Bird Watching - Orioles Fall Out Of First Place, They Also Struck Out A Million Times This Week With Everyone Slumping
The Orioles stink right now, no other way to say it. After their second 7 game win streak of the season, they’ve gone 3-7 in their last 10. The Orioles followed the Angels series win with a pathetic series against the Astros. These aren’t the Astros of last season, these are the Lastros, and the O’s laid an egg. They had a chance to win a series against a last place team, keep pace with Boston, and then head to Cleveland for a 3 game set, but they got swept. This Astros series was some of the most frustrating baseball I’ve watched all season, it’s the curse of Brian Matusz. Bad news is they have their first 4 game losing streak of the season, good news is they are still 26-19, only 2 games behind Boston for first place.
The Orioles Struckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk Out A Lot Vs Houston….
What the hell is going on? Have any of these guys ever seen a breaking ball? Every “k” up there represents a strikeout from the Astros series. I’m not sure why they decided now was a good time to have troubles with the curve. I’ve never seen a team strike out at the pace they have over the past 6 games. In those games they have struck out 7, 13, 8, 19, 18, and 15 times, that is 80 times in 6 games and 52 times in 3 games. 52!!!. 10 of the Ks from last night’s 15 were off curveballs. It was like watching a JV team try and hit the varsity starter, just embarrassing. Just for reference, they scored 21 runs over that same 6 game span. For a major league team, that is unbelievable, no other way to describe it. Time for the O’s to burn a certain statue in Adam’s locker.
Even before their 15 strikeout game last night, they were only 13th in the league in Ks. Prior to this disgusting stretch they had been keeping the Ks down, which is not what you expect from a big power hitting team. Their 49th K of the Houston series set the MLB record for most punchers in a series, breaking the Nationals record of 47. I thought this offense could set records, but I didn’t think it would be this one. Lets look at how these Ks were spread out in the series…
Chris Davis (8 Ks), Manny Machado (4), Pedro Alvarez (6), Ryan Flaherty (2), Paul Janish (1), Adam Jones (7),Caleb Joseph (1), Hyun-Soo Kim (1), Nolan Reimold (2), Joey Rickard (3), Jonathan Schoop (5), Mark Trumbo (7), Matt Dieters (5). If you had an at-bat against Houston this week, you got punched out.
The only two guys hitting during the series were Matt Wieters, who is quietly putting together a pretty impressive year, and Hyun-Soo Kim. Kim went 5-7 with a walk in the series, nice to see Buck giving him back-to-back starts. If no one else wants to hit, why not throw Kim in there more?
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The Big Dogs Are Slumping
Everyone goes through slumps, very rarely do 5 or 6 guys slump at the same time. That is what is happening right now with the O’s. Easy to see why the O’s are struggling in their last 10 games, take a look at some of these numbers from their big boys.
Manny Machado- 7/36 (.194), 3 Hr, 10 BB, 12 Ks
Adam Jones- 5/41 (.121), 0 HR, 3 BB, 11 Ks
Chris Davis- 5/37 (.135), 1 HR, 7 BB, 17 Ks
Mark Trumbo- 7/42 (.166), 3 HR, 2 BB, 15 Ks
Not ideal when your 2,3,4, and 5 hitters are struggling like this. Hard to win ballgames when the middle of the order can’t hit and is striking out a ton. These guys start hitting again, and the O’s will be back in business.
Upcoming Schedule
@ Cleveland Indians (25-20)
Friday 5/28 Mike Wright (2-3 4.97) vs Trevor Bauer (3-2 4.31)
Saturday 5/29 Ubaldo Jimenez (2-5 6.04) vs Danny Salazar (4-2 2.32)
Sunday 5/30 Chris Tillman (6-1 2.61) vs Mike Clevinger (0-1 8.71)
Vs Boston Red Sox (29-18)
Monday 5/31 Tyler Wilson (2-3 3.80) vs Steven Wright (4-4 2.52)
Tuesday 6/1 Kevin Gausman (0-2 3.24) vs Clay Buchholz (2-5 6.35)
Wednesday 6/2 Mike Wright (2-3 4.97) vs Joe Kelly (2-0 5.28)
Thursday 6/3 Ubaldo Jimenez (2-5 6.04) vs Rick Porcell0 (7-2 3.47)
Getting this Cleveland series would be perfect, gain some ground on the Red Sox before they come to town. That is a big series that the O’s need to at least split. It looks like they will miss Price, so that’s good. A split of that series is necessary if they want to keep this race interesting heading into June.