As seen again Friday, Orioles win with defense

Last night, when the Orioles rallied from six runs down to win and scored eight runs, one of the biggest plays may have been one they made on defense.

The Orioles seem to out-execute their opponents on defense just about every night, and it has been big for this team.

In the seventh inning Friday night, Ian Kinsler of the Tigers doubled to right-center and Jose Iglegias tried to score from first. Adam Jones made a slide to stop the ball from going to the wall. He then fired a strike to Jonathan Schoop, who then fired home to Matt Wieters, who caught the ball on the short hop and applied the tag for a stunning out.

"What a relay last night," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said today. "I watched that about 10 times. That play last night, there were three or four web gems within a play."

This was a case of talent meets execution. The drills the Orioles do on such plays in the Florida sun pays off under the lights at Camden Yards when you have skilled players who can do what they are taught.

I asked Jones about the play this afternoon.

"We had to do all three perfectly to get him at home," he said. "Getting the ball to our middle infielders, they are very, very accurate in how they get rid of the ball, and they know where it needs to go. Schoop has one of the best arms, especially for a second baseman. You get him the ball with an opportunity, he can make the throw. Wieters has great hands to be able to pick that short hop and stay with the tag."

The Orioles were leading 8-6 at the time of the play, and while Detroit would get a run later in that inning, the out at the plate helped keep that inning from turning more in Detroit's favor.

"One of the keys to that play was Adam sliding there," Showalter said. "If you don't catch that ball, you have no shot. With Jon, Adam hits him where he can redirect the ball with some quickness. (Outfield coach Wayne) Kirby talks in the spring about taking another half of a count to make an accurate throw.

"There are so many rules of thumb you are supposed to follow. Wayne doesn't let the outfielders. ... We're going to follow these. There is a reason why. You have tools like J.J. (Hardy), Jon and Ryan (Flaherty) have, why wouldn't you use them? There are so many rules with relays, and you see how much time we spend on them in spring.

"But you have to have guys that can relay the ball. I'll tell you, a lot of organizations do it differently. Every year we tweak something with our relays."

One change the Orioles made this year, Showalter said, was having third baseman Manny Machado serve as cutoff man when a runner can score on a single to center field. The first baseman stays near the bag so the Orioles can cut off the ball and get the trail runner out rounding the bag at first. A lot of teams use the first baseman to make cutoffs there. The Orioles have gotten several outs on that play this year, Showalter said.

For the Orioles, defense wins and that play last night was the latest example.

"You know what hit me the other day. I looked at the defensive statistics," Showalter said. "We have like 40 errors and there is a team (Oakland) that has 90. As the season goes on, that is huge. Talking about 40 or 50 more errors."