Around the Diamond – O’s 7, Rays 4

Welcome to Around the Diamond

With the new site and the new sound, we’ll be taking on new projects, here at Bird’s Eye View. With Around the Diamond, we’ll give you four key take-aways from each game, as well as links to other great Orioles-related content.

Box Score

First Base

The Orioles worked the count on David Price through six innings.  Working full counts and extending at bats, the Orioles managed to push Price out of the game after only six innings hitting 100 pitches.  Players like Chris Davis turning an 0-2 count into a walk is significant for this team and a different approach to the hacking that we have seen in previous years.

Second Base

Jason Hammel had just the opposite day with a low pitch count throughout the game.  However, he was killed by the proverbial lead-off walk to begin the Bottom of the Sixth inning.  Tampa Bay used fundamental baseball from the hit-and-run, sacrifice bunt, and sacrifice fly to take the lead away from the Orioles.  Keeping the game close with bend but not break pitching and solid defense especially at the hot corner kept them in this game to this point.  This is how Tampa wins year in and year out.

Third Base

Matt Wieters is going to have a huge year just as I predicted.  Two-Run homer in the first, 13 pitch walk in the third, and double to gap in the sixth.  His plate discipline looks more improved and he certainly is making Baseball Prospectus eat their words.

Home Plate

Going into the Top of the 7th after losing the lead, the Orioles had been 1 for 8 with RISP.  As we discussed last year, the Orioles inability to hit with RISP and relying only on the long ball was a major flaw of this team last year.  We saw this lack of offense pop up in the ALDS and rub off on the Yankees into the ALCS.  Manny Machado extended that to 1 for 9 until Dr. Jones stepped up.  As a leader and superstar, he did what he did it all last year with a clutch hit to put the Orioles back up 4-3 with a double to the gap.  Intentional walk to Wieters followed by a home run by Davis and we are all of a sudden at 3 for 11 for the day, which was more respectable.

This is what we need to come to expect from the middle of this line up and it comes with not just getting on base, but hitting for average.  It’s one of the reasons why Mark Reynolds is no longer part of this team anymore.  The Orioles need to improve from their .256 average BA/RISP and 16th ranking in MLB (Detroit ranked 1st at .286).  The Orioles continued to slip further in the game following to 3 for 13 (.231) and this will be something we’ll have to watch.

Summary

Buck would say something like, “You’ve got to take that first step.  But we have a lot more planned for this year.”  For all the hoopla of Opening Day, it is truly just one game out of one hundred and sixty two.  The season is truly a marathon, but to beat last year’s Cy Young Winner and in a comeback fashion bodes well for this team.  If we can see consistent production (especially with RISP) from the 2-6 hitters in the lineup, this team is going to be tough to beat this year with our pitching staff.