We all know that May was a rough month for the Orioles. In a month consisting of a horrid seven-game losing streak and a 3-13 skid, the Orioles finished the month with their worst record in a single month since they went 11-18 in August of 2015.
After posting a joint MLB-best 15-8 record in April, the Orioles ended the month of May with a 12-16 mark.
Still, even after going through their roughest skid in years, the Orioles (27-24) remain in the thick of the pennant chase as we approach the one-third mark of the season. The Yankees are just 3.5-games up at the top of the table, while the Red Sox own just a 1.5-game advantage over the Orioles for second place.
While letting an early-season grip on first place slip was disheartening, it’s in the past now. From here on out, it’s game on.
But before June baseball officially kicks off tonight versus Boston, let’s take a quick look back on the squad and see how they’re all trending.
We’ll kick this off with the positional players.
GulfBird Sports/Craig Landefeld
Positional Players
– Welington Castillo: After coming back from a nagging neck injury in mid-May, Castillo exploded back onto the scene with a .320 average, three homers and eleven RBI in just 12 games. However, Castillo is now back on the DL with a ”groin” injury. Get well soon, Welington!
Stock: Up
– Caleb Joseph: Joseph filled in superbly while Castillo was sidelined with a neck ailment earlier this month and finished the month of May with an impressive .277 average, six doubles, one homer and eight RBI over 19 games. He’ll look to keep his bounce-back season going in June now that Castillo is sidelined again.
Stock: Up
– Chris Davis: While off-key for most of the month, Davis ended the month with eight homers and 16 RBI. He also hit just .222 and struck out 46 times in 99 at-bats. The Orioles need more from their big-money first baseman.
Stock: Down
– Jonathan Schoop: Schoop did go through a lengthy home run drought, but still ended the month with a respectable .263 average, two home runs and eight RBI to go along with a whopping ten doubles.
Stock: Up
– J.J. Hardy: Hardy put a nightmare month of April behind him by posting a decent .240 average to go with three doubles, two homers and eleven RBI in May. He’s still steady at shortstop, though his range has clearly declined.
Stock: Even
– Manny Machado: Machado will not look back on May of 2017 fondly. While the Orioles superstar ended the month with five doubles, six homers and twelve RBI, he hit a dreadful .191 at the plate and struck out 31 times to just six walks in 115 at-bats. Hopefully Machado will start to heat up with the summer months.
Stock: Down
–Seth Smith: A late-May skid derailed a stellar start to the month of May for the Orioles newcomer, but Smith still finished the month with a .289 average, two doubles, two homers, six RBI and a .345 OBP.
Stock: Up
–Adam Jones: Jonesy went through a roller coaster of a month. He started out the month on a wicked cold streak, then went on a seven-game hitting tear, picked up a knock that sidelined him for four games, and then came back to club a homer and post five RBI versus New York in his first game back. While he finished May with a lowly .228 average, he also posted five homers and 15 RBI.
Stock: Even
– Trey Mancini: Mancini kept his stellar rookie season going by hitting an incredible .342 at the plate with four doubles, two homers, 12 RBI and a .398 OBP over 22 games in May.
Stock: Up
– Mark Trumbo: Trumbo snapped into a red-hot run of form at the turn of the month and stayed there all month long. The O’s star slugger posted a stellar .324 average to go along with 21 runs, six doubles, five homers, 15 RBI and a .385 OBP. He was also the only player on the squad that stayed in the line-up for all of the 28 games in May.
Stock: Up
– Joey Rickard: While criticized for a few defensive miscues in centerfield, Rickard posed a solid .278 average along with three doubles, one homer, five RBI and a .316 OBP through 23 games last month.
Stock: Up-ish
–Hyun Soo Kim: Kim appeared in just eleven games this month for reasons unknown. He saw only 26 at-bats in May and hit .231.
Stock: Down (buy low candidate!)
Onto the pitchers:
GulfBird Sports/Craig Landefeld
Starters
– Dylan Bundy: Bundy continues to lead the way among Orioles starters, and it would be scary to imagine where the O’s would be without him this season. He finished the month of May with a 3-2 record and a 3.92 ERA over six starts.
Stock: Up
– Kevin Gausman: It would have been easy for Gausman to roll over this season after such a brutal month of April, but he showed true resilience this month by posting a solid 2-2 record and 4.30 ERA over six starts in May.
Stock: Up
– Chris Tillman: Tillman did not find his groove during his first month back with the squad and finished the month of May with a 1-2 record and an alarming 5.87 ERA, 1.87 WHIP and .323 BAA over five starts.
Stock: Down
– Wade Miley: Miley didn’t light it up like he did in April, but he still posted a solid 3.97 ERA over five starts in May despite going 0-2 in the box score.
Stock: Even
– Alec Asher: Asher supplanted Ubaldo Jimenez as the fifth starter in the rotation after a stellar run of form in the bullpen. While his last start against Houston didn’t go as planned, things are still looking up for the Orioles newcomer. He finished the month of May with a 4.37 ERA over nine games (two starts).
Stock: Even
GulfBird Sports/Craig Landefeld
Bullpen
– Brad Brach: It was an up-and-down month for the Orioles de facto star closer as he finished it with a 5.40 ERA over eleven appearances, but he still finished the month with a career-high six saves out of eight opportunities.
Stock: Even
– Mychal Givens: After struggling through the first half of May, Givens began to bounce back as the month rolled along and finished it with a 4.73 ERA over 13 contests.
Stock: Even
– Ubaldo Jimenez: He’s back in the bullpen after losing his spot in the rotation to Asher. Jimenez didn’t help his sky-high ERA by posting a 5.96 ERA over five games (three starts) in May.
Stock: Down
– Darren O’Day: After knocking off the rust of a lost season in April, O’Day was sensational through 11 appearances in May and finished the month with a stellar 1.64 ERA, 0.82 WHIP and a .158 BAA. The long-time fan and clubhouse favorite also racked up eighteen Ks in eleven innings.
Stock: Up
–Richard Bleier: Another Orioles newcomer, Bleier impressed after being called up in early May and has notched an impressive 2.84 ERA and 1.26 WHIP over his first nine games as an Oriole.
Stock: Up
Looking above, we see more ups than downs – so how does the team finish 12-16 in that case? Well, the downs are guys that the Birds are really counting on – Machado, Davis, Tillman – to lead the way. Some other guys may have turned it on, but with those three being so off their respective games, the margin of error was slim (lots of close losses), but too much to overcome on most nights.
Here’s to those three righting the ship, and the supporting cast continuing to do their part.
