Finally, after a hundred games of poor performances from a slew of young pitchers, an exhausted bullpen and a lineup with little excuse, the Baltimore Orioles have shown traces of the team that the franchise and fans alike actually expected to see. The Birds (53-57)—having swept both the lowly Seattle Mariners and the respectable Texas Rangers, the latter a team that sat atop the A.L. West before entering the green gates of Camden Yards—are now within four games of .500 for the first time in months.

The A.L. East division title is well beyond the Baltimore reach for sure this year, as the Yankees have, once again, soared well beyond the competition. But should the Orioles finish solidly in third place (or even anywhere near the Boston Red Sox, who have gone just about .500 since the All-Star Break), Lee Mazzilli’s job just might be saved.

Miguel Tejada

Up until last week, the Orioles were one of this year’s great letdowns. The franchise, which in the off-season celebrated celebrity signings such as shortstop Miguel Tejada, catcher Javy Lopez and beloved first baseman Rafael Palmiero, should have hit the cover off the ball every night. In Sunday’s victory over the Rangers, for example, Baltimore had six players hitting over .300, and in the first games of the Texas series, the Birds outscored the Rangers by a collective 23-7.

But while the offense has been explosive at times, it has remained less than consistent. When it has been needed most—during tight pitcher’s duels—it has been noticeably absent. And for some stretches, it has been absent altogether. The Orioles lost 19 times in June, including a stretch of nine losses in ten completed games. In those ten games, Baltimore tallied a total of 29 runs, while opponents crossed the plate 69 times. Orioles’ pitching has been a source of constant debate all year long, as Baltimore made no secret of attempting to revisit the source of its greatness years ago—its farm system—with a crop of young pitchers bearing rockets for arms but little experience.

And, as is not completely surprising, the rotation faltered during the first half of the season. Critics—the same critics who burned the franchise for investing in aging, overpriced superstars only a few years ago—lambasted the front office for going solely with inexperience this time around. For a while, there was really no defense—the pitching was bad. Before the firing of Mark Wiley and the return of Ray Miller, it was really bad. But now, the team ERA is falling (it rested at 4.91 after the third Rangers game, and it has hovered just above four since Miller’s homecoming). And there have been brilliant performances—the efforts of young Daniel Cabrera (8-5) stand out, as does the resurgence of ace-turned-reliever-turned-starter Rodrigo Lopez (9-7)—mixed in with the greenness.

Melvin Mora

But with the beginning of August, the Orioles have found new life. As of Monday afternoon, with a modest seven-game win streak in tow, Baltimore’s offense and pitching have finally fashioned a sort of harmony. Many point to the return of oft-injured Melvin Mora to the batting order—his average is an impressive .351, good enough for second place in the A.L.—as a sort of jump-start for the team. He has had at least one hit in each of the wins, two hits in three of them, and in Sunday’s drubbing of Texas star Kenny Rogers, Mora went 3-for-5 with four RBI; Mora hit three home runs in the last two games of the homestand alone. Joining Mora has been Palmeiro, whose struggles have been well-documented this season but who has, in recent days, come through in the clutch quite nicely. While his power has noticeably waned, he has begun to adjust to the massive shifts teams employ when he steps into the batter’s box, and he has begun to produce quite nicely.

It seems simple to say that a team must match solid pitching with opportunistic hitting to win a baseball game. How else do you do it, really? The problem with the Baltimore Orioles, at least thus far, has been that the pitching is young and the offense growing old. The rotation can be brilliant, but sporadically. And the offense is, at times, utterly explosive—but also sporadically. For the first hundred games, it seemed that the Birds could only depend on one or the other; that is, the losses would pile up either 15-13 or 3-1. But for a week now, the offense and defense have been working together. The pitchers are not quite deer in the headlights anymore, and the batters seem rested and reenergized.

Sadney Ponson

Of course, the team remains below .500 still, and the playoffs are all but out of the question this year. And this modest win-streak—well, one could easily say that the first three games came against the Mariners, a team that couldn’t buy a win. And the next two came against young and struggling Texas pitchers. But Sunday’s 11-5 drubbing—well, that came against Kenny Rogers (13-5). Every Oriole was hitting, and Baltimore’s Sidney Ponson, whose struggles both with his weight and on the mound have been no secret, patched together his fourth straight win.

And so, for the first time since 1969, the Baltimore Orioles have swept a seven-game homestand. It isn’t quite enough to salvage the season; but perhaps it reveals some light at the end of a tunnel—if not this year’s, then next year’s.