Friendly Fenway? It is so far this year for the Orioles

You've certainly heard the saying, "The friendly confines of Fenway Park." Well, the Orioles are sure finding the place friendly this year. They are now 4-0 this season at the Fens and that is more wins at that ballpark than they have had in five of the last six entire seasons and keep in mind they play nine games a year there. The Orioles at Fenway Park the past six seasons: 2006: 1-8 2007: 3-6 2008: 2-7 2009: 1-8 2010: 4-5 2011: 3-6 The Orioles have won their last six games and seven of their past eight at Fenway. They swept a three-game series there in early May, their first three-game sweep in Boston since June 1994. The Orioles are winning the close games there, like last night. Three of those wins came by three runs or less and went to extra innings. The Orioles have bashed their way to those four wins, producing 31 runs on 50 hits in the Fenway games. They have 17 extra-base hits with eight doubles, two triples and seven homers. Here is an impressive stat: After going 8-for-17 with runners in scoring position last night, the Orioles are batting .429 at 18-for-42 with runners in scoring position this year at Fenway. Friendly confines, indeed. J.J. Hardy is 8-for-24 at Fenway in 2012 with a double, triple, two homers and three RBIs. Adam Jones is just 5-for-22 but has made the hits count with a double, two homers and six RBIs. Matt Wieters is 7-for-21 with three doubles, a triple and two RBIs. But no player has had as much success there for the Orioles as Mark Reynolds. After two more hits last night, he has four multi-hit games in four Fenway outings, going 8-for-14 with three doubles, two homers and seven RBIs. Three times this year, the Orioles have had 15 or more hits in a game and two of those were in Boston. They have scored eight runs or more in a game eight times this season with three of those coming there. They have scored six, eight, nine and eight runs there in 2012. The Orioles are suddenly making themselves at home in the land of the Green Monster and it is a house of horrors for the Birds no longer. Draft note: Yes, the Orioles drafted Ryan Ripken in Round 20 today, 34 years after they selected his dad out of Aberdeen High. Ripken hit .377 this year at Gilman School in Baltimore. He does have a scholarship to South Carolina and I have heard more people predict that he would be going there to play rather than signing pro right now. We'll see if the O's add another Ripken or if he goes back into the draft in a few years and they get another chance to draft him then. Maybe it is more likely that they sign lefty pitcher Josh Hader, a local product from Old Mill High School in Anne Arundel County. I have heard that they do like him. Hader was 10-0 with an ERA of 0.39 ERA and 125 strikeouts in 72 2/3 innings this year.