Orioles Lead Off Game Against Rangers With 3 Straight Home Runs
The Baltimore Orioles did something on Wednesday that hadn’t been accomplished in almost five years.
TV cameras showed very few people in the seats for the beginning of Game 1, featuring Baltimore's Wei-Yin Chen facing Texas' Colby Lewis.
They missed quite a show. Ryan Flaherty, J.J. Hardy and Nick Markakis, the first three Oriole hitters in the bottom of the first inning, all homered off Lewis -- three home runs within eight pitches. For Flaherty, it was his first major league home run.
In case you were wondering if or when this sort of thing has happened before, here’s the answer:
Orioles are the first team since the 2007 Brewers (Weeks, Hardy, Braun) to start a game with 3 consecutive HR.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 10, 2012
Hmmm. One of those names looks quite familiar -- J.J. Hardy was part of both of those back-to-back-to-back jacks. That Brewers game happened on September 9, 2007; the Milwaukee home runs were hit off Phil Dumatrait of the Reds, and the Brewers won 10-5, perhaps a good sign for Baltimore's chances in Wednesday's game, still in progress at this writing.
