Another look at Tim Beckham's amazing start with the Orioles

OAKLAND, Calif. - The Orioles scored 12 runs on Saturday night. They had 20 hits. But they didn't hit a single homer. They did bash eight doubles, one off the team record, in the 12-5 victory over Oakland.

Adam Jones continued his big series at the Oakland Colisuem, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Joey Rickard went 3-for-4 and scored three runs. Manny Machado drove in two. So did Chris Davis.

But it was shortstop Tim Beckham, once again, who was most amazing of them all. He had his third career four-hit game and his second with the Orioles. Beckham went 4-for-5 with three doubles, three runs and three RBIs.

In 12 games with the club, Beckham is 26-for-49. He's batting .531/.549/.939 with seven doubles, two triples, three homers, nine RBIs and with an OPS of 1.488.

Beckham ended his first O's game batting .500 at 2-for-4. This is amazing, but he has had a batting average of at least .500 at the end of every game he's played as an Oriole.

One thing Beckham refuses to do is analyze much about his incredible run of hitting. He did say Saturday's win was big after Friday's 5-4 loss, when Oakland scored twice in the last of the eighth.

"Very important. It was very important," Beckham said. "I commend our team for putting together quality at-bats and putting together a seven-spot in the first. That was huge, takes the breath out of the other team and they came back and put up three runs in two or three innings. We had a seven-spot in the first. We weren't worried about it at all."

Did the O's take out some frustrations during a seven-run first inning after a tough loss on Friday?

"No frustration, man. No frustration at all," he said. "I know the whole team believes in our pitchers, believes in our relievers. Last night's loss was last night's loss. Today's a new day, and tomorrow's a new day. We want to go out tomorrow and do the same thing we did today."

Beckham began his O's career with five straight multi-hit games and now he has four straight multi-hit contests, going 10-for-17. He is batting .556 (5-for-9) against left-handed pitching. He is batting .525 (21-for-40) against right-handers. He is 5-for-6 (.833) when batting with runners in scoring position. These stats are ridiculous. So far, he's not slowing down.

Does batting leadoff agree with him? He is 8-for-14 in three games when batting first and has scored six runs. He doesn't want to analyze that either.

"That's something I'm not thinking about," he said. "I have no control over that, so that's up to Buck (Showalter), that's up to the front office and stuff like that. Wherever I'm at in the lineup, wherever I am in the field, just want to play the game hard and take the field hard and be ready to go every day."

Last night was the 12th time in team history the Orioles have scored seven runs or more in the first inning:

8/12/2017 at Athletics (7 runs)
5/20/2008 at Yankees (7 runs)
8/19/2006 vs. Blue Jays (7 runs)
9/24/2003 at Red Sox (7 runs)
5/23/1999 vs. Rangers (10 runs)
5/18/1990 vs. Rangers (7 runs)
8/30/1989 at Indians (7 runs)
7/24/1986 vs. White Sox (7 runs)
8/31/1983 at Blue Jays (7 runs)
6/09/1983 vs. Brewers (7 runs)
9/16/1979 vs. Red Sox (9 runs)
8/26/1968 vs. Athletics (7 runs)

Jones has had a big series against the Athletics after he went 1-for-11 to begin this road trip in Anaheim. In the three games versus Oakland, Jones is 6-for-13 with two doubles, two homers, three runs and seven RBIs.

Meanwhile, Orioles pitchers are striking out a lot of batters lately. The pitchers have recorded three straight games with 10 or more strikeouts and have 10 or more in five of the past six games, which are the games on this road trip. In 51 innings versus the Angels and A's, the pitchers have walked 18 and fanned 61.

With a win today, the Orioles will take three of four in this series. They would get back to the .500 mark at 59-59 as they head to Seattle later today for the final stop on the 10-game trip.