Nobody saw the Orioles coming this year. Picked to finish in the AL East cellar, they instead managed a winning record and hung around in the playoff hunt until October. The main drivers of their overachieving 2022: pitching and defense. Of all the important statistics the team put up this season, none were more important than these two:
3.97 – the team ERA, almost two full runs less than their 5.84 mark in 2021, and
38 – the total number of defensive runs they saved as a team, a 68-run improvement on 2021, which they spent in the red.