After a less-than-ideal first week that saw the team lose four in a row after a tense Opening Day win, much of Birdland was about to jump off the nearest bridge. A stellar performance from Chris Tillman on Sunday – where he outdueled Justin Verlander – was enough to stop the bleeding and restore some sense of non-panic to O’s fans.
Let’s try to remember who we’ve played so far: the 2013 ALCS participants. Our record doesn’t look good, and our statistics look even worse, but we won’t be playing the Tigers and Red Sox all year long. Things will improve.
Another piece of good news: no AL East team got off to a hot start, as right now the Tampa Bay Rays have the division’s best record at 4-3. Toronto and Boston join the O’s at 2-4, while the Yankees are 3-3. Nobody got off to an early lead.
Now though, things are about to get mighty interesting very quickly. The O’s next 16 games are all against American League East opponents.
Starting today (at 1:05, mind you) with three in New York, followed by a six-game homestand against Toronto and Tampa, followed by another road trip to Boston (for four) and Toronto, the O’s have a chance to really get off to the right start in divisional play.
Or, of course, the wrong start.
Let’s use our old friend James Van Der Beek to look at how O’s fans could be feeling come April 25.
If the Birds win between 13-16 games during the stretch:
If they win 10-12:
If they win 7-9:
If they win 5-6:
If they win 0-4:
Let’s go Birds. Don’t make James Van Der Beek (or us) sad!
gifs via James Van Der Memes
