Another hearty helping of Hardy homers (updated)

By Roch Kubatko

Orioles

August 10, 2011, 3:27pm

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J.J. Hardy is batting second tonight. He's mostly been leading off. He'd move down to ninth if manager Buck Showalter preferred it. Hardy doesn't care where he hits. The results are pretty much the same anyway. Hardy homered again tonight, connecting off White Sox starter Philip Humber with one out and the count full in the first inning. The ball traveled an estimated distance of 382 feet and gave the Orioles a quick 1-0 lead. Hardy has 21 home runs in 84 games. Remember that he missed a month of the season with an oblique injury and three games against the Blue Jays on this homestand with a sore left ankle. That's three homers for Hardy in the last four games, and seven in the last 13. He's passed Adam Jones for second on the team behind Mark Reynolds (26). Update: The Orioles were 0-for-36 in the second inning over their last 11 games, but they got singles tonight from Chris Davis, Robert Andino, Felix Pie and Hardy. They scored twice to increase their lead to 3-0. The Orioles had totaled 13 runs in the first three innings over their last 12 games before tonight.