What looked to be a dismal ending to a very disappointing road trip got flipped around late in yesterday’s finale in Milwaukee. Thanks to scoring six runs over the game’s final three frames, the Baltimore Orioles managed to pull even at 3-3 on their most recent week of games against the Brewers & San Francisco Giants.
While losing two of three to another slap-hitting central team after taking two of three in San Fran was frustrating, we O’s fans have unfortunately gotten used to just that (see also: Cleveland last week, the 2014 Kansas City Royals).
Those final three innings aside, the Birds’ bats have been dismally quiet to start June, continuing a downward trend that started in May. Matt has the ugly numbers here:
The Orioles have stopped hitting:
Last 30 days: 92 wRC+ (21st)
Last 14 days: 70 wRC+ (28th)
Last 7 days: 45 wRC+ (29th)— Matt Kremnitzer (@mattkremnitzer) June 8, 2023
With so many potential offensive spark plugs in AAA Norfolk, hopefully Mike Elias & Co. won’t wait too long to pull the trigger while some of these “established veterans” continue to slump awfully.
The Birds are basically treading water at this point, having gone 5-6 since sweeping Toronto and taking two of three in New York from the Yankees. That would be fine, considering their great start, if it weren’t for the existence of the Tampa Bay Rays, who’ve now won six in a row again.
Let’s see who was UP and who was DOWN in SF and Milwaukee.
Three Up
Gunnar Henderson
Though he only had 12 plate appearances over the six games due to some back soreness, which would usually disqualify him from being UP, Gunnar Henderson‘s late go-ahead home runs on Friday night and again yesterday were the biggest blasts of the week, and of his young career.
On the first, he took Giants ace Logan Webb deep and NEARLY into McCovey Cove to break a 2-2 tie, and the O’s held on to win the opener out west. Yesterday, it looked as if the signs of life the Orioles were suddenly showing were about to be snuffed out on the way to getting swept, as in the top of the eighth, Austin Hays struck out with Anthony Santander representing the tying run on second base. If Henderson is retired, the Birds face daunting All-World closer Devin Williams trailing by one in the ninth.
Henderson answered the call, shooting the first pitch he saw, a high and outside fastball, over the left field wall to give the O’s a 4-3 lead.
Thanks to his two huge clutch home runs, Gunnar Henderson is definitely UP this week. His season numbers now sit at .206/.332/.400, with seven homers and a 107 wRC+. Hopefully his back issues are behind him and he can carry this newfound momentum into the homestand and pepper the home bleachers a bit.
Aaron Hicks
When Aaron Hicks was signed following Cedric Mullins‘ injury, most of Birdland groaned in unison. Why bring in a guy who is just going to block Colton Cowser, and who looks completely cooked as an MLB player?
Well, Hicks has answered those questions and then some, starting off his Orioles tenure with seven hits in his first 19 AB, including a triple, a homer, and three RBI, while adding four walks. He was robbed of what looked to be a go-ahead double following his early homer on Tuesday by a great running catch at the wall by Brewers CF Guy Who I Never Want to See Again. in 20 PA on the road trip, Hicks hit .294/.400/.588, good for a 173 wRC+, best on the team of players with at least 13 PA.
I don’t know how long he’s going to keep this up. But Hicks seems motivated to shove it in the face of his old squad, and that’s the kind of guy you want on your team. I have no problem with Ryan McKenna making room for Cowser here shortly.
Kyle Bradish
A quick glance at Kyle Bradish‘s numbers over his two starts in SF & Milwaukee isn’t all that impressive: 9.0 IP, 13 H, 6 ER, 6.00 ERA.
However, we want to look a little closer, especially since all three runs he allowed to the Brewers yesterday seemed to be a result of some terrible luck on bloopers and squibbers. Bradish struck out 15 (10 yesterday) while walking only two, didn’t allow a home run, and opposing batters had a .520 BABIP. FanGraphs loves what he did, giving him 0.5 WAR over the two starts, with a FIP of 0.62 and an xFIP of 1.50. That more than doubled his season fWAR to 0.9, and his FIP and xFIP sit at 3.60 and 3.96, respectively. Both are best among Birds starters, though he’s pitched 15 fewer innings than Tyler Wells, who has the next fewest.
Bradish will miss the Royals, but will have a tough assignment next week against Toronto. Here’s to him figuring out his AL East troubles.
Honorable Mentions
Felix Bautista, Danny Coulombe, Ramon Urias
Three Down
Anthony Santander
Anthony Santander bounced back wonderfully from his poor start to the 2023 campaign, raising his season-long OPS to .857 as May drew to a close. Once the calendar turned though, so did Tony Taters’ luck. Following his HR off Shane Bieber of the Guardians on May 31, he went into an 0-for-25 skid. He broke out at just the right time, with the double that landed him on second base yesterday (which we discussed in Gunnar Henderson’s blurb above). But a BABIP of .056 over 25 PA will drag anybody’s week down, down, down: .040/.040/.080, good for a wRC+ of -84.
The good news is that the BABIP dragon is very fickle. Santander is a great buy low candidate heading into the homestand. You heard it here first: he’s gonna have a good one.
Adley Rutschman
We talked about it last week: Adley Rutschman just loves hitting at OPACY, and hates hitting on the road. Over the six games, Adley led the team in PA with 27, but put up just a .240/.296/.280 line, good for a wRC+ of 52. He has just one XBH in June (a double), hasn’t homered since May 26, and struck out seven times to just two walks on the trip.
Look at these home/road splits:
Home
.361/.462/.608 7 HR 3 2B 16 RBI 19 BB 15 K (117 PA) 197 wRC+
Away
.225/.353/.287 1 HR 5 2B 12 RBI 26 BB 23 K (156 PA) 85 wRC+
Adley, figure out the jet lag thing, man!
Another great bounceback candidate for the homestand.
Yennier Cano
Well, this was bound to happen. Nobody could be as dominant as Yennier Cano had been to start his 2023 for very long. And while he hasn’t been BAD over the past few weeks, he’s certainly been DOWN from what he’d allowed us to come to expect.
Cano allowed earned runs in two of his final three appearances to end May, then allowed the tying run to score late in Tuesday’s extra-inning opener loss to the Brewers. In four innings on the trip, his walk and K rates were exactly the same, at 6.75 per nine, and it was a leadoff walk that scored that aforementioned tying run. The walks are up and the strikeouts are down. The league has adjusted a bit to Yennier Cano. It’s his turn to adjust back.
Dishonorable Mentions
Adam Frazier, Austin Hays, Dean Kremer, Ryan Mountcastle, Jorge Mateo
