The Orioles find themselves in a very familiar position after last week’s games: Right in the hunt in the tough AL East. The Birds came up with a pair of series victories over AL Central teams to up their mark to 23-15 this season.
That marks three straight series wins for the O’s and seven out of the last eight. All this team does is win each series, and let’s be honest, if you win two out of three each time out, you’ll end up with about 106 or 107 wins at the end of the year. It’s a good formula to say the least. No one is saying these O’s will go out and win 100+ games this year. Troubled times will come about eventually. By the looks of the current rotation and injury situation those times could even be soon.
Wei-Yin Chen exited Sunday’s start with what the team is calling a right oblique injury. An oblique is almost always something that requires a stint on the disabled list. We’ll play wait and see with Chen. The shuffling of the deck in the rotation is something the Orioles are used to.
If Jair Jurrjens has to come up from Norfolk to make a start, bring him up. If Steve Johnson’s name gets called again, throw him out there. Jake Arrieta doesn’t seem like an option anytime soon, which will be welcome news to some fans. Arrieta didn’t make his scheduled start for the Tides on Sunday because of a tender right shoulder. He’s reportedly been bothered by it for a few days.
Looking ahead this is a bit of an odd week for the Orioles because there are only five games in the next seven days. After an off day Monday, it’s two against the San Diego Padres. Another off day Thursday is followed by the Rays coming into town for a weekend series. Hopefully the two off days give the O’s a chance to get healthy after what seems like a brutal couple of weeks on the injury front.
The Padres looked like they might be something scary coming into town before they were swept at The Trop by Tampa Bay over the weekend. San Diego had won four straight and 11 out of 14 going into that series. They feature a few strong bats in Chase Headley and Carlos Quentin, but not a ton to hang their hat on otherwise.
We all know what the Rays bring to the table. The O’s have already taken two out of three in a pair of series from Tampa this year and are 9-6 against the AL East overall. One of the biggest differences in the Rays from last year to this year thus far has been their bullpen. While O’s relievers continue to perform at a very high level (posting the best bullpen ERA in the AL at 2.64), the Rays have struggled. Tampa Bay ranks 13th in the AL with a 4.52 bullpen ERA.
This long home stand is a great chance for fans to get out to The Yards and see this club at work. Go do it! Give this team your backing by showing up and being loud and proud at Oriole Park. Do it for those of us, myself included, who don’t live in the area and can’t do it. Let’s get those attendance numbers even higher and prove once again that Baltimore can be a great baseball town.
As I look around at the rest of the league, I realize that the Texas Rangers are not only playing good baseball, but are out to a six-game lead in the AL West. That’s by far the biggest lead for any first-place team in a division. There isn’t another team above the .500 mark in the AL West either. Compare that to the fact that four out of the five teams in the AL East are above .500 and three out of five are above that mark in the AL Central with Minnesota right there at 17-17.
It really amazes me how tough the AL East has become over the first 35+ games of the season. Everyone thought it would be a division that was up for grabs, but I’m not sure anyone pegged it as being this difficult. The O’s find themselves just a game back of the Yankees. It’s something to be proud of to this point.
While I’m on the Yankees, let me do something that is very uncomfortable and unlike me — give them props. How on Earth are the Yanks in first place? Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira all out with injuries. No problem. Mariano Rivera coming off knee surgery at his age. Not an issue. Nick Swisher and Russell Martin leaving via free agency. Don’t miss them. New York continues to impress after sweeping the Royals this weekend. Luckily for the O’s, they get a crack at them at Oriole Park in a week.
It also might be time to do our own “Mark Reynolds Watch” here on the weekly Bird’s Eye View. Everyone’s favorite sheriff is still tearing things up over there in Cleveland. Reynolds is tied for the AL lead in homers along with Toronto’s Edwin Encarnacion and our very own Chris Davis with 11 on the year. He’s also hitting a very strong .291 and actually has two less strikeouts than Davis does.
I’m not here to compare Mark Reynolds to Chris Davis, because Davis would be getting his playing time either at first base or in the DH spot no matter what. I will compare Reynolds though, to someone like Nolan Reimold, who’s taken the bulk of the starts as the Orioles designated hitter. Reimold, to compare, is hitting .188 with four homers and nine RBI. He has only six fewer strikeouts than Reynolds does as well.
I know there are a lot of people who were fine with seeing Mark Reynolds go. I’m not in that camp. I would’ve loved to see the guy fit somewhere in the lineup. Can you imagine, as well as the O’s are playing and producing offensively, if they had THAT bat going for them also? I know I can.
Time for a shameless plug alert: I’ll be making my now weekly appearance on “The Coach’s Buzz” tonight on CBS Sports Radio 1300 in Baltimore at 7:15. You can listen online at Radio.com or at coachbuzz.net. I’ll join the guys each week at that time to talk about the Orioles.
ORIOLES PLAYER OF THE WEEK
3B – Manny Machado: The boy wonder continues to dazzle with the bat. Machado has three straight three-hit games and batted .444 last week. He continues to drive the ball to all fields and has upped his average on the season to .331. Let’s all just sit back and continue to be amazed at what this kid does. It’s really quite special.
AMERICAN LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
3B – Evan Longoria (TB): The always consistent Evan Longoria really started to heat up this week. Longoria hit .464 with three homers and 11 RBI. He slugged .964 in seven games and now has his season batting average up to .333 with nine homers and an OPS of 1.012.
NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
1B – Paul Goldschmidt (ARI): If you haven’t heard of Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt, now’s the time to start listening. Living here in Phoenix, I know first-hand he’s all anyone is talking about. “Goldy” hit .348 this week with four homers and nine RBI. He absolutely owned the Giants bullpen last week and is providing the pop in the order that the D-Backs are missing without Justin Upton.
