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To the surprise of this Orioles pessimist, the Orioles come into the series finale against the Royals on Wednesday night with a chance to pull off a sweep. That's no joke! They have already won the series, so whatever happens, they have gained a game on the Royals. They might even end up gaining three games!
The secret to their success has been non-terrible starting pitching. Who could have ever guessed it? When your starting rotation doesn't pitch like the worst starting rotation in the American League, good things can happen.
New Oriole Jeremy Hellickson gets his turn tonight. Nothing about his 2017 performance should give one any reason to believe that he will continue the streak of good starts or Orioles victories. But, things have gotten weird over the last several days and maybe they will keep being weird, you know?
The O's must win the next two games just to get back to .500... and then if they want to stay above .500 they're going to have to keep on winning. It could happen. These same Royals won nine in a row before this series started.
I don't know what I would do if the Orioles won nine in a row at any point. It seems like an impossibility. They need to go 33-22 just to win 85 games and what does winning 85 games even get them? Winning the next five games to have a nine game winning streak would sure be a nice way to get moving towards that goal.