For a few days, at least, the Orioles have jumped aboard the Brian Roberts Express and actually look like a major league baseball team.
Maybe that won't last through the weekend, but it should remind fans about what could be on the horizon and what Roberts means to the Orioles when all is right in his world.
This much should be obvious. The guy is one of those catalytic players whose energy ripples through the rest of the lineup. When his motor is running - and I mean really running - the rest of the team has no choice but to get on board or get out of the way, because something good is going to happen.
The past week has been classic. Roberts has turned on the power, hitting five home runs in the past six games. He hit two in Friday night's series-opening victory over the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field and launched a game-turning grand slam in Thursday's sweep-averting win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Orioles are not going to be able to depend on him for that kind of power production on a regular basis, but day in and day out he is a doubles machine who can also win a game with his legs or his glove.
Of course, there have been times this year when Roberts has looked as if his gearbox were stuck in neutral. He looked alternately discouraged and distracted, not anything like the firecracker leadoff guy who started carving out a place in the hearts of Orioles fans the day he arrived in the major leagues.
There were all sorts of theories about this, but the predominant theme among his message board critics was that he had grudgingly signed that $40 million extension because of the bad economy and didn't really want to be here because he had grown tired of losing.
That probably wasn't the real reason, but it sounded logical enough. I mean, why wouldn't Roberts be tired of watching Derek Jeter or David Ortiz starring in the playoffs every year? The Orioles haven't had a winning season since 1997, and they've never been competitive during Roberts' career in Baltimore. If you ask some people, he had every right to be discouraged or distracted or sleepwalking or whatever you want to call what he was doing until the light came back on.
He's only human, and losing season after interminable season would wear on anyone. Roberts made it known a year or two ago that he was becoming weary of the Orioles' inability to compete in the American League East. The team even came close to trading him to the Atlanta Braves at one point when it looked as if he might play out his contract and become a free agent.
