Did you know that in 2012 the Orioles never fell below .500? How crazy is that? Man, that season was so cool.
Back here in 2014, the O’s have completed their first series of the year, dropping two of three to the World Series champion Boston Red Sox. The Birds won a tight one on Opening Day, 2-1 then dropped the next two, 6-2 and 4-3. Interestingly, the bats haven’t quite heated up as much as I expected, at least in the first three games of the young season.
The Orioles are currently slashing .216/.248/.299 as a team. They currently rank 17th in batting average, 26th in on base percentage and 24th in slugging percentage.
On Thursday night, three O’s batters hit balls off the wall and Adam Jones just hooked a deep fly ball foul in left field. ”That will even out,” Buck Showalter said after the game according to MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko. “They hit some balls here that probably first game would have been home runs. Of course, they hit one that wouldn’t have been without the wind.”
I thought for sure that Chris Davis‘ double in the fourth was gone. So did he. Did you see that slide?
Buck is right, eventually some of that will even out. But this season the Orioles have to be a more patient and efficient lineup. Last season they worked just 416 walks, ranking 28th in the league, their .313 team OBP also placed them in among some of the worst lineups in baseball last year.
Read more at Baltimore Sports Report…
photo: Craig Landefeld
