September 02, 2012|By Eduardo A. Encina | The Baltimore Sun
“I told you in spring training,” said Ayala, who pitched for the Yankees last season. “We have a great bunch of players. There’s no [big] names, but there’s men. We’ve done the little things, scored enough runs to keep us in games. We’re winning the games. I think we’re playing much better. We started slowly in the start of the second half, but now we’re playing some great baseball. I think it’s a great feeling. It’s a great time to do some great things.”
Reynolds led the way offensively with his fourth three-hit game of the year — and his 17th two-homer game of his career. Reynolds’ first homer came in the fifth, a mammoth solo shot to left that landed about 20 rows deep into the outfield bleachers.
Nick Markakis’ two-run single — the last of his three hits on the day — past a drawn-in infield capped a three-run eighth inning that gave the Orioles an 8-3 lead and put an exclamation point on a memorable weekend.
“It’s a different year, right?” Markakis said. “We’ve got a good group of guys here. We get down early [in a] tough stadium to come back in. This and Fenway are the two toughest parks to come down from a deficit. We’re just sticking in there. Our pitching’s been doing great. Tilly went down early, Wolf did a great job. Our bullpen as usual, they do a good job. We score some runs for them, good things happen.”
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