The first west coast trip of the year hasn’t been full of sun tanning and cold beverages for the Orioles bullpen. Since the beginning of the road trip (6 games), the Orioles’ pen has thrown 16.2 innings of work – leading to more ice bags and tired arms, than sunscreen and ice-cold lemonade.
This isn’t news for the Baltimore Orioles. It’s been a problem for the Birds dating back to last year.
Currently, the Orioles starters as a team are only averaging 5.2 innings per start and are 10-7 overall. The starting rotation is just not going deep enough into ball games, forcing the bullpen to pick up the slack.
This is not necessarily a bad thing – considering our bullpen is one of the strongest in the League (2nd behind Twins) – but I’m sure the workhorses in the stable wouldn’t mind a night off now and again.
So far this road trip: Matusz has thrown 4.1 innings, Patton 3.2 IP, Hunter 3 IP, O’Day 2.1 IP, Jim Johnson 2 IP, McFarland 1 IP, and Strop only 0.1 IP but has thrown enough pitches to count as 5 innings.
Together, the Orioles bullpen has dominated opposing hitting, and in the last six games posted a 2.70 ERA (2.49 ERA on the season). For being used so much, it is staggering how amazing and strong our bullpen continues to be. I don’t know if they will be able to survive another 162-game season if this trend continues, but if anyone knows how to handle arms it’s Buck.
With his little white note card and the stock pile of arms down in Norfolk, no one should fear over use.
Yet, there are still naysayers.
For me, I hope Chen can build on the success of his last start (8 IP 2 H 2 BB 5 K), and at least give the Orioles’ pen some needed rest. Even surviving until the 7th inning would be huge for those tired arms, but if Chen struggles at least the O’s can lean on McFarland to ride it out to the finish line.
T.J. has not been used since April 21st prior to his 1 inning of work against Oakland, and there may be some speculation that Buck might give McFarland the pill for Saturday’s game. I personally believe because of the state of bullpen, Buck will have to hold off on starting his new favorite toy, and call up Freddy Garcia for the 5th spot.
Let’s just hope for a quality start, and maybe something might happen! Cheers!
