All of those moves paid off handsomely and over the last 62 games of the season the Orioles went a deserved 41-21 considering they outscored their opponents by 65 runs in those games – 2nd best in the American League and 3rd best in all of baseball. That last-third-of-the-season success was masked in the standings by what happened in the first 100 games and it should erase the storyline that the team the Orioles fielded at the time the playoffs began had no business being there. Over the last third of the season, it was a brilliantly executed plan, accompanied by a legitimate playoff-caliber performance.