Bashing their way to first place

With last night's comeback win, the Orioles moved into sole possession of first place in the American League East at 21-12. They are now 13-5 over the last 18 games and that includes the series where they lost three of four to Texas. The Orioles have 17 hits the last three games and eight of them are homers. They are bashing homers at quite a pace. They began Friday's games leading the majors with 50 homers, leading by one over the New York Yankees and by two over Texas. They remain atop that leader board this morning. MLB team homers leaders: 53 - Orioles 51 - New York Yankees, Texas 44 - St. Louis 43 - Toronto 40 - Tampa Bay AL East teams take up four of the top six spots on that list and Boston is 10th with 35. The Orioles have now hit 16 homers over their past six games and 23 in the last 10 games. Some may say you can live by the longball and die by the longball. Yes, the Orioles could use more variety in their offense but who is to argue with a winning formula? Adam Jones hit his 10th of the year last night. He had six at the end of May in 2011 and didn't hit No. 10 last season until June 18. The Orioles are the only team in the majors with seven players that have hit five or more homers. Here are the team leaders: 10 - Adam Jones 8 - J.J. Hardy 7 - Matt Wieters 6 - Nick Markakis 5 - Wilson Betemit, Chris Davis, Nolan Reimold 3 - Robert Andino 2 - Mark Reynolds 1 - Ryan Flaherty, Nick Johnson Reynolds was the team leader in homers last year and now he ranks ninth on the team. Jones is on a pace to hit 49 and any player that has currently hit five or more is on a pace to hit at least 25. Right now, seven Orioles are on that 25-homer pace and last year just three did that. The Orioles have had 15 games when they have hit two or more homers and they are now 13-2 in those games with the only two losses coming in the Texas series. Some nights coming up, they are probably going to need a good, old fashioned two-run double or RBI single to get a win, but for now they have bashed their way to first place, and I'll bet most fans are OK with that winning formula right now.