Yes, it’s spring training and yes, the games mean nothing, but the Orioles put on quite the power display Tuesday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays.
In the area where the Birds struggled most last season, they’ve succeeded two games in to the spring training Grapefruit League schedule.
Facing their division rival, and a pitcher they are likely to see a lot in Andy Sonnanstine, the O’s showed off their muscle blasting five home runs in the first two innings of the game. Two of the more encouraging home runs came from right fielder Nick Markakis, who was more satisfied knocking the ball to left field than hitting a home run last season.
More importantly, aside from Derrek Lee, the lineup appeared to be as close to the opening day lineup as possible. Along with Markakis, Adam Jones, Jake Fox and new acquisition Vladimir Guerrero all homered. The one that probably interests fans the most is Guerrero.
Guerrero is expected to man the cleanup spot all season long and provided no reason Tuesday to make Buck Showalter, or the O’s fan base, think otherwise.
So, five home runs and 12 runs later, was Tuesday a sign of things to come, or was it an early spring training outburst that was a result of Sonnanstine working on pitches?
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