After opening their nine-game road trip by banking two out of three against the Los Angeles Angels, the Orioles will head to Houston for the second leg of their tour to take on the Astros for a three-game set in Space City.
The Orioles (26-16) are still flying high with the AL’s best record but remain tied for first with the Boston Red Sox (27-17) in the division. After winning the series against LA, the O’s improved their road record to 9-8 on the year and have registered a 6-4 mark over their past ten games.
The Astros (17-28) have endured a frustrating and puzzling start to the campaign, especially if you look at all of the talent on display at Minute Maid Park in 2016. Houston is set to host the first place Orioles currently in the cellar of the AL West and a staggering ten games off the pace of the red-hot Seattle Mariners (26-17). To make matters worse for the home team, they have registered just a 10-13 mark in the confines of their own ballpark while dropping seven of their last ten games overall. Oh, and they’re currently on a four-game losing skid.
All of the pieces are still there, and by all means this is still a talented ball club with a ton of young budding talent that should make them contenders for years. But it doesn’t look like a team that thrilled the baseball world by going 86-76 last season and won a wild card spot, beat the Yankees in a one-game playoff and pushed the eventual-champion Royals to a game-five, winner-take-all situation in the ALDS. There’s just no rhythm in Houston’s groove this season.
Who does Houston call when they have a problem? I mean I don’t know, maybe Phoenix? Or the Ghostbusters.
Now, on to the projected starters:
Orioles ace Chris Tillman (6-1, 2.61 ERA) is set to take on Mr.Consistency himself, Doug Fister (4-3, 4.22 ERA) in the series opener on Tuesday.
Tillman, 28, has had tremendous success versus Houston over four career starts, going 2-2 with a superb 2.45 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. In his last outing against the Astros, Tillman allowed just two runs on five hits over seven innings with three walks and five strikeouts in a 4-1 loss on May 26th, 2015.
Fister, 32, has posted a 4-2 record with a 4.63 ERA over eight outings against the O’s in his career. While the former National pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen with four Ks versus Baltimore in a 4-1 loss on September 22nd, 2015, Fister’s last start against the birds came on July 9th, 2014 in which the Fresno State alum allowed two runs on seven hits over seven innings with two walks and three K’s in a 6-2 Nationals victory.
Tyler Wilson (2-2, 3.68 ERA) will take the mound versus Astros ace Collin McHugh (4-4, 5.13 ERA) in the middle game of the three-game set on Wednesday.
If Buck doesn’t shuffle the rotation, Wilson will make his first career start versus Houston in this match-up. The 26-year-old will be looking to shake off his most recent start against the Mariners in which he turned in his worst starting effort of the campaign, allowing five runs on six hits over six innings with an even three walks and three Ks in a 7-2 Orioles loss.
Instead, he will be aiming to get back to the quality he showed in his previous two starts in which the Virginia alum went 1-1 and allowed just four runs on ten hits over 13.0 innings with four walks and six strikeouts, good for an impressive 2.77 ERA and 1.07 WHIP.
McHugh, 28, has been phenomenal since the beginning of the 2014 season and has a 34-20 record with a rock-solid 2.60 ERA over that time span to show for it. In three career starts versus Baltimore, the Illinois native is 1-0 with a 4.66 ERA, with two of those starts coming in 2015. However, despite avoiding a loss versus the O’s last year, he still got tagged pretty hard by the birds.
After dominating the Orioles as a rookie in 2014, Mchugh allowed eight runs on fifteen hits over 13.0 innings against them last season, good for a 5.54 ERA.
Kevin Gausman (0-1, 2.70 ERA) will face off against Astros wunderkind Lance McCullers (0-1, 5.91 ERA) in the series finale on Thursday.
Like Wilson, Gausman will also be making his debut versus Houston in this series. But please, as excellent as Gausman has been this year, can we get him a win? It’s becoming depressing to see someone pitch their tail off in almost every start and still have a goose egg in the win column.
On the year, the 25-year-old has posted a stellar 2.70 ERA and 1.11 WHIP over six starts with 30 K’s in 36.2 innings. Not only has Gausman been a workhorse, pitching six-plus innings in four of his six outings, the Colorado native has also been lights out, allowing two earned runs or less in four of his six contests.
In my book, that deserves a freaking win!
McCullers, 22, is just getting his season started after dealing with shoulder inflammation in the spring and a subsequent set-back following that, resulting in the Tampa native being shelved for the first several weeks of the season. The former first-round pick made his season debut on May 13th versus Boston and just allowed just two runs over six innings with seven Ks on May 20th versus Texas, but received a loss in the 2-1 pitcher’s duel.
In his only career start versus Baltimore on June 3rd, 2015, McCullers was absolutely electrifying in the complete game victory, in which he allowed just a single run on four hits with zero walks and 11 Ks.
Led by three-time All-Star 2B Jose Altuve (.328, 18 2B, 15 SB, 9 HR, 27 RBI), budding 21-year-old megastar shortstop Carlos Correa (.253, 8 SB, 7 HR, 20 RBI), veteran five-tool outfielder Colby Rasmus (.238, 6 2B, 8 HR, 31 RBI), the ever-dangerous George Springer (.254, 6 2B, 9 HR, 25 RBI) and breakout rookie first baseman Tyler White (.230, 8 2B, 7 HR, 20 RBI), the Astros have a ton of firepower in their arsenal and can light it up at any given time. Don’t read too much into their ninth-best scoring rate in the AL (4.04 runs per game) or the fact that they are dead last in team batting average (.229). They pose as big of a threat as any other top offensive club the O’s will face all season.
They also come into the series tied for sixth in the AL in homers (56) and lead the AL in stolen bases (39), so not only can they crank the long ball, they represent a complete nightmare on the base paths to defend against. The O’s pitching staff which ranks fifth-best in the AL with a 3.80 ERA will assuredly have a tough task on their hands in silencing these guys in the box and on the bags.
In the opposing dugout, the Orioles dynamic attack will surely be licking their chops at the potential of doing major damage over the next three games in Space City.
Led by Manny Machado (.308, 16 2B, 12 HR, 26 RBI), Mark Trumbo (.293, 5 2B, 13 HR, 31 RBI), Chris Davis (.237, 7 2B, 10 HR, 27 RBI) and Jonathan Schoop (.270, 7 2B, 8 HR, 25 RBI), the Orioles will take the AL’s second-best OBP (.324), third-best batting average (.262), sixth-highest scoring rate (4.54 runs per game) and joint-MLB lead in HR (63) into a clash against a pitching staff that ranks 13th in the AL in team ERA (4.54), 13th in starters ERA (4.99), tied for 9th in bullpen ERA (3.79) and tied for 8th in home runs allowed (50).
I’m not a weather man, but I think it might rain over the next three games.
Since the Astros move to the AL West in 2013, the Orioles have posted an 11-9 mark against their hosts during that span.
Here’s to the Orioles continuing that success in 2016!
