I’m just going to come out and say it after watching the Orioles this week — I’m disappointed in a 3-3 record.
Sure, going on the road to two division rivals and splitting two series shouldn’t all be bad, but a win in New York on Sunday night would have looked REALLY nice for the resume. Imagine for a second if the O’s had put something together, anything at all, off Hiroki Kuroda on Sunday night. That would have made road series victories against Tampa Bay, Boston and New York all in the first two full weeks of the season. That’d be nice to boast about.
Instead it’s a second straight 3-3 week for Baltimore to sit at 6-6 overall on the year. Not all bad, but it’s taken a lot for this team to get to that point. Let’s go back to the thrilling way the Orioles won last Wednesday when they came back on Red Sox closer Joel Hanrahan. Manny Machado’s three-run homer sent the O’s to a feel-good win, but it took that huge effort just to get a three-game series victory in Boston. I’d like to see a lot more consistency from a lot of areas going forward.
It’d be nice to get the bats going for starters. Aside from the flurry of runs against the Red Sox late in that Wednesday night game, and beating up on Phil Hughes on Saturday, the O’s scored three or less runs in four of their six games this week. Sunday’s five-hit performance punctuated that. Even in the win over the Yankees against Hughes, the Orioles hit three homers and had just five runs.
The starting pitching still needs to get moving too. The O’s are just 11th in the American League when it comes to starters ERA and have only a 3-4 record. When you take the starters out of the equation, Baltimore’s overall team ERA jumps to fourth in the AL. Starting pitching can’t rely on late-inning rallies and a stout bullpen for much longer.
And for the love of everything holy, can we get something going from the designated hitter position? Orioles DH’s are hitting a trim .077 this year, good for last in the AL for sure. O’s DH’s are also second in strikeouts, trailing only the lowly Astros. Nolan Reimold, Steve Pearce, whoever else — get your act in gear.
The positive for the Orioles is that they finally get to come home. Lots of the players have been quoted as saying they don’t feel like they’ve been home since the start of spring training, despite playing three games against the Twins at OPACY thus far. Being on the road hasn’t treated the O’s THAT poorly so far either as they have a 5-4 record.
Coming up this week, the O’s play the Rays for three games before welcoming the LA Dodgers to town for the first interleague series of the year. I’d love to see them get two-of-three from each series. Tampa Bay lost twice over the weekend to Boston after a rainout Friday. The two sides play again this morning for Patriots Day in Boston. The Dodgers could be coming down from an emotional series as they meet the Padres this week after that brawl in San Diego last week.
As we take a look around the rest of Major League Baseball, we see that the Atlanta Braves are still tearing it up in the National League. The Braves chopped their way through Washington, DC over the weekend, completing a sweep of the Nationals and moving to a MLB-best 11-1 record. Atlanta’s won nine straight and people shouldn’t be handing the NL East crown over to Strasburg, Harper and the Nats just yet. I know it’s early, but the Braves seem to own the gang in DC and will be a force throughout the year.
Last week’s brawl in San Diego between the Dodgers and Padres reminded me of a few things. First of all, baseball fights are always in a way, hilarious. You see a bunch of grown men wearing tight pants and caps running from two sides of the field towards an undetermined part of the middle of the diamond and once they get there, no one is quite sure what to do. Do I hit this guy? Should I punch him? Well, he looks much bigger than me, let’s dive at this guy and see what happens. It’s all very childish in a sense too.
The other thing the brawl reminded me of is that you shouldn’t overpay pitchers like Zack Greinke. The guy will miss at least eight weeks now because of a broken collarbone, and let’s be honest, he might not be right after this. I’ve personally never broken my collarbone, but I know a number of people who have and it can’t be easy to go back to being a high-class pitcher after something like that. It’s a real shame for the Dodgers. That being said, anyone who thinks Carlos Quentin’s suspension should have coincided with Greinke’s injury needs to be hit in the head like a few of those guys were. You can’t open that can of worms. It makes no logical sense!
Moving on to something that jumped out at me earlier last week — New dimensions in Seattle and San Diego could be seeing early offensive results. Both the Mariners and Padres decided to change things up in their home ballparks going into this season, moving the outfield fences in. In the early going, I’ve taken notice. The balls have been flying out of each park thus far.
Let’s start in Seattle, where the Mariners played all seven days this past week at Safeco Field with three against the Astros followed by four with the Rangers. The week was highlighted by Tuesday’s 16-9 slugfest won by Houston in which a total of eight home runs were hit. The park saw 61 runs scored in it with 17 homers leaving the stadium throughout the week.
In San Diego, the Friars played six games at Petco Park this week against the Dodgers and Rockies. While the results weren’t flattering for the home team, the ball was flying out of the yard. A total of 53 runs were scored in the six contests and 16 home runs were hit in that span. Just as a note to O’s fans, the Birds play three in Seattle later this month and do hit San Diego for two games in August.
Time will tell if these two stadiums see a long term jump in offensive production, but so far it looks like pitchers need to be a little more weary when they step on these mounds.
Orioles Player of the Week
3B – Manny Machado: Manny Machado’s three-run homer to beat the Red Sox last week might have been enough to give him this honor, but the young third baseman is heating up in all parts of his game too. After a slightly slow start, Manny hit .320 last week continues to impress with the glove at the hot corner. Let’s hope Machado can keep getting on base for guys like Adam Jones and Chris Davis to drive him in.
American League Player of the Week
2B – Robinson Cano (NYY): It hurts a bit to say this, but Robinson Cano is on my fantasy baseball team and definitely helped me to a win this past week. Cano clubbed three homers and drove in eight all while hitting .500 for the Bronx Bombers. Seven of his 11 hits during the week were for extra bases. It’s an understatement to say Cano is a stellar ballplayer.
National League Player of the Week
C – John Buck (NYM): The Mets catcher had a very powerful week at the dish. Buck bashed four homers and drove in 10 runs in just five games after the Mets were snowed out yesterday in Minnesota. He’s hitting .317 thus far this season and has 19 RBI. He also gets a nod for helping young pitcher Matt Harvey to a brilliant outing on Saturday in which he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning.
Rest up and enjoy the off day, Orioles fans.
And be sure to get your taxes done too!
Go O’s!
