But their formula - outhit the opponent and withstand middling starting pitching with a bullpen that has the best Fielding Independent Pitching number in all of baseball - is replicable. Yes, they've had an easy schedule, and, certainly tougher days are ahead, with the combined winning percentage of the teams they face in their next eight series. The Orioles, now carrying the third-best record in Major League Baseball at 21-10, are not flukes. Hays is now 27, and in the afterglow of another victory Monday, he marveled at what surrounded him. Hope and faith were elemental to everyone in the Orioles' universe, players and fans alike, because without them, the sort of misery that enmeshed the franchise would be too much. He returned to the big leagues to play for a 108-loss team in 2019, slogged through the pandemic season (25 wins) and weathered a 110-loss 2021 in hopes of something better. The next season, spent by Hays at Double-A, they went 47-115. KANSAS CITY - Austin Hays debuted for the Baltimore Orioles as a late September call-up in 2017 at 21, a year after Baltimore made its last playoff appearance.
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