Despite a series that was played on the backdrop of such gloomy and grey skies, there wasn’t a shortage of fireworks in Camden Yards over the past four games, that’s for sure.
Coming off of a sobering road trip, the O’s looked rejuvenated and in fine form in the first two games of the series against the Chicago White Sox. After taking the first game of the series on Thursday night by a score of 10-2 thanks to back-to-back homers by Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo along with a Manny Machado grand slam to blow the game out of the water, the O’s followed suit on Friday night with a 6-3 win after Nolan Reimold launched a three-run bomb in the seventh inning to put the O’s up for good.
The weekend, however, wasn’t as fruitful for the home team. The O’s dropped a thrilling back-and-forth ballgame by the score of 8-7 on Saturday night after Jose Abreu broke the 7-7 deadlock in the ninth inning with the eventual game-winning RBI single right after Davis had tied the game in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run double, and Todd Frazier had given the ‘Sox a 7-5 lead in the top of the eighth with a two-run homer. It was the type of game that reminded you of heavyweight fighters going blow-for-blow in the ring for the title, and one of the most enthralling games of the season to date for the O’s, if not for all of MLB.
The O’s would lose their shot at taking the series on Sunday with a 7-1 loss to the hands of Chris Sale (5.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K) and Brett Lawrie (3-for-3, 1 HR, 1 RBI) along with a five-run fifth inning for the visitors, and they will now take on the Yankees after taking two of four against the current best team in the AL.
The Orioles (14-10) are now 0.5 GB from Boston (15-10) for first place in the AL East after dropping back-to-back games at Camden for the first time in 2016.
Now let’s look at a few takeaways from the four-game split against the White Sox:
– Machado snapped out of an 0-for-15 mini-drought in superb fashion against the White Sox. The 23-year-old slugger went 8-for-17 (.470 avg) with four runs, two doubles, one home run and five RBI versus Chicago. The Miami native is now batting an incredible .350 with ten doubles, seven homers, 16 RBI and a .404 OBP on the year.
– Davis was locked in all series versus the White Sox, finishing 6-for-16 (.375 avg) with two runs, one double, one homer and four RBI. The 30-year-old Texan is now hitting .236 with seven bombs, 17 RBI and an impressive .352 OBP through the first month of the season.
– Jonathan Schoop was hitting just .090 in the previous ten games coming into this series, but finished 4-for-14 with two runs, one home run and three RBI. Schoop, 24, is now hitting .220 on the year with four homers, 11 RBI and a .256 OBP. Here’s to hoping his success against MLB’s best pitching staff can revitalize the second baseman’s season going into May.
– Another player that looked to be getting back into top form was Adam Jones. The San Diego native had a slew of beautiful defensive plays over the last few games, and also finished the series hitting 5-for-15 (.333 avg) with two runs, two doubles, and two RBI. Jones, 30, is batting just .225 with one homer, seven RBI and a .304 OBP this season.
– Reimold continued his fine run of form versus the White Sox, going 5-for-11 (.454 avg) with three runs, one homer and four RBI. The 32-year-old now owns a .343 average with three home runs, six RBI and a .378 OBP on the year.
– Hyun-Soo Kim went 3-for-4 with a double in Saturday’s loss, and is now 9-for-15 at the plate on the year, with three multi-hit games in six appearances. The 28-year-old may start to see more playing time if he can continue to build on his early run of form.
– And hey, Pedro Alvarez finally hit his first home run as an Oriole on Saturday! After a long wait, the 29-year-old Dominican is finally start to get it going over his last few appearances. Along with his 3-for-5 performance on Saturday, Alvarez is now 7-for-14 with three doubles, one homer and two RBI over his last five outings, and is hitting .216 with a .322 OBP on the season.
The O’s were going against the AL’s best pitching staff in Chicago, and actually had quite a bit of success against them in the first three games of the series. Let’s take a look at a few standout takeaways from the series as a whole:
– Going into the series, the Chicago White Sox were 8-1 over their previous nine games, and had outscored opponents 43-14 during that span. They were outscored 24-20 versus the Orioles.
– The O’s pushed 24 runs across the plate over the past four games versus the White Sox, good for 6.0 runs per game. The O’s had managed to score just 19 runs in the previous six games against the Royals and Rays.
– Orioles hitters went 45-for-142 (.316 avg) against the feared White Sox pitching staff after recording just 40 hits over the previous six games. They also went 12/38 (.315 avg) with RISP over the course of the series despite going 1-for-9 in Sunday’s loss.
– The White Sox highly-touted pitching staff allowed 19 earned runs on 45 hits over 34 innings against the O’s, good for a 5.03 ERA. They also posted an inflated 1.73 WHIP. If I had to guess, they probably don’t want to face the O’s line-up anytime soon after these past four games.
– Tyler Wilson (4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K), Mike Wright (6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K) and Kevin Gausman (6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K) all turned in impressive, valiant efforts in their starts during the series, and despite Ubaldo Jimenez (4.2 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 3 K) getting roughed up in the fifth inning on Sunday, the O’s starters were pretty darn impressive during the four-game set. Versus Chicago, the O’s rotation allowed 12 runs on 20 hits over 21.1 innings, good for a 5.12 ERA. But if you take only Wilson’s, Wright’s, and Gausman’s starts, the trio’s ERA versus the White Sox was 3.33
– The bullpen probably had their worst series of the year to date against Chicago, allowing seven runs on 19 hits over 14.2 innings, good for a 4.43 ERA. Not to mention the Ankle injury to All-Star closer Zach Britton on Saturday. Yikes. Godspeed, Zach. Get well soon!
But unfortunately for the O’s, all of the good vibes to take away from this series were smashed into pieces after learning that the injury to J.J Hardy’s foot after fouling a ball off of it in the sixth inning on Sunday looks to be of the serious variety. One can only hope that the All-Star shortstop heals quickly, but we’ll know the details later today.
That’s it for today, O’s fans! Next, the O’s will take a scheduled day off on Monday before taking on the Bronx Bombers for the first time in the 2016 season for a three-game set at Camden Yards.
