REALITY: The Orioles led the league in home runs in 2014, and currently lead the league in 2015.
PERCEPTION: The Orioles may have as many wins as they have losses, but it’s not because of their offense. Everyone was worried about the loss of Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis and how the team would recover their offense. Well, that has not been a problem at all. Travis Snider has filled in nicely for Markakis, so stat-wise they cancel each other out. Yes, Cruz’s numbers are not easy to duplicate, but so far Adam Jones, Jonathan Schoop, Alejandro De Aza, and Steve Pearce have each hit two home runs. Seven total players have home runs, even with Delmon Young and Manny Machado having zero. It shows that this team doesn’t need one guy hitting them all, because they have many players who can produce runs.
Hitting home runs is great, but once you get to the postseason, when pitching becomes so much better, then you need to find other ways to win ballgames. You need to find ways to score without the long ball, and you need to have shut down pitching.
The Orioles had that shut down pitching last season, but so far, that is really missing. The Orioles team ERA is 4.50 right now. Five pitchers have an ERA over 5.00. Granted, it is very early, but that is the biggest area of needed improvement. The Birds have lost games in which they’ve scored seven and five runs. If you score seven runs, you should not lose.
REALITY: Outside of Zach Britton, Ubaldo Jimenez and Brian Matusz have been the team’s best pitchers so far.
PERCEPTION: It is some sort of a strange world we live in. Most Orioles fans wanted Jimenez to be cut, or at least relegated to the bullpen, while they wanted Matusz shipped off to the Mets or some other team in a trade.
But after the first two series of the season, Jimenez is your best starter while Matusz pitched very well Sunday. I am not complaining because the better those two pitch, the better it is for the Orioles.
REALITY: Jose Bautista is 5-for-15 with four home runs and 8 RBI’s against Darren O’Day.
PERCEPTION: Orioles manager Buck Showalter is, in my opinion, the best manager in baseball. And he is old-school. He goes with all the stats and match-ups. So the fact that he let O’Day pitch to Bautista Sunday afternoon was a head scratcher.
That is not what cost the Orioles the game, but with a lot of arms in the bullpen that haven’t seen much action yet, it seemed like a time to make a change. But Buck knows best, so we’ll let it go. How about we just not pitch to him next time?
REALITY: The Orioles started 1-4 last season and won the American League East title.
PERCEPTION: The O’s are 3-3 after two series this year, so let’s not freak out yet. It’s amazing to me the “sky is falling” type of responses you see on social media. It is a long season. They are 3-3 so far, and scored seven and five runs in two of their losses. They just need to stay over .500 through the first half of the season, and especially in the division. Let’s remember, the Orioles were 28-27 on June 1st last year. They are just fine. Keep your head up and let’s beat up the Yankees.
