and the bad news …
The thrill of a big victory by the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday was muted a bit by the agony of an injury to All-Star third baseman Jordan Westburg. The Mississippi State product suffered a fracture in his right hand when hit by a pitch and could miss the rest of the regular season. “He’s a huge part of our lineup, our culture, really everything,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said in an mlb.com article. Westburg, in his second big league season, is hitting .269 with 18 homers, 25 doubles and 58 RBIs for Baltimore, which leads the American League East by a half-game over the charging New York Yankees. … In the O’s 10-4 win over Toronto at Camden Yards, rookie Jackson Holliday hit a grand slam for his first career home run. Only two other Orioles have done that since the franchise moved to Baltimore in 1954. The first was ex-Southern Miss star Frank Baker, who hit his slam on Sept. 28, 1973. It was the only homer in the Meridian native’s 146 career big league games. P.S. Former USM slugger Matt Wallner belted a 442-foot home run for Minnesota in an 8-3 win over the New York Mets. It was Wallner’s sixth homer of the season and fifth in his last 15 games. He was robbed of a second homer when Mets outfielder Tyrone Taylor reached over the center-field wall and knocked Wallner’s fly ball back into play for a double. … Ex-USM standout Justin Storm threw two scoreless innings, striking out five of the nine batters faced, in his High-Class A debut for Beloit in the Miami system. The 6-foot-7 lefty was 4-2 with a 1.41 ERA and two saves in 24 games in Low-A this season.