For the seven days stretching from May 14th through May 21st, Charm City was not a happy place to be. The Orioles were losing, and they were doing so in the most painful ways possible. It started with the first sweep of the year in a two-game set against the lowly Padres, a series which included the end of closer Jim Johnson’s club-record save streak. It continued with another sweep, this time in three games against the rival Rays. Johnson blew another save, giving up five earned runs in the ninth inning of the middle game in that series. The last straw came on Monday the 20th, when yet another blown save took a rare win against C.C. Sabathia and turned it into a 10th-inning loss for the birds.

All six losses came at home. Three of them came in games where the O’s had late leads, and four came in games where they had 11 or more hits. These weren’t just losses; they were heartbreakers that quickly soured the mood in Baltimore. Suddenly, a team that showed so much promise early in the year was on the ropes, and sports conversations around town were tinged with panic. “How were we going to win if our starters can’t get through five innings?” “What’s wrong with our All Star closer?” “Was last year really just a fluke after all?” It seemed like everyone was a little angrier, a little more stressed, and a lot more anxious about the Orioles.

I was in the stands on Tuesday, May 21st, for the middle game of the series between the Orioles and the hated Bronx Bombers, and a range of emotions was on full display. Some Orioles fans seemed to give up hope in the first inning when the returning Miguel Gonzales gave up a run on a couple of quick hits. Former Yankee Chris Dickerson brought life to the home crowd when he tied the game with a home run in the third, and the reaction was exponentially more powerful when he duplicated that exact feat in the fifth. Through the first half of the game, the score was 2-2, and the emotions of Orioles fans were being played like a yo-yo.

After Dickerson’s second bomb, the game settled down. Neither of the teams was able to score, and I could sense the growing apprehension in the crowd. In a week where things were falling apart at the worst possible time, the same thought seemed to be going through everyone’s minds: the Orioles would come excitingly close to scoring the go-ahead run before the Yankees came through to take the lead, and Mariano Rivera would shut them down like he always did. After nine complete innings, that unspoken scenario still remained. Just as with the night before, the Yankees were going to pull it out in extras.

But just as quickly as fans of the black and orange began contemplating the imminent demise of their favorite team, the mood began to change. Jim Johnson, he of the three consecutive blown saves, came out to face the Yankees in the tenth. The first batter he faced was long-ball threat Curtis Granderson. As Oriole Park held its collective breath, Johnson got Granderson to line out. He quickly dispatched the next two Yankee batters as well. No hits, no walks, no runs. The Yard started to get loud. The birds weren’t out of the woods yet, but Johnson’s success was the first real sign that they may be snapping out of their six-game funk.

It didn’t take much longer for another sign, and this won was much more definite. Nate McLouth led off the bottom of the 10th inning and promptly crushed Vidal Nuno’s third pitch into the stands. The team mobbed him at home plate, Orioles Magic hit the speakers, and the crowd celebrated like the team had won the pennant. I fully admit to embarrassing my wife with my victory dance, but I won’t apologize for it.

Once McLouth hit that homer, the dam seemed to break. Shortly after the final out, word began to spread that the Orioles were going to call up top pitching prospect and 2012 first-round draft pick Kevin Gausman to start in Toronto. The following night, Jason Hammel rebounded from two poor performances to make a quality start, and the O’s unleashed 14 hits in a 6-3 beating of the Yankees. Suddenly, only two days after the sky was falling, the Orioles appeared to have stabilized their rotation, and they took the series from the Yankees to top it off!

Going into a six game road trip against the Blue Jays and Nationals, Charm City is a calmer place; well, as calm as a city with the beltway can be. Hopefully, the Orioles can keep up the positive momentum. They’re only three games out of first, and seven of their next 14 games are against Toronto (19-27) and Houston (14-33). Of course, the other seven are against Washington (24-23) and Detroit (25-19), proving once again that nothing is ever easy when it comes to baseball in Baltimore.