O's make history

Buck Showalter doesn't put on a jersey. The jersey puts on Buck Showalter.

And for once this season, it's not bad history.

With their sweep of the Angels this weekend, the Orioles did two things they A) have never done and B) have never done since 1997.

A) The Orioles swept the Angels 6-0 for the season series, the first time they've gone undefeated against the Angels in Orioles history. Granted, these aren't your older brother's Angels. They're a struggling team and will miss the playoffs for just the third time since 2002. But any time the Orioles can do that, on the west coast, to a team that has been much better in recent years, is a major accomplishment.

Now on to B) -- and what I believe is the bigger of the two accomplishments if you've followed this team closely in the last 13 years -- is the Orioles had a winning month of August for the first time since 1997.

Yes, you read that right. They've actually won more games than they've lost for a whole calendar month. And that month was August, which along with September is usually when the Orioles pack up camp, play the rest of the games with their tails between their legs, and countdown the hours until the season is over.

But I'll be damned. The O's finished the month of August 16-11.

And we have Buck Showalter to thank for it. He's gone 16-10 since taking over for Juan Samuel as manager of the Orioles, and must've found the team's switch and flipped it from "crappy" to "pretty darn good".

Get this: the Orioles only allowed 1 run in the sweep of the Angels. Only 1 run!

I don't care how down on the team you've been this season, what they have done since Showalter has joined the club is impressive.

And if the Orioles can sustain this competitive streak of baseball until the end of the year, you're gonna see the Bad Oriole become pretty freaking excited for 2011.