After dropping the first game of a three-game set against the Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 4-3 on Tuesday night, the O’s rallied to take the last two games of the inaugural series of the season against their AL East foe.
By taking two of three against the Jays, the first place O’s now stand at 10-4 on the season and have earned themselves a 3.5-game advantage on Toronto, Boston, and Tampa Bay in the division as of Thursday night. The O’s are now 6-2 overall and 3-0 in series against the AL East to start the year, and have won four of their first five sets overall.
And if that wasn’t enough, the O’s are now 7-1 in front of the O’s faithful at Camden Yards to begin the 2016 campaign.
After dropping their fourth game in five on Tuesday, the O’s squandered an early 3-0 lead on Wednesday night to force extra innings before a wild two-out rally in the bottom of the tenth inning resulted in Caleb Joseph scoring the Orioles first-ever walk-off passed ball in club history in a 4-3 O’s win.
In the series rubber match on Thursday, the O’s rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to take their first lead of the game on an RBI single by Manny Machado in the eighth inning to make the score 3-2 O’s, which Zach Britton would lock up in the ninth to send the fans home smiling. Ballgame, and your O’s are still flying high going into their three-game set against the world champion Royals in Kansas City.
But before the O’s catch their flight to the Midwest, let’s take a look at a few takeaways from the series against Toronto:
– Other than the Nationals Bryce Harper, is there any other player in MLB hotter than Manny Machado? The 23-year-old third baseman was phenomenal all series long against the Jays, finishing 6-for-12 with three doubles, two runs, one home run and four RBI. Along with extending his MLB-best 14 game hitting streak with an RBI single in the first inning on Thursday, Machado is now hitting .452 with ten runs, seven doubles, three home runs, and seven RBI in his last ten games. Baltimore’s chosen one is now hitting an AL-leading .407 with 13 runs scored, five homers, nine RBI and a stellar .462 OBP on the year.
– If he keeps this up, can we start calling him Joey ‘’ROY’’ Rickard? The 24-year-old rookie went 7-for-14 with three runs, one double, and recorded his first career stolen base against the Blue Jays. Rickard has now reached base in all fourteen games this season, with only one of those games coming without a hit, along with six multi-hit games on the year. Rickard also has a six game hitting streak going into the KC series, and is 11-for-29 (.379 avg) with four runs, three doubles and one RBI during that span. On the year, the former Rays prospect owns a remarkable .350 average with seven runs, five doubles, one homer, four RBI and a .359 OBP. The Vegas kid is on fire!
– Mark Trumbo didn’t hit a bomb against the Jays, but he did finish the series 3-for-10 and has extended his hitting streak to six games. The 30-year-old slugger went 7-for-22 (.318) with three homers and six RBI during that span, and now owns a sparkling .370 average with five homers, eleven RBI and a .414 OBP on the year.
– Matt Wieters is starting to heat up lately (And literally on Thursday night), and has a five-game hitting streak going into Kansas City. During that span, the 29-year-old is hitting .352 (6-for-17) with one home run and four RBI, and now owns a .270 average with one homer, eight RBI and a .341 OBP in the early goings of 2016.
– Chris Davis drew a career-high four walks on Thursday, and is now tied for the MLB-lead in BB (15). The Texan is hitting .208 with 14 runs scored, five bombs, ten RBI and a stellar .397 OBP.
– Machado (1st- .407 avg), Trumbo (3rd- .370 avg) and Rickard (5th- .350 avg) now make up three of the AL’s top five leaders in batting average so far on the year. Ridiculous.
– Although it wasn’t always peaches and cream, the bullpen was still as effective as they’ve been all year versus Toronto. Over the three game series, the bullpen allowed two runs on six hits over eleven innings of work with seven walks and nine strikeouts, good for a 1.64 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP.
– In his two outings against the Jays, Darren O’Day allowed zero runs on zero hits over two innings with one walk and three K’s and still owns a perfect 0.00 ERA through his first 7.1 innings of 2016 with a 1.09 whip and 12 K’s. Forget a chant, this guy needs a statue built in his honor! And it will be placed in the O’s bullpen. Any thoughts?
– Zach Britton was also lights out against Toronto. In two outings, the star closer allowed zero runs on zero hits over two innings with zero walks and two strikeouts, and now owns a 1.29 ERA with a nasty 0.71 WHIP with four saves on the year.
– Hey, it wasn’t a beautiful display of starting pitching, but it was…better. And that’s a start, I guess. Mike Wright (6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) and Ubaldo Jimenez (5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K) battled through their starts admirably, and Chris Tillman (6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) was excellent after allowing 2 runs on 38 (!!!) pitches in the first inning on Thursday. Overall in the three-game set against the Blue Jays, the O’s starters allowed 7 runs on 15 hits over 17 innings with 10 walks and 14 strikeouts, good for a 3.68 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP.
Now it’s on to Kansas City to see if these O’s can hang with the champs…
More on that later.
