Orioles tie for major league lead with three Rawlings Gold Glove Award recipients

Earlier tonight Rawlings announced that three Orioles - shortstop J.J. Hardy, center fielder Adam Jones and right fielder Nick Markakis - have been named this year's American League Gold Glove Award recipients for defensive excellence at their respective positions. The Orioles and Kansas City Royals led the majors with three award winners each in 2014. This marks the third straight year the Orioles have had three players receive Gold Glove awards. It is the second career Gold Glove Award for Markakis (also 2011), the third straight for Hardy (also 2012-2103) and fourth for Jones (also 2009 and 2012-2013). Jones and Hardy are the first set of AL teammates to win three consecutive Gold Gloves since Bret Boone and Ichiro Suzuki for Seattle in 2002-04. Markakis wins his second career Gold Glove Award (also 2011) and joins Paul Blair and Jones as the only outfielders to win a Gold Glove in club history (each has won multiple awards). In 2014, Markakis led AL right fielders in games (147), putouts (295), and fielding percentage (1.000) while ranking 2nd in assists (11). He ended the season with 328 consecutive errorless games as an outfielder, just eight games shy of Rich Amaral's AL record of 336 (1995-2000) and 64 games shy of Darren Lewis' big league record of 392 (1990-94). Hardy becomes the second Oriole shortstop in club history to win three consecutive Gold Gloves, joining Mark Belanger (six straight, 1973-78). Hardy ranked 7th among all American Leaguers in Defensive WAR (2.1) in 2014. He also led AL shortstops in Total Zone Runs (14), was 2nd in Range Factor/Game (4.12) and double plays turned (99), 3rd in fielding percentage (.978) and assists (394), and 5th in putouts (187). Hardy's three career Gold Gloves are second-most among active shortstops, trailing only Jimmy Rollins (4). Jones wins his fourth career Gold Glove Award, his third straight, after leading AL center fielders in games played (155) and ranking 4th in assists (7) and 5th in putouts (374). Blair (seven straight, 1969-75) is the only O's outfielder to win a Gold Glove in more consecutive seasons than Jones. The O's have won at least three Gold Gloves in at least three consecutive seasons (in addition to Hardy and Jones, catcher Matt Wieters won in 2012 and third baseman Manny Machado won in 2013) for the third time in club history (also 1969-71 and 1973-76). Every other big league club has combined for a total of three such streaks in the award's history (St. Louis 2002-04, Philadelphia 1976-79, and Cincinnati 1974-77). 2014 marks the 20th time the Orioles have had multiple Gold Glove winners in the same season and the 11th time in club history the Orioles have had at least three Gold Glove winners in the same season (also 2013, '12, 1998, '76, '75, '74, '73, '71, '70 and '69). Seventeen different Orioles players have earned a total of 70 Gold Gloves since the award was created in 1957, the second-highest total for any team (St. Louis - 85) and the most in the American League. The New York Yankees have 64 Gold Gloves in franchise history and the next closest team, the Cincinnati Reds, have won 53 Gold Glove Awards.