It went well in Beantown, now on to the Bronx

There was a lot to like about the Orioles' big weekend in Fenway Park. Besides winning all three games, there was outstanding pitching, solid defense and some timely hitting.

The Orioles pitching held Boston to five runs and 15 hits over 27 innings with six walks to 24 strikeouts. They walked two batters in each game, and throwing strikes like that would be a very welcome sight this year.

The ERA for the three games was 1.67.The starters' ERA was 2.55 as John Means, Matt Harvey and Bruce Zimmermann combined to allow five runs in 17 2/3 innings with two walks to 14 strikeouts. The Baltimore bullpen threw 9 1/3 scoreless innings in Fenway on four hits with four walks to 10 strikeouts.

While the Orioles held Boston to just two hits all weekend with runners in scoring position, the Orioles had four yesterday in the third inning alone. They went 4-for-7 with RISP when they scored seven times in the third to open a 10-0 lead. The Birds went 8-for-24 (.333) Sunday with RISP and 13-for-40 (.325) in the series. Boston went 1-for-5 Sunday (.200) and 2-for-18 (.111) in the series.

Center fielder Cedric Mullins' day to remember began with doubles in the first and second innings against Boston right-hander Garrett Richards. He added a third double in the ninth inning.

He is the only Oriole to ever have four hits in the first four innings of a game. He is the only Oriole to have five or more hits that included three doubles.

He went 5-for-5 with a walk, three doubles and three runs. He is 9-for-13 and batting .692 with a 1.637 OPS. His nine hits are the most in the first three games by a player in club history.

Not bad for a player that began the 2019 season in Baltimore and ended it at Double-A Bowie in the Eastern League playoffs.

The Orioles have had 52 games in team history when a player had five hits, and one in which a player had six. Cal Ripken Jr. set the club single-game record for hits, going 6-for-6 when the Orioles won 22-1 at Atlanta on "Sunday Night Baseball" on June 13, 1999. His night included two doubles, two homers, five runs and six RBIs.

Ripken had four career games of five or more hits. Brooks Robinson had two. The 2019 Orioles saw it happen four times, all late in the year. It was Renato Núñez on Aug. 14, Anthony Santander on Aug. 25, Hanser Alberto on Aug. 30 and Trey Mancini on Sept. 24. That was the last O's five-hit game until yesterday.

The only other O's seasons where they had four instances of players with five-hit games happened in 1966 and in 1974. In '66 it was Luis Aparicio three times and Russ Snyder once. Tommy Davis did it twice in 1974, along with Mark Belanger and Rich Coggins.

So yeah, some O's history was researched thanks to Mullins' big day and big series.

But the best sign for the club long-term was, no doubt, the good pitching. While Boston may not finish near the top of the American League East standings, the Red Sox do feel they will score some runs this year. The 2020 Red Sox were fifth in runs in the AL and third in team OPS.

And while J.D. Martinez did plenty of damage in the series, Alex Verdugo was 0-for-11, Kiké Hernández was 1-for-10, Xander Bogaerts was 1-for-12 and Marwin Gonzalez went 2-for-8.

"I was so encouraged by our pitching," manager Brandon Hyde said. "I thought we really threw the ball well all series. Obviously, the bats woke up in a big way early in the game. We took some great at-bats the first three innings. Cedric Mullins set the table for us all three of these games, making things happen, on base six times today. He played great center field defense. Just doing everything extremely well. And we had a lot of guys contribute offensively.

"But you've got to pitch in this league, and we pitched these three games. We got really good starts from three guys and our bullpen did a nice job coming in and throwing strikes."

It would have been difficult for the Orioles to draw up a much better start. They are alone in first-place at 3-0 and now they play three in the Bronx against the 1-2 New York Yankees.