– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BALTIMORE — Of course Manny Machado achieved a major career milestone inside Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Saturday, as that seemed destined from the very start of his Major League career in Baltimore. As always, however, life doesn’t always unfold the way one plans it out, and it was Machado wearing mustard and mud instead of orange and black as his historic swing capped off another dominating in by the Majors’ hottest team.
Machado launched a three-run home run in the seventh inning, pushing home his 1,000th RBI in the process, to complete an all-around effort from San Diego in its 9-4 victory over the slumping Baltimore Orioles on Saturday afternoon. Michael King allowed just two runs and struck out nine in 6 1/3 innings while Xander Bogaerts had three extra-base hits as the Padres have won seven straight and are a season-high seven games over .500.
Almost 12 years ago to the day, on Aug. 9, 2012, Machado made his Major League debut inside Camden Yards, just two years after being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2010 draft. Almost seven years in the Inner Harbor saw four All-Star Games and two Top-5 MVP finishes, but his tenure eventually ended in July 2018 after a blockbuster trade-deadline deal that sent him to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a boatload of prospects.
One of the minor leaguers who came over to Baltimore in the deal just so happened to be today’s starter for the Orioles, Dean Kremer. Although Kremer had been knocked out of the game by the time Machado stepped to the plate in the seventh, enough starts seemed aligned to allow the Padres third baseman to pull off the milestone many hoped he would accomplish as a member of the home team.
“Doing it where it all started,” Machado said. “I got my first one here. And I hot my thousandth here. It’s crazy.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by DC-area photographer Elliott Brown. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 25 pictures in total.
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