Updating Lee and Hardy

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

June 19, 2011, 11:15am

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Derrek Lee is 2-for-3 today with an RBI double through the fifth inning in Washington and the Orioles lead 5-3. That makes him 9-for-12 in this series with three doubles and an RBI and he has raised his average from .214 at the start of play Friday to its current .246. Lee had five hits Friday, two Saturday and has two today. Lee had multi hits two games in a row just twice all season before this series and now has three in a row. Before this series, in seven games since coming off the DL on June 4, Lee was 4-for-31. He was 1-for-19 in his five games before Friday. So he had four hits over a seven-game stretch and now has nine hits over a three-game stretch and counting. J.J. Hardy hit a solo homer today in the third inning. It was his eighth of the season, or two more than he had last year. In 2010, Hardy hit six homers in 340 at-bats. This year, he hit number eight in his 155th at-bat. Hardy has two homers over his last four games and six over his past 16 games. We are a few innings away from finding out if all this adds up to a win.