Was the Davis fly ball at Texas a glimpse of what is possible again?

Ubaldo Jimenez should have gotten the win. He pitched masterfully last night against the Texas Rangers. After giving up a game tying homerun in the 7th, Brian Matusz who came on in relief of Jimenez, became the beneficiary of a big inning as the O's piled on six runs in the 8th inning to seal an 8-3 win.

The biggest blow of the night appeared to be the Nelson Cruz three-run bomb in the 8th, but it could have been the fly ball Chris Davis hit off the left field wall for a double. Why? Because the O's desperately need the Davis bat to wake up.

For the Davis bat to wake up it is Davis who needs to realize his swing has gradually morphed from a solid stroke into a chronic uppercut that is dominated by his top hand. The results of this morphing speak for themselves. Davis is swinging at and missing center cut pitches, whether they be average fast balls or hanging curves. Often when Davis makes contact he chops the ball into the opponents shift on the right side of the infield for harmless ground outs.

Why was the Davis fly ball to left in Texas last night so important? There are two reasons. First because the pitch was so low, the Davis subconscious knew he could not hit it with the uppercut. Instinctively Davis simply hit the ball where it was pitched, which was away. Second, in going with that pitch, what looked like a routine fly to left was classic Davis. The ball kept carrying and carrying all thanks to the brute strength of the Davis bat. There was no upper cut and no top hand domination, just a smooth instinctive power hitter swing with the explosiveness all O's fans are counting on and opponents are deathly afraid of.

Will O's hitting coach Jim Presley be able to take that seemingly innocuous at bat and turn it into a teaching moment so that Davis can begin to get rid of his new self-defeating uppercut and top hand dominant habits? Stay tuned.

In the meantime, it is Nelson Cruz who is carrying the hitting power duties of the team. Last night the O's got another big Cruz night and decent contributions from others as the O's pounded out 17 hits including another great night by Adam Jones.

If the O's can get starting pitching performances from the rest of the staff like they got from Jimenez last night, the AL East is available for the taking.