The O’s came home from Fenway feeling good, only to run into an annoying buzzsaw in the Milwaukee Brewers offense. The Crew took two of three at the Yard, but the O’s responded on Sunday to avoid the sweep, thanks in large part to stopper Corbin Burnes. They then rudely welcomed the Minnesota Twins to Baltimore, completing their second three game sweep in a week’s time.
A 4-2 homestand will do just fine. Where to begin with these hot bats? Surely someone will get left out, but let’s see who was up and who was down, shall we?
Three Up
Jordan Westburg
Unsatisfied with his heroics in Boston, Jordan Westburg decided to keep right on mashing in front of the home crowd. Over the six games, Westy posted a .478/.500/.826 slash line, good for a team-leading 288 wRC+. He homered twice, doubled twice, drove in six, and stole a base for good measure. His Statcast page (above), like so many of his teammates, looks like an election map of the deep south: red as far as the eye can see.
For the season, Westburg’s 185 wRC+ is best on the team among players with at least 60 plate appearances, and fourth in the AL behind just Tyler On’Neill, Jose Altuve, and Juan Soto. He’s hitting .317/.379/.600. While his also-team-leading .349 BABIP portends some regression, as long as he keeps hitting everything that hard, there shouldn’t be too much.
Cedric Mullins
While he was *only* third on the team with a 229 wRC+ this week, Cedric Mullins deserves inclusion based not only on his overall contributions with the bat, but for the totality in which he affected games. That totality included his first MLB walk-off home run on Wednesday (his third HR of the week) to complete the sweep of the Twinkies. There was also the glove, which Mullins flashed in a play-of-the-year candidate.
CEDRIC MULLINS, WHAT A CATCH! #Jackie42 pic.twitter.com/BMKX9DdRHe
— MLB (@MLB) April 15, 2024
Though Mullins homered on Opening Day, his bat was mostly quiet for the season’s first three series, bottoming out at .143/.167/.393 after the finale in Pittsburgh. Since then though, he’s raised those numbers to .259/.308/.552, and his season-long 143 wRC+ is fourth on the O’s among qualified hitters.
Safe to say, Ced is back. That’s great news, because this team is much better defensively when he is manning centerfield, and his bat being above average is icing on the cake.
Celebrations
Last week, we talked about the Homer Hose being back. Unsatisfied with just running it back though, the 2024 Orioles stepped it UP, debuting the Homer Hydration Station against Minnesota.
Welcome to the Hydration Station. pic.twitter.com/jqBw765YPa
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 15, 2024
With four “udders,” the hydration station is not just for the player who hit the home run to partake; no, it’s for everyone that scored on the dong in question!
Started at handlebars and now we here https://t.co/Z1PxSLmaiP pic.twitter.com/r2PVa6gR4q
— Eutaw Street Report (@EutawStReport) April 16, 2024
It’s beautiful. The thing even made it out to home plate to greet Mullins on that aforementioned walk-off.
Listen, I’m old enough to know what that thing is *actually* for. I spent plenty of time in Dewey Beach back in the aughts. But if our Baby Birds want to wholesome that thing up and continue to be a frat house that hits baseballs hard, I’m here for it.
We’ll have to see if the entire Hydration Station goes on the road, or if they just tote along the much more portable Dong Bong 2.0.
Honorable Mentions
Everyone?
Ryan O’Hearn (3 HR, 218 wRC+), Gunnar Henderson (3 HR, 251 wRC+), Colton Cowser (206 wRC+), Ryan Mountcastle (188 wRC+), Adley Rutschman (132 wRC+), Craig Kimbrel, Grayson Rodriguez, Albert Suarez, Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish
Three Down
Jackson Holliday
Tough welcome-to-the-bigs week for the 20-year-old. He notched his first MLB hit on Sunday during an important rally, yes, but didn’t back it up at all. We talked about how he’s getting absolutely zero help from umpires, and every pitcher turns into prime Greg Maddux when he’s up, but tough noogies.
He struck out in 10 of his 18 plate appearances and walked just once. If this was Tony Kemp, Birdland would be absolutely apoplectic.
The good news is that he’s playing a fine second base (now that the Red Sox stopped placing ridiculous bloops just over his head), and the rest of the lineup is so good he can languish in the nine hole with those ugly numbers and it’s not a big deal.
I’m plenty confident the kid will get it turned around. One-for-25 is absolutely a rough start to a career, and it’s gonna be tough to dig out of that hole any time soon. But I disagree with calls to send him back to AAA already. He needs to learn to adjust to MLB pitching, and he can only do that here. Why not do it now, when his teammates are carrying him just fine and the team is winning?
Talk to me after his next 75 AB, and we’ll see where we’re at.
Dean Kremer
Staked to an early lead against Milwaukee on Saturday, Dean coughed it all back up and then some. In the process, he did his darndest to ruin my kid’s first trip to the Bird Bath. Thankfully, the awesome Mr. Splash came through, hand delivering Junior a baseball, and ol’ Dad managed to catch one of the O’s hats the Splash Zone MC tossed into the crowd for him.
Kremer was squeezed on some pitches, and the Brewers had big 2014 KC Royals vibes, seemingly placing balls at will just out of the reach of fielders. Still, Dean did nothing to minimize the damage, and his final line wasn’t pretty: 4 IP, 10 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 2 HR, 1 BB, 3 K.
He’s now had one decent start, one very good start, and one very bad start here in 2024. He toes the rubber again tonight against the Royals, looking to bounce back.
Tyler Wells
Adding injury to insult, Tyler Wells was placed on the 15-day IL with right elbow inflammation. That followed his brutal start against the Brewers on Friday night. As the Curse of the City Connects continued, Wells went only four innings, throwing 90 pitches while allowing four ER on six hits. In his first two starts, he allowed three ER each. He now has a 5.87 ERA on the season, and while he’s been the victim of some slight back luck with a .313 BABIP against, we have to remember that last year he was EXTREMELY lucky in this department (.200).
Wells wants to be a starter, and that’s commendable. But it would be nice if Albert Suarez could fill in adequately while Wells is on the IL, and John Means or Kyle Bradish’s return could eventually push him to the ‘pen once again.
Dishonorable Mentions
Austin Hays(1-for-13), Jonathan Heasley
