It happened to Miguel Gonzalez last Wednesday against the San Diego Padres.
Wei-Yin Chen was a victim to it on Saturday in San Francisco against the Giants.
It is the “Sixth Inning of Death” as our Derek Arnold would say.
Gonzalez was having a relatively easy day and took the mound for the bottom of the sixth inning with a 3-0 lead.
Then, this happened.
The result was brand new ballgame, tied at three, and the 84 mph changeup Ronny Cedeno swung at for strike three would be Gonzalez’s last pitch of the day. Fortunately, the bats picked Miguel up in the eighth inning, and added a few more insurance runs in the ninth, giving the Orioles a 10-3 victory.
Chen also went to the top of the hill for the sixth with a lead against the Giants, although his was much slimmer at just 1-0. Eighteen pitches this later, this had taken place.
The result was similar; three runs for the opposition and Chen’s last inning of the afternoon. But this time the Orioles were not able to come away with a win. The game ended with a final score of 3-2 and the Birds dropped the middle game of the weekend series.
Throughout the season the sixth inning has been a problem for Oriole pitchers. It’s at times turned into a pivotal point in games and a tricky threshold to navigate through.
As a team the Orioles have a 6.52 ERA in the sixth inning through August 10, their highest of any inning by a full run. The 84 runs allowed are 13 more than their next closest inning (the fourth) and the most in the American League. Opponents are batting .299/.358/.525 versus O’s pitchers with the .883 OPS also representing an AL-high.
American League pitchers as a group have a 4.58 ERA and .265/.326/.433 slash line against them in the same frame.
Miguel Gonzalez and Troy Patton lead the staff with 13 runs allowed, followed by Zach Britton (10), Jason Hammel (9), and Chris Tillman (9). Their respective ERAs in the inning are 7.02, 8.71, 27.00, 5.87, and 6.19.
It’s been well documented and discussed that Baltimore’s starting pitchers haven’t pitched deep into games with regularity, for whatever reason. In some cases it is due to elevated pitch counts early in games leading to a decrease in effectiveness later. Other times the second (or third) time through the batting order has proved to be an obstacle too tough to overcome. Some days pitchers just aren’t as effective as they are other days, which can contribute to the previous two.
In any case, the proverbial hump known as the sixth inning has proved to be detrimental to the Birds in 2013.
Obviously, every sixth inning won’t be difficult. Each one won’t require a dose of Pepto-Bismol to get through. But if you felt the slightest bit of anxiety when an Oriole pitcher was going through his warmup tosses prior the inning getting underway it would be somewhat justified.
