– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BALTIMORE — Jordan Westburg watched the majority of the Baltimore Orioles’ penchant for late-game magic last season from down in the minor leagues. Today, the Major Leaguer has been front and center in the middle of a late-late show redux, including another thriller on Saturday in which he had his best game at the plate as an Oriole.
Westburg’s soft line drive down the right field line to open the bottom of the 11th inning not only set a new single-game career high with his fourth base hit, but it also plated the winning run as the Orioles defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-4 to take the first two games of the weekend series against the defending National League champions. Gunnar Henderson tied the Major League lead with his 12th homer of the season to start Baltimore’s comeback from a 4-2 deficit, with Anthony Santander’s solo shot in the eighth tying the score.
“He’s just getting better and better … [he’s] a special player, and this guy’s’s going to be really good,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said about Westburg. “It’s his first full year in the big leagues, and he’s doing a little bit of everything. How much better he’s gotten defensively at third base, second base. The at-bats he takes. He never takes a pitch off, ever. He battles every single pitch at the plate, and can cover and hit the ball to all fields hard. Really impressed with him so far this season. ”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Yusuf Abdullah. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 22 pictures in total.
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