After struggling throughout the Yankees series and in the opener of the Athletics series, the Orioles offense woke up in the final two games of the weekend, highlighted by an 11-run outburst on Mother’s Day.
The inconsistency of the offense has been the biggest surprise this season, but they showed once again that they can flat out rake when everyone is clicking.
The O’s now have a seven-game stretch against teams that are struggling big time in the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers. This is a big opportunity for them to continue to rack up wins and see if they can stretch out their lead in the American League East.
MACHADO CONTINUES TO DOMINATE
The Orioles’ last developed superstar was Cal Ripken Jr. and it’s becoming likely that Manny Machado will finally be the next. I wrote after the first week of the season that one of my top headlines to follow this season was seeing if there was another level Machado could reach. At this point, he’s crushing that and showing he is one of the best players in all of baseball and if the Orioles continue to win, he will be a leading candidate to win AL MVP.
Machado isn’t running this year which was to be expected with the way this lineup has been constructed. He’s more than making up for that with his average, power and run production.
Like every player, there’s something for Machado to work on and that is improving on the road. As of now, Machado has a slash line of .425/.475/.863 with seven home runs and 19 RBIs at home compared to a slash line of .240/.296/.440 with two home runs and three RBIs on the road. Every great player needs to feel they have to work on something and that is probably priority number one for Machado right now.
JONES JUST CAN’T GET IT GOING
Adam Jones grounded into his league leading eighth double play on Sunday and now has a batting average of .200 with an OPS of .543. I still think Jones is dealing with the rib injury. At the very least, it has made him change his mechanics, and he hasn’t been able to correct them yet. Looking deeper into the stats, Jones is just not driving the ball, which we can all tell by watching him over the first month.
Jones has a ground ball percentage of 56 which is up from 45.8% in 2015. Jones’ line drive percentage is 10.7, a stat he has never dipped under 16%. The biggest indicator is Jones has a fly ball to home run ratio of 4.0%, which is down from 16.8% in 2015. Again, if you have watched Jones all season you know he isn’t driving the ball, but it’s crazy to see exactly how bad it has been.
LEE DOMINATING, BUT IS LACKING STRIKEOUTS
Chris Lee became a name to follow last season after being acquired from the Houston Astros. Lee’s velocity increased with the Orioles and the left-hander pitched extremely well between the Frederick Keys and Bowie Baysox. The 23-year-old was successful during spring training and has quickly become one of the Orioles top pitching prospects.
GulfBird Sports/Craig Landefeld
Lee hasn’t done anything to temper expectations this year as he has a 2.30 ERA and a WHIP of 0.89 in 31 1/3 innings for the Baysox. Here is my only concern and I admit, I am probably looking too much into it. Lee has only struck out 12 hitters all season and has a very low 3.4 strikeout per 9 rate.
Lee is probably pitching to contact, but with his stuff, you would think he would miss bats by accident. This is something I will continue to monitor as Lee is probably due for a promotion to Triple-A soon and there’s an outside chance he could pitch for the big league team this season.
