If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.
That’s been the story of the Baltimore Orioles now for pretty much the last calendar year. The Birds were 16-11 in April last year, a .592 winning percentage. Since then? They’re pretty much a solid .500 ball club, with the exception of last June, their other “good” month since 2012:
May ’13: .536
June ’13: .571
July ’13: .480
August ’13: .462
September ’13: .500
March/April ’14: .500
May ’14 (to date): .550
The bad news is that, in a typical year, it would take 95+ wins (.586+ win %) to win the ultra-competitive A.L. East. The good news is that, this year, the division looks to be quite down, as we sit here on May 22 (a tad over 1/4 into the season) with no team more than three games above .500 (Toronto and New York).
The division really is there for the Birds’ taking.
However, they also really have to start playing better baseball, and not having a different problem jump up and bite them right at the time they seem to solve the previous problem.
For instance…
During the first part of May, it was the Birds’ bats holding them back from making a nice little run. From May 2 – 17, the O’s allowed just 3.1 runs per game. Unfortunately, they scored only 2.8 runs per game during the same stretch. They were lucky to make it out of that run of games at 8-7.
Over the last three games, the bats have suddenly come alive in a very big way. In the last game in Kansas City on Sunday, and then the two games in Pittsburgh, the O’s totaled 23 runs (7.7 runs/game), as they put up 6, 9, and 8 runs, respectively.
Alas, this was the exact time the pitching chose to go into the crapper…of course.
With the (somewhat surprising) exception of Miguel Gonzalez, the Birds starters doomed them so far this week. And, it was the presumed “Number 1” and “Number 2” pitchers on the staff, Chris Tillman and Ubaldo Jimenez, that were the culprits.
After turning it around following a rough April for most of May to date, Jimenez lasted just 5.0 innings against the “powerful” KC lineup on Sunday, allowing five runs on eight hits. Tillman followed up his first career complete-game shutout on Friday night with a horrendous showing in Pittsburgh, failing to record an out in the second inning while being charged with eight runs on six hits and three walks.
Throw in some shoddy bullpen work on Sunday (Troy Patton serving up Alex Gordon’s second three-run HR of the day), and we’re left with a quite disappointing 1-2 record in games where the team scored over half as many runs as they did over the first 15 games of the month.
While pessimistic O’s fans may have expected the bats to return just as the pitchers stopped overachieving, even the most doom-and-gloom of those in Birdland couldn’t have predicted the change to be quite this sudden and dramatic.
It’s disappointing, for certain, but in the end, it’s just three games.
Hopefully, the bats really are back to stay, while the pitching regression is just a small blip on the radar in what will otherwise be a pleasantly surprising year.
Next up is a quick four-game home series against the disappointing Cleveland Indians (22-25), followed by another road trip to Milwaukee, Houston, and Texas.
This is a chance for the O’s to really get hot, and they need to take advantage of it. The Brew Crew started off gangbusters, but are just 8-12 over their last 20. Houston remains the “Lastros,” and Texas is a disappointing 22-24.
More .500 ball and “if it ain’t one thing, it’s another,” may very well result in this team digging themselves into a hole that they really shouldn’t, and giving mediocre Toronto/New York a cushion they don’t deserve.
