Orioles win 8 straight, Lopez’s an All-star, and the upcoming Draft
The Orioles beat the Angels 9-5 on Sunday afternoon to win their eighth straight game the last time the Orioles won eight games in a row the year was 2005. That lineup was a majority of All-stars, Orioles legends, and hall of fame ballot caliber players. It included Brian Roberts, Melvin Mora, Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez, Rafael Palmeiro, Jay Gibbons, and Sammy Sosa to name a few. The birds are now 43-44 on the season and are two games out of the wildcard.
The Orioles representative for this year’s All-star game is closer Jorge Lopez. He currently has a 1.74 earned run average, 16 saves, and 47 strikeouts in 41.1 innings pitched in 38 games pitched. To say the right move for Lopez to move to the bullpen this year is an understatement. Last year between starting and the bullpen he finished the year he pitched in 33 games, 25 starts a record of 3-14 and an ERA of 6.07 in 121.2 innings pitched. Lopez’s turnaround this season has been noticed by the league and he has been chosen to the All-star game and it’s well deserved.
The MLB draft is this upcoming Sunday on the MLB Network from the 17th to the 19th consisting of 20 rounds. The Orioles have a draft pool of 16.9 million which is the second highest bonus pool in history. The first day the Orioles will make selections 1, 33, 42, and 67 in the draft. There’s a lot of exciting possibilities in this upcoming draft and it’ll be interesting to see the next chapter of the evolution of the Orioles farm system.
