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With the likes of the Nats and Red Sox, baseball is mostly becoming a beard sport. In the Oriolesโ€™ case, the trend hasnโ€™t grown on them. But that doesnโ€™t mean facial hair is completely out of the question.

Davis appeared in Monday nightโ€™s game sporting a mustache. Adam Jones quickly christened it โ€œThe State Trooper.โ€

โ€œI was pushing the limits for a while with, I guess, the 5 oโ€™clock shadow beard, if you want to call it that,โ€ Davis said after the game. โ€œI didnโ€™t want to completely shave, and I was looking for something to kind of loosen everybody up, maybe something to get us going.โ€

In baseball โ€” and especially in mid-August baseball for a team thatโ€™s looking for every possible means to stay alive in the playoff raceโ€“ every tweak of personal habit is taken as a potential difference-maker on the field. Davis only reinforced this notion by blasting his 30th home run of the year. And, by the way, the Oโ€™s beat the Mariners 3-2.

With the success, Davis said it looks like the lip tickler โ€œwill be around for a while.โ€ The question is, will the rest of the dugout follow and let the whiskers run free?

Stephen Babcock is the editor of Technical.ly Baltimore and an editor-at-large of Baltimore Fishbowl.