Machado belts 6th HR, shows off slick defense

April 21st, 2018

BALTIMORE -- Red-hot Manny Machado extended his team lead in homers to six, going deep for the third time in two games with a fourth-inning solo blast in Friday's 3-1 win over the Indians.
"Honestly, it's just a matter of just kind of staying short. It's tough, I'm not a big free swinger at 3-0," said Machado, who hit his first career homer in that count off . "I never make good contact with it, you try to get too big and try to do too much and that's the tradition. But I think I'm feeling pretty good with my swing, staying in the zone, trying to stay under control. And it was a helluva pitch. I look back at it and it was a helluva pitch and I was just trying to make some good contact with it."
For Machado -- who homered twice in Thursday's game in Detroit -- it kept up his recent dominance against Cleveland. In 29 career games against the Indians, he has eight homers, 10 doubles and 19 RBIs. The shortstop, who has an eight-game hit streak, leads the Orioles with 15 RBIs.
"I thought Manny's home run [turned the momentum]," manager Buck Showalter said. "[The sense was] this game is tied and we had a pitcher on top of his game, so let's go."
Machado also impressed with his glove, snagging 's two-out chopper up the middle in the top of the seventh with a diving stop. He then turned and flipped the ball from his stomach over to second base to get the out and prevent a run.

"I'm just glad that I had front-row seats to that play," Orioles reliever said. "[I] turned around like, 'Aw, that ball's up the middle.' [And then I was] like, 'Oh wow, that was an incredible play.'"
Machado said it all came down to timing things and having a good sense of the clock and who was running.
"I anticipated going up the middle a little bit there," he said, "and that, at the end of the day, it was just staying in the zone and knowing how much time I had."