A few random notes and some chat about the skipper

The Orioles public relations staff put out some excellent season wrap-up notes and stats on the club. Some of these stats were posted throughout the season, and here are some of the final numbers:

* The Orioles led the major leagues with a batting average of .409 when putting the first pitch in play. San Diego was second at .408, followed by Atlanta at .399, the New York Mets at .394 and Washington at .373.

* While O's shortstop José Iglesias did not have enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title, he did lead the majors in batting average among players with a minimum of 120 at-bats. Iglesias hit .373 to top New York's DJ LeMahieu at .364 and Washington's Juan Soto at .351. LeMahieu had enough plate appearances to quality for the batting title and he won it. The highest-ranking Oriole with enough at-bats to be in the running for the batting title was Hanser Alberto. His .283 averaged tied for 17th-best in the American League.

* The Orioles had nine different players who recorded at least 10 multi-hit games in 2020, the most in the majors. The San Francisco Giants had the second-most with eight. In the AL, the second-closest teams - Boston, Chicago, Houston, Minnesota and Toronto - each had six. Alberto led the way for the Orioles with 18 multi-hit games, tied for the eighth-most in the AL and tied for 16th in the majors.

* The Orioles posted a 10-6 (.625) record in 16 day games this season. That record ranked third-best in the AL and fifth in the majors. In 44 night games, the club had a 15-29 (.341) mark.

* Some nuggets on individual players included that first batters went 0-for-14 (.000) against right-hander Shawn Armstrong, and that Armstrong posted a career-low 0.80 WHIP. We learned that reliever Paul Fry recorded a career-best 11.86 strikeouts per nine innings, and for his career he has a 9.23 SO/9 ratio. And that Iglesias led all of baseball with a .476 (30-for-63) average with runners on base and tied for fifth with a .421 (16-for-38) average with runners in scoring position. And that Ryan Mountcastle led the Orioles with 42.7 percent of his batted balls (41-for-98) being hard hit (95 mph or better).

Some very interesting facts and nuggets, and we'll post more later.

Over-under recap: The online sportsbook betonline.ag reports that the Orioles were one of 16 teams that went over their predicted won-loss total for the 2020 season while 14 teams went under the total. The entire AL Central went over, while the National League Central all went under. There were 10 AL teams going over and just five in the NL.

Here is a look at the AL East comparing the preseason predictions to the number of games actually won.

* New York Yankees - (38 1/2) won 33.
* Tampa Bay Rays - (33 1/2) won 40.
* Boston Red Sox - (31 1/2) won 24.
* Toronto Blue Jays - (28 1/2) won 32.
* Baltimore Orioles - (21 1/2) won 25.

The teams that went the most over the number of wins predicted were Miami and Tampa Bay, at plus 6.5, and San Diego at plus 5.5. Miami won 31 when projected for 24 1/2, Tampa Bay won 40, more than 33 1/2, and San Diego won 37, well over 31 1/2.

The teams that fell short of the predictions were Boston, Texas and Washington, all at 7.5 under. Boston's over-under was 31 1/2, with Texas at 29 1/2 and Washington at 33 1/2.

How did the skipper do?: MASN Orioles analyst Mike Bordick had an interesting take late in the year when he gave manager Brandon Hyde a lot of credit for the O's 12-8 start. Summing up his comments, he praised Hyde for how well the O's summer camp went off and was organized and indicated the strong work that got done there helped them play well early in the year. Later, maybe it became more about talent night in and night out, and the O's some nights didn't have enough to consistently win.

I thought Hyde did another solid job in his second season with the Orioles. Young players can thrive on his watch and he has a way of making them feel a part of the team yet stay relaxed enough to show their true talent. Some of his bullpen moves worked better this year. Did he make better moves or did guys just pitch better?

He handles the media well, even when it's all done via Zoom. He gives honest answers and will admit to team shortcomings while not throwing anyone under the bus or assigning blame. Probably harder to do then it looks and sounds.

We'll take a longer look at Hyde's season later this winter, but for now, how do you grade his work this season?

And in the playoffs: That team with all the Orioles' connections that I wrote about here, the San Diego Padres, beat St. Louis 11-9 in a wild game last night. That forces a third and deciding game tonight in that best-of-three series. San Diego was down 4-0 after two innings and 6-2 heading to the last of the sixth.

But San Diego then hit five homers over their next three at-bats, scoring nine runs, to get the victory. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Wil Myers hit two homers each and Manny Machado hit a solo shot.

How about this for a note: That was the first time a team had two players hit two homers in a postseason game since Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the 1932 World Series.

Game 3 is tonight.