Orioles beat Angels by hitting lots of homers, which HAS to be illegal, right?

Angels 4  Orioles 9

Ask any astute MLB fan right now, or go to any reputable MLB-centric site, and you'll probably see something about the Orioles being a good team. They are currently in first place and are in the top two of almost every AL offensive category right now. The Angels would have to bring their A game to take them down, which really isn't asking much, since they've been bringing their A game a lot lately.

Tonight, they began their weekend series, and while the Halos did a lot of things wrong, they also just flat out made too many mistakes to face this bunch of bruisers and come away with anything other than a loss. Too bad, because for a little bit there, in around the 6th and 7th inning, it looked like they were going to dazzle us all again. But no...the Orioles wouldn't allow it. They were the highly touted, home run-hitting machine coming into the Big A and they lived up to every bit of that reputation.

Homers, long balls, bombs, dingers, stop me when you've heard enough. Baltimore had these equalizers in excess, going yard off of starter Hector Santiago back-to-back to start the game, and then adding a couple more on in later innings. Solo shots, two run blasts...they were using our home plate as a personal launching pad, and it was not very cool, to say the least.

The Angels made an honest effort to fight these invaders from the east. They were down 4-1 heading into the sixth, and a walk to Albert Pujols and then hits from Carlos Perez, Johnny Giavotella and Gregorio Petit would knot up the ballgame, and goosebumps down the arms of the Halos hellions in attendance. The Big A had come alive yet again.

But mistakes...too many mistakes. Hector Santiago let the long ball blasts get to him to the point where he got himself ejected by the home plate ump. The bullpen, recently steadfast and studly, found the way to Home Run City just like Santiago, and when the Angels could get things tied up, it was just quickly given right back.

The Orioles would drop a couple runs in both the 7th and 8th, and they got a single run in the top of the 9th, breaking the recently-attained stalemate and putting the Angels down in an 9-4 hole heading into the last side of the game. The Rally Cat tried to work some magic, with that thrilling sixth inning rejuvenation, but then more mistake pitches happened and the Orioles weren't messing around or making it easy.

They came to score a bunch of runs and hit a bunch of homers and that's what they did in this first game of the weekend; they used pure, blunt force trauma and bloodied up Santiago and the bullpen. The bats did what they could to level the playing field, but then Baltimore would stop teasing and just went straight for the kill.

The Orioles are good. The Orioles are also very dangerous and the Angels can't afford to have the missteps that teams like the Dodgers may allow. If they want to keep the hype train chuggin' along, then the Angels are going to have to get into a higher gear.