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Oriole Magic! Robert Andino is smiling again

As noted by our Twitter pal Aaron Fischman, Baltimore Orioles second baseman Robert Andino may deserve a retraction of sorts from everyone who had fun with that YES Network progression screencap the first week of the season. Though the television graphic showed Andino becoming less enthusiastic about his baseball post throughout the years, the timeline sure hasn't been reflective of the play of Andino and the Orioles this season.

Indeed, since Big League Stew (among others) posted the image on the morning of April 11, the Orioles have gone 17-7 — a stretch that allowed Baltimore to wake up on Monday morning as the owners of the best record in baseball. At 19-9 overall, the O's have been a half-game better than the Rays, four games better than the Yankees and 7.5 better than the Red Sox. They've been 3.5 games better than Toronto, the other bird team that Baltimore was expected to share airspace near the bottom half of the AL East standings with.

For his part, Andino has hit .303/.354/.408 with two homers, eight runs and eight RBIs since everyone started asking him about his long face. So, because Andino held his head high and kept competing while the rest of us had a little bit of fun, we've taken the liberty of tacking on one more grin to that screencap. He and the cartoon bird on his helmet have certainly earned their smirks so far.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that the O's screencaps being posted on Reddit these days have taken on a much different tone.

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