1. The darkest hour is always just before dawn. Our season’s hopes had turned to black last night—until about midnight when Justin Tucker boomed a 52-yard, game-winning field goal with 5 minutes left in overtime in Pittsburgh. The guy lives for these moments as Baltimore fans know: He’s 12-of-12 on field goal attempts to either tie or put the Ravens in front in the fourth quarter or OT, according to ESPN Stats & Information. We also like that Joe Flacco set John Harbaugh straight—”Just let him win the game”—as the head coach debated with coaches about trying to draw the Steelers offside on fourth down instead of simply sending Tucker onto the field.
2. Chris Davis named O’s MVP: Entering Friday, our favorite first baseman was leading the Major Leagues with 45 home runs—the fifth-highest season total in O’s history. Of course, Davis already holds the team’s season-record HR total with 53, set two years ago. We wholeheartedly agree with what Adam Jones said this week: That signing Davis, a free agent, should be the team’s highest priority. Crush, by the way, also smashed his 200th and 201st career homers this week in the same game against the Blue Jays.
3. Local boy makes touchdown. Former River Hill High School (Howard County) star Michael Campanaro scored his first career touchdown on an end-around from the Steelers’ 9-yard line last night, somersaulting the Ravens into an early 7-3 lead. Pic courtesy of the CBS “pylon cam”:
4. Who wore it better? The Washington Wizards announced that several times this season they’ll don retro “Baltimore Pride” uniforms that take their striped inspiration from the ’73-era Baltimore Bullets of Wes Unseld and Phil Chenier renown. We dig it. But we’d like it more if they’d play a couple games up here, like maybe against Cleveland or Golden State?
5. Manny joins the 20-20 club. The best fielding third baseman in the game has had a breakthrough offensive year and joined baseball’s exclusive 20-20 club with two home runs and two stolen bases in a 6-4 win over the Blue Jays. In fact, Manny’s two home runs pushed his season HR total to 30. The 23-year-old is the sixth Oriole to hit at least 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in a single-season and, just the second ever with Brady Anderson, to hit at least 30 home runs and steal 20 bases in the same year.
