It was only 11 days ago that I wrote “The Sky Is Not Falling.” That was immediately after a six-game losing streak that had a lot of people jumping off the bandwagon.
Well, as I tried to tell you in my previous article, the sky is not falling and it’s time for you to back away from the ledge and stick with this team through thick and thin.
Two nights ago, the Orioles were down 6-2 at home against the Nationals. It didn’t look good after Ryan Zimmerman hit his third home run of the night. But “something magic happened”… and the Orioles came back to take the win. Last night, Freddy Garcia had his best pitching performance since September 2006. As Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun said, “Manny Machado was 14 then.”
The Orioles are 14-13 in May. Even if they lose tonight, they will have a .500 month. Since September 2011, the Orioles have only had one losing month (July 2012). Did you realize that? For a season and a half now, the Orioles have been a winning team.
Yes, they have gone through rough spots. But that’s the nice thing about baseball. 162 games is a LONG season, and during that season every single team will go through rough stretches.
Right now, the O’s are 30-24… same exact record they had at this time last year, through 54 games. They are only 2.5 games back in the AL East.
Now some will say, “yea but their pitching isn’t what it needs to be”. To that I say, “It doesn’t have to be!” When you hit like the O’s are, the pitching just needs to not be terrible.
Check this out. The Orioles lead every team in Major League Baseball in six major offensive categories. They have the most Home Runs in baseball (75). They lead baseball in doubles (122). They have the most hits (522) and total bases (879) of any team. They also have the best slugging percentage (.464) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.795) in all of baseball. Not only that, but they are second in the majors in runs, RBIs, and batting average. Plus, the first five hitters in the Orioles lineup are all batting over .300.
When you are hitting that well as a team, you can survive shaky pitching outings… as the Orioles have.
That’s not to say that their pitching staff doesn’t need to get better, because it does. But the point is, as fans, we need to sit back and enjoy the ride. Camden Yards was hopping the last couple of nights. We need to keep it that way. Like Adam Jones, we need to stay positive and ride along with this team through the ups and downs of a long season.
The Orioles are a winning team and they are here to stay. So back away from the ledge, hop on the winning bandwagon and enjoy the ride.
3 Responses
Great stats here. It’s been a lot of fun watching the Birds this year. Keep it up guys!
I think there are issues that could really hurt us later in the season still such as Starting Pitching. We do have a few injuries that aren’t helping us at the moment. Johnson is starting to pitch better after the four blown saves. Starting Pitching wins championships. That is our biggest weakness at the moment. The thing is no one is perfect at this point in the season.
I’m always gonna be a O’s fan no matter what! I went to my first game as an 11yo kid in ’83 and have been hooked ever since. I’m glad to see Jim J have a solid outing the other night after some shaky outings. It’s easy to get discouraged if we see a small losing streak as 14 years of disappointment will do that to even the most optimistic fan. The difference now is Buck, a pretty solid pitching staff(as compared to years past) as well as an offense ANY team in MLB would love to have. Let’s keep it going fellas! Go O’s!! #stayhungry