Tillman, Hardy and Machado on the win over St. Louis and more

Chris Tillman said it well in one sentence during his postgame interview. "It was a good night to do what we did," he said after the Orioles' 12-2 win over St. Louis. The Orioles put on a great show tonight for the crowd and for the 23 Orioles Hall of Famers that returned as part of the 60th anniversary celebration tonight. They were introduced during an amazing postgame ceremony. It ended with the 2014 Orioles joining the former O's on the field. Yes, it was amazing. "With all these guys around here, that was fun. We were hanging out with them in the clubhouse. As a player now, it's good to be around those guys," Tillman said. Tillman gave up just two runs over 6 2/3 innings to improve to 9-5. His team backed him with six homers and 12 runs. "Felt good," he said. "One of those nights where everything kind of clicked for me and I was able to execute most of my pitches. It is always fun to see the ball fly out, as long as it's not against us. It was only a matter of time until these guys did this. It always helps when the team can jump out like that." davis-hardy-fist-bump-(old-jerseys)-sidebar.jpgJ.J. Hardy homered twice for his 11th career multi-homer game and was happy the team backed Tillman with so much offense. "Nice, very nice," Hardy said. "Chris threw the ball great tonight. Had a great curveball. Nice to score for him and score early. "There were a lot of hits and Manny (Machado) kind of got it started with that three-run homer. Balls were falling in for us tonight." Hardy snapped a streak of 72 at-bats without a homer with his first longball tonight. He now has six on the year. Is he starting to get his power swing back? "It is easy to say after tonight. I don't know," Hardy said. "I'm just trying to hit the ball hard. You can't try and hit home runs. Just trying to hit the ball hard and tonight was nice." Machado hit a three-run homer in the second inning that gave the O's a 4-0 lead. It must have been fun to have a blowout tonight. "It's baseball," he said. "One day we are going to win 2-1 and the other day we'll blow someone out. Just part of the game. We're at the point of the season where everyone is tired, but it's who is mentally stronger, who can give 110 percent. "This last month has been crazy for us. It's been hard, been a grind. Always good to have a game like this with hits falling and hitting the ball out of the park. Good to have one once in a while, but we have to continue to swing the bats and pitch." Before the game, Machado was talking with Hall of Famer Frank Robinson at the batting cage. He may have picked up a pointer or two. What did Robinson tell him? "Keep doing you. Don't try to do too much," Machado said. "Having those guys around today helps a lot. Especially the younger players. Just to pick their brains. They are Hall of Famers, the best of the best. We took the time to take them aside, ask questions and see what their thoughts were."



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