First-Inning Frowns in Birdland

So here we are…

Another evening switching over to MASN to watch our beloved Orioles.

So here we are…

Another evening switching the station from MASN because the starting pitcher can’t even get us out of the first inning competitively.

Sounds very familiar, right?

Thursday night, switching the station over to a Seinfeld episode I’ve seen 100 times made me wonder just how many times this year all of us in Birdland out there have made this early switch to “more rewarding programming options.”

I’m just going to dig back into this season, as it could get very ugly if I go much longer.

We consistently have these discussions in Birdland – about how horrific our rotation has been – and it realistically depresses me to think what could have been with just an average rotation the last four or five years.

I know there are many of you out there that share the same feeling – “do I really want to know the stats?”

Please don’t try this at home.

My stomach started to turn as I scrolled through the early box scores…”wow what a start, what promise, what HAPPENED?!?!?!”

Here is what I was able to find, and I’m sure it does not surprise you…

The numbers do not favor the Birds. I looked at every game this season in which the O’s were down in the first inning, looked at how many runs they were down, then went on to see the outcome of the game.

43 times the O’s have come up to bat in the bottom of the 1^st inning or the top of the 2^nd down on the scoreboard.

So with 15 games left, that is already a quarter of the games in which they spotted the other team and were playing from behind.

The O’s went 13-30 in these games (.300 %). The average number of runs they were down throughout all 43 of the games was 2.4. The average runs scored in the losses rises a little bit to 2.7.

I would imagine if I dug into it a little deeper and looked further into the games when the Birds were down first in later innings, the loss numbers would continue to rise.

We know that scoring first gives a team a slight advantage. However, my point is that there were far too many times this season that this team put themselves in a hole.

Being down changes the entire game and approach, and it is obviously not in the trailing team’s favor.

I’ve had season tickets for years and I’m a die-hard. I love this team, this manager, this organization.

I just do not understand the strategy from the very top to continue to throw these AAA(A)-level arms on the hill and consistently put the team at very telling disadvantage.

As we suffer through these last couple games and think “what could have been,” we look ahead and know that there are enormous decisions to be made this offseason.

Let’s hope they understand the root cause of being behind early in so many games – the dismal starting pitching – and finally address it in earnest.

submitted by Andrew Stoner