This feature is normally written by Ryan Pollack, but he's taking some time off because he got married yesterday. Congratulations, Ryan!
Results
The Orioles went 6-1 over the past seven days! They beat the Rays three out of four and won the first three games of their four-game series against the Twins. They scored a whopping 43 runs and allowed 21.
Standings
The Orioles are in first place in the A.L. East, just as they have been every single day since July 3rd. They increased their lead over the Yankees to nine games this week and Baseball Prospectus has them with a 99.6% chance of making the playoffs.
Best Hitter / Worst Hitter
Your most valuable Oriole for the week was Chris Davis! Man, it's nice to name Davis in this category. Davis only batted .211 for the week, but all four of his hits were for extra bases (1 2B, 3 HR). And he took seven walks! Two of them were intentional walks to set up J.J. Hardy heroics, but they were walks all the same.
Honorable mention goes to new Oriole Jimmy Paredes. He only played in three games but made a big first impression with 2 1B, 2 2B, 1 HR, and 1 BB. Shout out as well to Steve Pearce, who had two home runs and three walks in an injury-shortened week. Get well soon, Steve! Really, every Oriole had a pretty good week offensively.
Well, every Oriole except Nick Markakis, who takes home this week's worst hitter award. Nick was just 7-for-33 over the past seven days, and he was saved from an even more embarrassing line by a three-hit game yesterday. His batting average of .212 is just .001 higher than Chris Davis for the past seven days, but the difference is that Nick only had two extra-base hits and one walk. If you're only going to slap singles, you need to slap a lot of them. Here's hoping his three hits yesterday are the start of a hot streak for him.
Best Start / Worst Start
The best start of the week is a tie for August 25th by Chris Tillman and August 29th by Miguel Gonzalez. Both went seven innings and gave up just one run. Tillman gave up three hits with two walks and two strikeouts, while Gonzalez gave up four hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
The worst start of the week belongs to Kevin Gausman, who pitched just four innings on August 27th with three runs (two earned) allowed. Bud Norris had a start where he gave up four runs, but he gets points with me for lasting six innings.
Clutch PA of the Week
In the fourth inning of Tuesday's game against the Rays, the Orioles were down 1-0 with runners on second and third with two outs. Chris Davis had just struck out looking, and Caleb Joseph was in the batter's box. He lined a ball back up the middle to knock in two runs and give the Orioles a 2-1 lead.
Clutch Relief Appearance of the Week
This honor goes to Andrew Miller on Thursday, August 28th. With the score tied 4-4 in the top of the seventh inning, Miller relieved Brad Brach with a runner on first and one out. He immediately got Logan Forsythe to hit a ball towards shortstop, where J.J. Hardy made the heads-up play to let the ball drop in front of him so that he could get the double play. The Orioles took a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the seventh, and Miller came back for the eighth and retired the Rays 1-2-3.
Upcoming
The Orioles finish their series with the Twins this afternoon, looking for a four-game sweep. Then the Reds come to town for three games before the O's travel to Tampa Bay to kick off a six-game road trip.