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MLB Notebook: Orioles tough in extra-inning games

The 1970 Baltimore Orioles won their final 11 games of the regular season, to finish with a remarkable 108-54 record, as the team marched toward their second consecutive pennant. During this final flourish, the club played five extra-inning affairs, and with victories in all five, finished the year with a total of 16 extra-inning wins. No team in the American League has won more extra-inning games since the AL expanded to a 162-game schedule in 1961.

The 2012 Orioles continued their magic in one-run games and extra-inning games, beating the Mariners 8-7 in 14 innings. With the victory and a Yankees loss, Baltimore moved to within 4 1/2 games of the lead in the AL East.

Baltimore has won 11 consecutive one-run games and 12 straight extra-inning affairs.

For the season, Baltimore is 22-6 in one-run games (.786). The next-highest winning percentage in the Majors is .682 by the Indians.

Baltimore improved to 12-2 in extra-inning games (.857). The only other team with as many as 10 extra-inning wins are the Nationals, who are 10-6.

Matt Wieters homered twice and also collected a double, making him the first Orioles catcher since Chris Hoiles (1998) to collect three extra-base hits in a game.

Tigers
With their victory over the Yankees on Tuesday, the Tigers have won 10 consecutive home games. The streak is the longest for the club since they won 10 straight in 2006. The last season to see Detroit win more consecutive home games was 1949, when it captured 11 in a row.

With the win the Tigers improved to 16-8 since the All-Star break, which is tied for the best record in the AL.

Miguel Cabrera
Cabrera doubled, homered and drove in three runs, as the Tigers defeated the Yankees, 6-5.

Cabrera now has 694 career extra-base hits, which is the ninth most in history for any player through his age-29 season.

Indians
The Twins rallied with three runs in the top of the ninth and beat the Indians, 7-5.

Cleveland has lost 11 in a row, a streak which is tied for the second longest in franchise history. The 1931 club lost 12 in a row, while the '01, '09, '28, and 2009 teams all lost 11 straight.

Ben Revere
Revere went 1-for-5 on Tuesday to extend his hitting streak to 21 games.

Revere is the 10th Twins player to hit safely in at least 21 games since the franchise moved to Minnesota in 1961. The longest streak for a Twins player is Ken Landreaux's 31-game run in 1980.

Reyes v. Millar: 25-Game Hitting Streaks for Marlins
Player Hits-AB BA OBP SLG
Kevin Millar 45-for-102 .441 .463 .696
Jose Reyes 37-for-101 .366 .402 .604

Jose Reyes
Reyes went 1-for-4 on Tuesday to extend his hitting streak to 25 games.

With his single in the fourth inning, Reyes tied Kevin Millar (2002) for the third-longest streak in franchise history.

Cole Hamels
Hamels faced two batters over the minimum and beat the Braves, 3-0, throwing a five-hitter. Hamels, who threw his first shutout since 2009, struck out six with no walks to improve his career strikeout-to-walks ratio to 3.75 (1,244 strikeouts to 332 walks).

Since 1920, Hamels' 1,244 strikeouts rank as the fifth most for any southpaw through his first seven seasons. He trails Mark Langston (1,448), Mickey Lolich (1,336), Randy Johnson (1,330) and Fernando Valenzuela (1,274).

In the liveball era, for all pitchers with at least 1,000 innings through their first seven seasons, Hamels' 3.75 strikeout-to-walk ratio is the fifth best. He trails Shane Reynolds (4.07), Fergie Jenkins (3.96), Ben Sheets (3.94) and Dan Haren (3.83).

Chris Johnson
Johnson homered twice and drove in five runs in Arizona's 10-4 win over Pittsburgh.

In eight games since being acquired by the Diamondbacks, Johnson is 10-for-29 with five homers and 15 RBIs. In his 92 games with the Astros this season, Johnson hit eight homers.

Andrew McCutchen
McCutchen had two hits and two RBIs, and lifted his batting average to .372.

McCutchen is the first player since Albert Pujols in 2003 to be at or above .372 after play on August 7.

Ryan Dempster
Picking up his first win as a member of the Rangers, Dempster allowed three runs (all unearned) in six innings and Texas defeated Boston, 6-3.

Dempster is the 10th different starter to win a game for the Rangers this season. Last year, Texas had six different starters win a game, with five of the six being responsible for 73 of the 74 accumulated victories.

James Shields
Shields allowed one run and two hits in eight innings, and picked up his 10th win as the Rays defeated the Blue Jays, 4-1.

Shields, who had thrown a three-hit shutout in his previous start, is the second pitcher in franchise history to have back-to-back starts of at least eight innings and no more than three hits allowed. Rolando Arrojo did it in 1998 when he threw back-to-back three-hit shutouts.

Shields has won at least 10 games in every season since 2007. When Shields debuted for the Devil Rays in 2006, Mark Hendrickson owned the most career 10-win seasons for the franchise with two. At that time the franchise had seen a total of seven 10-win seasons (Rolando Arrojo, Albie Lopez, Tanyon Sturtze, Victor Zambrano and Scott Kazmir each had one).

Ross Detwiler
Detwiler allowed three hits in seven innings in a game that saw the Nationals prevail in 12 innings.

Detwiler's line gave the Nationals 21 games this season in which their starter has gone at least six innings and allowed no more than three hits. Those 21 are the most, with Giants starters in second with 18.

Nationals starters own a collective .235 batting average against -- the lowest in the Majors this season.

Buster Posey
Posey homered for the fifth time in his past six games and the Giants defeated the Cardinals, 4-2.

Posey, who is batting .448 with a 1.299 OPS since the All-Star break (22 games), is sitting on a .935 OPS for the season. The Giants have had three catchers in franchise history qualify for the batting title and finish with OPS of at least .900. Those catchers were Chief Meyers (.918) in 1912, Walker Cooper (.926) in '47 and Dick Dietz (.941) in '70.

Mike Trout
Trout hit his 20th home run of the season as the Angels lost to the Athletics, 10-4.

With 36 steals, Trout joined Vada Pinson in 1959 (20 homers, 21 steals) as the only players in history to have a 20-20 campaign in their age-20 or younger season.

Bartolo Colon
Throwing 72 of his 93 pitches for strikes, Colon allowed one run in seven innings and improved to 9-8 with a 3.38 ERA.

Among pitchers with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, Colon owns the highest strike percentage in the Majors, at 70.23. Cliff Lee is second (69.77), followed by R.A. Dickey (69.28) and Jordan Zimmermann (68.50).

Josh Rutledge
Rutledge had three doubles, a single and three RBIs in Colorado's 3-1 win over the Dodgers. Rutledge now has 17 extra-base hits and 18 RBIs in his first 22 Major League games.

Dating back to 1918, those 17 extra-base hits through a player's first 22 games are tied for the third most. Mandy Brooks had 19, Joe DiMaggio had 18 and Roy Weatherley had 17.

Roger Schlueter is senior researcher for MLB Productions.
Read More: James Shields, Andrew McCutchen, Cole Hamels, Ryan Dempster, Miguel Cabrera, Matt Wieters, Buster Posey, Bartolo Colon, Chris Johnson, Ross Detwiler, Josh Rutledge, Jose Reyes, Mike Trout, Ben Revere