O's End May By Taking 2 From Yankees And Begin June With Win Over Boston
Boy am I glad June has started. May was a downright disgusting month for the Orioles, who posted a 12-16 record in the month. For the first three weeks of the month, Baltimore and the Yankees were basically neck-and-neck in the standings, barely being separated by more than a game, and then the O’s hit a logjam. They lost 14 of their last 19 games in May, and that stretch includes taking 2-3 from the first place Yankees. Even with their struggles, they are 28-24 and just a half game behind the Red Sox (who have 3 more games here in Baltimore) for second, and 3.5 behind the Yankees. Will June be the month they hit their stride? It has been the last few years.
If the Orioles are going to get back on track and cut into this lead the Yankees and Red Sox have on them, the one guy that HAS to step up is Manny Machado. No other way around it this season, he’s been awful. Heading into June he is slashing .205/.286/.405. Just disgusting numbers that we aren’t used to seeing from Manny. Power is still there for him, he has 10 homers, 10 doubles, and 25 driven in. He just doesn’t seem to be hitting at all. He’s striking out A TON (21.9% K rate and Golden Sombrero on Tuesday), and he’s not drawing walks like he used to. The first couple weeks I was brushing it off saying I’m not worried about the slow start. He looked fine in the WBC, so no reason to think that had anything to do with it, but here we are, June 1 and he is still just a hair over the Mendoza line. Check it out below, the Ks are way up, with walks way down. Even in April when he was striking out, he still was drawing walks and getting on base, not the case anymore.
In Houston it looked like the Manny of old, lacing 3 doubles in the first 2 games, but it quickly went downhill for him. Starting with the last game of the Houston series until the end of the Yankees series, 4 games, he went 0-18 with 10 Ks. Clearly going up to the plate and trying to hack his way out of a slump. Luckily he went 2-4 with 2 singles against Eduardo Rodriguez and the Sox on Thursday night, bringing his average to .211. Baby steps for him right now. Buck has mentioned that he is going to keep Manny in the 3 hole, he’s gonna let him figure this thing out for himself. He just can’t seem to get in a rhythm at the plate, Machado hasn’t put together multi-hit games in back-to-back games this season, according to Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun.
With young guys like Manny, who haven’t really struggled, he’s not used to this. He doesn’t really know what to do at the plate, what adjustments to make, and you can tell he’s had enough of it and is ready to snap. This extended slump is for sure in his head, and when do we stop calling this a slump, and maybe admit that he is just having a bad year, like Bryce Harper last season? With Mark Trumbo catching fire recently (7 for his last 14, up to .278, 8 HR on season), and Chris Davis making an adjustment in his stance leading to 4 hits and 2 bombs in his last 3 games, maybe Manny sees more pitches to hit in that 3 hole, he is hitting a career worse .179 against fastballs this season though, something he was feasting on last year.
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He had a day off 2 weeks back in Detroit, maybe another day off soon isn’t the worst thing, let him cool down mentally, and see if he can get this thing back on track and become the MVP candidate we know he is. Even with his ugly numbers, All-Star voters don’t seem to be worried about him, he is the leading vote getter among AL Third Baseman at the first leg of the vote update. That doesn’t mean shit because its just a popularity contest, but maybe it’ll give him some confidence?
Yankees Series And Looking Forward
The Orioles series win over the Yankees is nothing new at Camden Yards. Baltimore has now won their last 11 series in a row over the Yankees at home. Pretty amazing considering how much the Yankees used to own Camden Yards, they just can’t string together the wins on the road vs Baltimore. Dylan Bundy has just been unreal to watch this season, and he continued his stellar season on Monday in the first game of the series. O’s had lost seven in a row, their longest losing streak in six years. Bundy out-dueled Jordan Montgomery, tossing seven innings, and only giving up 2 runs, yet another quality start for Dylan. Like I talked about last week, he’s not overpowering guys with 100 MPH anymore, he doesn’t need to blow it by you to strike you out now, and he doesn’t have to depend on his K pitches. He knows he can get you to roll over to JJ Hardy, or pop up to Chris Davis, that shows the maturity in him and that he actually is trusting himself and his stuff. God damnit, he’s fun to watch this season. He’s great to watch at home especially, he’s 4-1 with a 2.23 ERA, 27 Ks, 8 BB, 10 ER in 6 starts, and a WHIP of 1.017. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, thank god for Dylan Bundy. Orioles held on for a 3-2 win despite a late Aaron Judge home run.
Game 2 went the Yankees way, and it was over quick. Chris Tillman hadn’t given up a home run to anyone in the Yankees lineup his entire career, until his third pitch. Brett Gardner laced one into right for an early lead, and quickly after that, Matt Holliday deposited one into left. Gardner and Holliday both hit a pair of home runs, and Luis Severeno got his fourth win by absolutely shutting down the Orioles. He went 6 1/3, giving up 1 run, 6 hits, striking out 8, while only walking 1. This guy has the stuff to be an ace for the Yankees for years to come, scary to see how much young talent they have. Chris Tillman was just garbage, and I know that this is still early in the season for him because of the injury,but he was bad. He also didn’t look like himself. His fastball velocity was down yet again, which is never a good sign for any pitcher, let alone a guy coming off a shoulder injury in the offseason. This was his shortest outing of the year, only lasting 2 2/3 innings. Yankees cruised to an 8-3 win that didn’t even seem that close.
Everything was in the Orioles favor in Game 3, Adam Jones was back after missing the previous four games with hip and ankle injuries, and made his presence known against Masahiro Tanaka. Jones went 3-5 with an RBI double that banged off the top of the wall, a three-run homer, and an RBI infield single. Goes to show that a little rest can heal those banged up 32-year old bones of his. That was all the offense the Orioles would need behind Kevin Gausman. Gausman got himself in some jams, but was able to wiggle out of it with minimal damage. Eight hits over 5 1/3 IP, 4 K, 5 BB, and only 2 earned runs, so the Yankees had their chances, they just couldn’t seal the deal. O’s pulled away 10-4 to win yet another series against New York.
My one big take away from the series was how much I like Aaron Judge. That gigantic redwood looking dude is a freak. And it stinks that he will haunt my dreams and will probably hit a million homers at Camden over the next 15 years. My favorite thing is how he makes big people look like not so big people.
Boston arrives for a four game set, and the Orioles welcomed them by taking the first game of the series, 7-5. This only looks like a close game on paper because of the Jackie Bradley Jr three-run homer in the ninth and the other garbage run the Sox got off of Mike Wright. The O’s peppered Eduardo Rodriguez pretty good with their four dongs on the night. Mark Trumbo got it started in the first with a tw0-run homer, Chris Davis joined the party with a solo shot, Adam Jones also had a solo shot, and Jonathan Schoop ended the homer parade with a three-run moonshot in the 6th. Wade Miley was just fantastic tonight too, you take away the second innings where he had 30-some pitches, and he would have been cruising into the 8th or 9th looking for a complete game. He did a great job of limiting Boston’s runners, only giving up five hits and one walk, while striking out three. Here is a fun fat for you, Wade Miley has an ERA of 2.83, that is pretty good, folks. Nice to start the series off with a win, especially with the big guns that the Sox have lined up next.
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Friday, June 2nd vs Boston- Alec Asher (1-3 3.77) vs Rick Porcello (3-6 4.21)
Saturday, June 3rd vs Boston- Dylan Bundy (6-3 2.89) vs David Price (0-0 5.40)
Sunday, June 4th vs Boston- Chris Tillman (1-2 5.87) vs Chris Sale (6-2 2.77)
Bundy vs Price on Saturday should be an unrealllll matchup, even if Price did get knocked around in his season debut earlier this week. Chris Sale was also banged up against the White Sox, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up to see with back-to-back bad starts, hopefully he decides not to headhunt this game, and we can get through this Boston series with no fireworks.