O's Get Back On The Right Track By Beating White Sox, In First Place at 13-8
It hasn’t been pretty the past few weeks for the Birds. Including last night’s win over Chicago, they are 6-8 in their last 14. It didn’t help that while the Red Sox got to beat up on the Braves, the O’s took on three of the best pitching staffs in the league. Despite that and even with the offense going cold and scoring four runs or less in 9 of the last 11 games, they still hold a 1.5 game lead over Boston, and that’s a pretty solid way to end the month of April.
Offense Struggling…..Or Is It?
I know that this is baseball, and slumps happen, but this O’s slump was baaaaad. Normally they wait until late June or August to slump like this. At one point the offense went 30 innings and only scored one run. Yes, this big powerful offense full of mashers, managed one run, not pretty when everyone slumps at once. As I mentioned before, they went through a stretch where they scored four of less 9 out of 11 times, not the best gameplan to score that little against these big boys. Before last night’s 10-2 win, no one could hit, everyone was slumping, and even with Manny going three games without a hit, Rickard being stuck in a terrible slump, Davis, Jones, and Schoop all looking lost at the dish, listen to these numbers.
Chris Davis and Manny Machado both have 7 home runs, Mark Trumbo has 6, Schoop has 3, Joey freaking Rickard and J.J. Hardy have 2, Jones and Wieters stuck on 1 each, And Pedro Alvarez hasn’t even gone yard yet. This team will hit, the runs will be there, but with this go big or go home home run hitting group, these droughts will come. Turbo is still among the league leaders in batting average at .354, Manny is right there at .333, Rickard at .295. but then you have guys like Adam Jones (.217), Johnathan Schoop (.208), Chris Davis (.221) and Wieters (.224). I’m not worried about Jones or Davis, they will bounce back. Schoop is young and going through a 3 for 30 something slump, he needs to bounce back soon.
Will Trumbo, a career .253 hitter, continue to hit 100 points higher than right now? Probably not. Will Manny continue to hit around .330? He could, like I’ve written every week, he’s going to be an MVP candidate at the end of the year, and may be bringing his game to another level, which is scary to think about.
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As a team, they are close to the top in total home runs (31), 11th in RBI (90), 21st in walks (62), seventh in average (.269), seventh in OBP (.329), fourth in slugging (.458) and surprisingly, middle of the pack in strike outs with 172. Bottom line is not to worry about them. The big guys are going to keep on hitting, and the guys who aren’t producing will bounce back, that is a guarantee. It’s only going to get warmer at Camden Yards, those balls will be flying out of there in no time.
Bullpen Doing Work
Studs. All of them. You know the big names like Darren O’Day (0.00 ERA 1-0 1 Save 12 K in 7.2 IP) and Zach Britton (2.16 ERA 5 Saves). But lets start to talk about Brad Brach. This may be Duquette’s best deal he’s made. He basically got a guy with an ERA of 0.68 in 13.1 IP, with 14 K, 4 hits, letting batters hit .095 and a 2-0 record for a bucket of balls. He’s been great for them out of the pen this year, a real weapon that not many people outside of Baltimore know. He needs some props.
Dylan Bundy is still cruising along, arm still attached, and throwing in the mid-90s. He;s been pretty good this year, has had one bad outing against Kansas City last week, and I liked that Buck let him sit in there and take his bruises from them, think it will help him down the line. Mychal Givens has looked better as of late, and is striking people out at an insane rate, 19 ks in 11 innings pitched. If he can learn a strikeout pitch and learn how to attack lefties, he can be an elite level shut down reliever in the game. Brian Matusz came back, and immediately loaded the bases in a crucial situation. Welcome back….
Much like the Sox and Yankees, the O’s have a very good bullpen, and if they have a lead after 6 or 7, it is going to be tough to beat them.
Cal Ripken Divorce
I’m not even sure why this is news? I didn’t blog about yesterday when it broke, for a few reasons. This has been a known thing around the area for years, literally years. This wasn’t a surprise at all. It is weird, just because you remember seeing Cal give her a kiss through the net at 2131, I saw her last September at a game, and she still looks smoking hot. Almost like they were the first couple of Baltimore. But it is their private life, and there is no reason any of us need to dig our noses into it. I’m talking to you Costner, you keep your filthy mitts off Kelly Ripken, if you had anything to do with this, you’ll pay.
Upcoming
Friday 4/29 vs White Sox Mike Wright (1-2 6.23) vs Carlos Rodon (1-2 4.05)
Saturday 4/30 vs White Sox Kevin Gausman (0-1 1.80) vs Mat Latos (4-0 0.74)
Sunday 5/1 vs White Sox Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2 3.91) vs Chris Sale ( 5-0 1.66)
Tuesday 5/3 vs Yankees Chris Tillman (2-1 3.24) vs Luis Severino (0-3 6.86)
Wednesday 5/4 vs Yankees Tyler Wilson (1-0 3.06) vs CC Sabathia (1-2 5.06)
Thursday 5/5 Yankees Mike Wright (1-2 6.32) vs Masahiro Tanaka (1-0 2.92)
Big weekend with Latos and Sale back to back, and then big division games vs the Yanks. O’s need to get hot and stay hot, Boston is nipping away at our divisional lead.