Beginning tonight, the Orioles get their final shot at the Boston Red Sox and the last chance to directly cut into the division lead without having to rely on other teams to help them out. The Red Sox will have two of their best pitchers throw in the series in Rick Porcello and David Price and the Orioles will as well with Kevin Gausman and Chris Tillman scheduled to take the mound in the four-game series.
Bundy Looking To Bounce Back
We’ll probably never know if Dylan Bundy is going through normal rookie struggles or if he is just tiring due to his lack of innings over the past few seasons, but the fact remains that the 23-year-old has failed to complete six innings in his last four starts. The good news is that none of his struggles of late are because he isn’t healthy.
Bundy battled in his last start against the Red Sox and will now square off against Porcello, a guy who limited the O’s to only one run in his last start. Runs will be at a premium again so here’s hoping Bundy finds whatever he has left in the tank and is able to pitch well against a potent offense.
Pearce Out For The Season
The Orioles’ need for a right-handed hitter led to trading for a player in Steve Pearce who they knew was having issues with his elbow. It would be fine if Pearce would have been used as a first baseman or designated hitter, but the need was in the outfield. We all know the final outcome and because of it, the O’s are back to where they were at the end of July.
Despite a big home run last week, Nolan Reimold is not the answer and Drew Stubbs has provided no help since being acquired. The team will face two lefties in the series against the Red Sox and there will be a couple more scheduled in the final two weeks. This has been an issue all season long and coming down the stretch, it remains one of their bigger weaknesses. We may have reached the point where Buck Showalter just decides to use the better players even in a bad match-up and that would be the combination of Hyun Soo Kim, Michael Bourn and Pedro Alvarez instead of Reimold and Stubbs.
Orioles Pitching Depth
There are bigger issues to worry about in the short term making the playoffs and hopefully a deep run into October. However, the Orioles as an organization need to take a step back in the offseason and look at what they are doing in not only their development of pitchers, but assessing the talent they have.
The latest example comes in the way of left-hander Ariel Miranda of the Seattle Mariners. Miranda has allowed two earned runs in his last three starts while striking out 15. The Mariners have trusted Miranda to start every fifth day for a team battling for the playoffs, but the O’s thought he was expendable and traded him away for Wade Miley.
Last year the Orioles traded Zach Davies away for Gerardo Parra. At the age of 23, Davies has a respectable 3.92 ERA for the Milwaukee Brewers and held the vaunted Chicago Cubs offense to three runs or less the last two times he has faced them.
The final case comes in the form of Miguel Gonzalez. We all know how steady Gonzalez was for years, and how awful he was in April, which is why he didn’t make the team out of spring training. However, pitching for the Chicago White Sox, the right-hander has a 3.83 ERA and has not given up more than three runs in his last 11 starts. How could the White Sox fix Gonzalez, but the Orioles couldn’t?
The Orioles have been one of the most successful teams in all of baseball since this new regime took over, so am I nitpicking? Probably. However, when the common theme going into every season is that this organization lacks pitching and they go out in free agency and through trades to acquire marginal pitchers, there is something wrong.
Hopefully, whenever the offseason begins, the O’s are asking themselves the same questions.
