SERIES RESULTS: Orioles 2-1
THE GOOD
The starting pitching continues to improve, and took a massive step forward in this series, as the Orioles received strong starts from middle-of-the-rotation starters Wei-Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzalez. Chen allowed only one run to the Rays in 6 1/3 innings on Monday, and Miguel Gonzalez gutted through 5 innings of shutout baseball himself on Wednesday. If Chris Tillman continues to emerge and the rest of the rotation can stay solid, the Orioles can win a lot of games, because you know the offense is coming.
Speaking of the offense, Matt Wieters continued to crush Tampa Bay pitching, as he has done throughout his career. Wieters went 3-for-7 in the series with a double, two runs, and two RBI. He just missed a grand slam on Wednesday afternoon. Wieters has been strong this April, and a lot of his numbers have come from the left side, which is encouraging as he hit only .217 from the left side in 2013. Wieters is going to put a lot (more) of pressure on the Orioles front office if he continues to hit anywhere near this level.
After blowing his first save of the season against the Toronto Blue Jays last Saturday, Tommy Hunter came out in the second game of the series and shut the door, allowing one hit with a strikeout in a scoreless ninth inning. Hunter is now 4/5 in save opportunities on the year, and has done a solid job early on replacing former Orioles closer Jim Johnson, who earlier this month lost his closing job in Oakland.
THE BAD
The rainout on Tuesday doesn’t necessarily affect the Orioles negatively, but it is an unfortunate time for a game to be rained out. Due to scheduling conflicts, no makeup game has been scheduled yet, and one will likely come on an off-day later in the season. The Orioles are off anyway on Thursday, and players typically agree that it helps to have days off in the dog days of summer when they have already played 80+ games as opposed to only three weeks into the season when they still feel fresh.
The Orioles starters pitched to low ERAs but did struggle with pitch counts, especially Miguel Gonzalez in the second game. It is nitpicking to be unhappy with a combined ERA under 1 in the series for the starters, but the starters do need to get the outs with more efficiency to go deeper in games or else the bullpen could be overworked by the stretch run.
While they did not do any significant damage in the series, the Orioles have had problems dating back to last season at getting out Rays first baseman James Loney and third baseman Evan Longoria. Loney got on base three times in nine at bats including a double, and Longoria had the only RBI for the Rays in the series.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Admittedly, it was difficult to find many bad takeaways from a series where the Orioles averaged five runs a game and only allowed one run over two games in a sweep. The O’s are back at .500 for the first time since the second game of the season, and already have two wins against a team in the division they defeated only six times last season in nineteen meetings. One thing worth keeping an eye on from here is the flu that is currently passing through the clubhouse, as it has already affected Brian Matusz, Evan Meek, Adam Jones, and hitting coach Jim Presley, among others.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Birds will be off on Thursday before heading up to Boston to play a four-game series against the Red Sox, who took two out of three games in Camden Yards to open the season. The finale of the series will be played at 11:05 AM on Monday morning. The Red Sox are currently last in the AL East at 6-9, and have won only four games since the Orioles last played them. Third baseman Manny Machado continues to rehab and is inching closer to a return.
