After hitting five more homers last night, the Orioles have now hit 168 for the season, which easily leads the majors leagues. Colorado is second with 150, and Toronto and Houston are tied with 144. The big league average right now is 114. The Orioles are on a pace to hit 211 homers. They led the majors with 212 last season. They have seven seasons of 200 or more homers in club history, but have never had three in a row. They will if they reach 200 this season. The Orioles have now hit three or more home runs in a game 19 times, and they're 19-0 in those games. They lead the majors with 49 multi-homer games, going 39-10. The Orioles have home run threats up and down their lineup, yet another reason they lead the majors in homers. Just look at tonight's lineup. Nick Markakis is leading off, and has hit 12. Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz bat third and fourth, and have hit 24 and 34.

Even the bottom third of the lineup is quite potent. Chris Davis is batting seventh with 22 homers, Caleb Joseph hits eighth with eight and Jonathan Schoop - batting ninth - has hit 12. Today, manager Buck Showalter talked about his lineup being full of home run threats. "I'm not a big National League versus American League but one of the first things that hit me when I got to the big leagues was how quickly leads could evaporate," Showalter said. "Because there were no outs in the lineup in the American League. The seven, eight, nine guys were hitting third in (Triple-A) Norfolk, and there is power throughout the lineup." "When you can make a pitcher grind and not coast anywhere. Jon (Schoop) is sitting down there with 12 home runs and Caleb (Joseph). Chris Davis hitting seventh. "It makes guys grind and constantly be trying to torque their best pitch. Sometimes they pay a price for that." Opposing pitchers have been paying a price against an Orioles team that has hit three or more homers in three of their past seven games and in seven of their past 18 contests. The Arizona Fall League assignments were announced today. The Orioles will be sending seven players to play for the Glendale Desert Dogs. They are pitchers Parker Bridwell, Zach Davies, Mychal Givens and Ashur Tolliver along with catcher Michael Ohlman, infielder Jason Esposito and outfielder Dariel Alvarez. For Alvarez and Ohlman, this is a return to the AFL. They played on the Surprise Saguaros team that won the league championship last November. The Orioles' No. 1 Dominican Summer League team beat the Royals 3-1 today to force a third and deciding game tomorrow in the DSL playoffs. The winner of that game will advance to the league semifinals.