masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgCHICAGO – I’ll close the blog tonight with comments from Nolan Reimold and J.J. Hardy, who hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning to break a scoreless tie.

Reimold has four home runs in his last four games played. He sat out Sunday’s game.

The key to his hot streak?

“Staying calm,” he replied. “No real secret to it. It’s just kind of happening. I’ve just been feeling good, keeping my swing short, not moving my head too much. Get the pitch and don’t miss it.”

Reimold made a…CHICAGO – I’ll close the blog tonight with comments from Nolan Reimold and J.J. Hardy, who hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning to break a scoreless tie.

Reimold has four home runs in his last four games played. He sat out Sunday’s game.

The key to his hot streak?

“Staying calm,” he replied. “No real secret to it. It’s just kind of happening. I’ve just been feeling good, keeping my swing short, not moving my head too much. Get the pitch and don’t miss it.”

Reimold made a diving catch in left field in the first inning and ran down another ball in the gap.

“I was happy I was able to contribute on both sides of the game, make some plays,” he said “I’m sure the pitchers appreciate that and it’s something that I want to do more of, so I’ll be looking to improve on my defense all the time.”

Reimold was impressed by starter Wei-Yin Chen.

“He seems like he has a good pace of game, got command on the mound and he’s pitching very well, so it’s a good sight to see and I’m happy for him,” Reimold said.

Reimold witnessed the shaving cream and Gatorade celebration.

“There’s the mess over there,” he said. “I saw it. I’m sure he enjoyed it. A good celebration.”

Hardy talked about the power potential up and down the lineup, guys capable of hitting 20 bombs.

“We know what we’re capable of. We know it’s possible,” he said. “The fact that we’ve all got out to a hot start in 11 games might be a little bit surprising, but if you say that somewhere throughout the season we’d have 20 home runs through an 11-game span, I don’t think that would be surprising. We’ve got off to a nice start and we just need to keep going.

“Any time you’re winning, it’s fun. It starts with our pitching and our pitching looks really good right now. And if they can keep doing what they’re doing, I feel like we should be able to score a lot of runs and we should be able to win a lot of ball games.”

Hardy is hitting .389 (7-for-18) with four doubles, a homer and four RBIs against John Danks.

Jim Johnson has converted 13 straight save opportunities dating back to Aug. 14, 2011.

Adam Jones’ 13-game hitting streak ended.

The Orioles have won five of their last six games at U.S. Cellular Field dating back to last season.