1. I said before the beginning of the year and leading into the Yankees series that it was one – given the injuries to the Yankees – that the Orioles should take two of three or maybe sweep.
I also said I never count the Yankees out. Now what I meant from that is once they got their big names back and given the fact people have been trying to write off the Yankees for the last five years I would take a wait and see approach with their continued success. The scary thing is guys like Vernon Wells, Francisco Cervelli, Lyle Overbay and Kevin Youkilis are filling in quite nicely for Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson and in the case of Cervelli for Russell Martin who departed for Pittsburgh.
The Yankees starting pitching has been shaky but CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda have been solid in two of their three starts. You couple that with good relief pitching and you have a team that is hanging around quite nicely. So despite the fact it would have been great to take two of three it’s not as bad as I would have thought if you told me we would only win one at the beginning of the year.
2. Watch out – despite the Toronto Blue Jays’ slow start they are hovering around .500. They have finally gotten solid starts from R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle and Brandon Morrow. JA Happ has two wins. They just lost Jose Reyes but get back Brett Lawrie. The fact that they are 6-7 after starting 2-6 with poor starting pitching and injuries shows you how tough this division will be this year.
3. The Red Sox have three solid starters (Lester, Buckholz and Dempster) and a real good bullpen. It’s first and foremost about pitching. If Lester and Buckholz live up to billing along with a lineup that has some solid guys they will also be a player. We shall see if the starting pitching holds up and if a guy like Shane Victorino keeps up his hot tear.
4. Jake Arrietta had another shaky start last week against the Red Sox but got a key double play in the third and shut out the Sox for the fourth and fifth innings which was huge as the Os were able to come back and tie the game before the rain delay. They would later win the game in the ninth inning. No one at Triple A is hot enough to warrant sending him down so now is the time for Arrietta to make the most of his time here before it runs out.
5. A nine game home stand against real good competition will test the Orioles once again with two of three series against AL East competition and one against an LA Dodger roster that has almost 2.5 times our payroll. It’s always key to win AL East Division games at home and after losing our lone home series so far to Minnesota, we need to get that first one under our belt and who better than against Tampa Bay who are now surprisingly 4-8? You can expect the Rays will be raring to go after having a rough weekend getting swept against the Red Sox and getting off to a rough overall start.
6. Adam Jones and Chris Davis will cool at some point and who will pick up the slack? Nick Markakis has done pretty well so far and Manny Machado is starting to swing the bat better. Clearly we are going to need to get something out of Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy, Nolan Reimold and Ryan Flaharty. It doesn’t always have to come in the form of 3-4 performances; however, working counts to get favorable pitches, bunting, moving runners over, getting walks, sacrifice flies, etc are all ways to make a contribution even when you are struggling at the plate.
None of those guys are likely to bunt or have much in the way of speed but contributions are needed for sure. Hardy is capable and can do better. The big disappointment has been Wieters who I thought would be doing better so far. Even if the average is below average, I would hope the power numbers would be there and that still could be the case but he looks lost up there.
Not everyone will hit at once but you hope you can get five at a time and then from the others get something productive.
Go Os!
