty of trends thus far this season. They'll be returning home today after going 5-1 on the road against the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

• The Orioles' bullpen has a collective ERA of 1.41. No other bullpen in the majors has an ERA below 2.00.
• Closer Jim Johnson hasn't allowed a single run.
• Relievers Luis Ayala and Matt Lindstrom have yet to allow an earned run and Darren O'Day has allowed one earned run. All three pitchers are new additions to the team.
• Baltimore starting pitchers have combined for a 2.78 ERA, which is good for second in the majors. In five of the last six seasons, Baltimore's starting pitching was ranked 29th or 30th in ERA.
• Baltimore swept the Red Sox at Fenway park for the first time since 1994.
• Since the AL East was formed in 1994, this is the first time the Yankees and Red Sox occupied the bottom to places in the division at this point in the season.
• The last time the Orioles had the best record in the majors at this point in the season was 1997--also the last time the Orioles finished with a winning record.
• The Orioles have won at least 19 of their first 28 games five times before. Three of those times resulted in a division title.
• The team has hit 16 home runs after the sixth inning this year. The most in the majors.
• The Orioles' 11 road wins are the most in the majors. Last year, their 30-51 record on the road had them tied for 27th in the league.
• The Orioles held the Yankees to two or fewer runs in a series in New York for the first time since 1968.

These statistics are... ridiculous. I don't know any other way to put it.

With most of the team's production on offense coming from players between the ages of 26 and 28 (Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Chris Davis, Nolan Reimold), it wouldn't be shocking for the team's offensive production to remain high.

From left to right: J.J. Hardy (2 home runs yesterday), Nick markakis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters

The starting pitching, however, isn't exactly on solid ground. Jake Arrieta could turn out to be the all-star-caliber pitcher we were hoping for, but the track records of Jason Hammel, Wei-Yin Chen and Tommy Hunter suggest a drop-off in efficiency over the course of the season. And at this point, who the hell knows what to expect from Brian Matusz.

However the rest of the season goes, this is more excitement than Baltimore Orioles' fans have experienced in a very long time. To all of you pessimistic fans out there, enjoy it while it lasts, and let's all start going to the park and showing these guys some appreciation.

Oh, remember a few posts ago when I posted a screenshot of the Oriole's spot in the AL East? Well, here's an update: