A Night in the American League

Every night The Big Guy breaks down the action in the American League.

Biggest Win

Playing on the road against baseball’s best team, the Chicago White Sox eked out a 5-4 victory against the L.A. Dodgers. Now 35-30, the Sox had been on a bit of a recent skid. The Chicago bullpen worked 4 no-hit innings Saturday and rookie closer Addison Reed picked up his 8th save of the season. The Sox lead the AL Central by 1.5 games.

Best Pitcher

The Big Guy’s dark horse pick won again last night, this time on the arm of starter Jason Hammel. The 7-2 righty threw a complete game 1-hit shutout to fuel the Orioles past the Braves. Hammel walked 2 and struck out 8. Hammel lowered his ERA to 2.87 and Baltimore improved to 38-27 on the year.

Best Hitter

Mike Moustakas went 3-5, HR, 4 RBI, 2 R Saturday. The 23-year-old Kansas City third baseman accounted for 6 of his teams 7 runs Saturday as they fell to the St. Louis Cardinals 10-7.

Stat to know

Since his belated season debut on May 28, Hard Hittin’ Carlos Quentin has posted a .417/.541/.896 line. The 29-year-old left fielder could be used as a major trading chip for the 23-43 San Diego Padres.

Tomorrow’s Note

The Yankees start 8-2 Ivan Nova (4.64 ERA) against 3-3 National’s starter Edwin Jackson (3.02 ERA).

Dark Horse Series AL

Every night The Big Guy scours the American League box scores while Coach Tom peruses the National League boxes. Just past 60 games into the season, teams are beginning to show their true colors. The Big Guy and Coach Tom will team up to create The Dark Horse Series, an in-depth look at one team from each league we believe carries a legitimate shot to surprise the baseball world and make the playoffs.

Baltimore Orioles

At 10 games over .500, the O’s stand one game out of first place in the AL East. While they have beat up on NL teams over the last week, Baltimore is 17-15 in baseball’s best division. The division leading Yankees are 11-10.

Led by a trio of 26-year-olds— center fielder Adam Jones, catcher Matt Wieters and starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen— the O’s 36-26 record makes Baseball Prospectus’s prediction of a 46-54 record through 100 games highly unlikely.

Baltimore ranks 10th in the majors in runs scored and 11th in team ERA. What’s more they are 6th in team slugging and 11th in team WHIP. The biggest cause for concern is that only San Francisco has committed more errors this year.

The good news is that Baltimore just made their first major midseason addition. Lifetime Oriole and career .281 hitter Brian Roberts made his season debut June 12. Roberts played 59 in 2010 and 39 in 2011, but hit 56 doubles in a full 2009 campaign and remains a clubhouse leader.

A confident young team with a reliable closer (Jim Johnson is 19/20 in save chances) can be a scary team late in the season. Roberts return will help shore up the defense and only improve what is already a solid lineup. With the second wild card available for the first time this year, The Big Guy predicts that the Baltimore Orioles will finish third behind the Yankees and Rays but earn a one game wild card bid against Tampa.

The Big Guy