Around the Diamond

We had to endure more late-night baseball for this weekday series against the Seattle Mariners. Whereas the series offended my sleep schedule (which has a vicious East Coast Bias), the result was even worse. The O’s dropped the series 1-2 to a club that is not expected to make an impact in the AL West.

Game 1 Box Score – SEA 6, BAL 2

Game 2 Box Score – BAL 7, SEA 2

Game 3 Box Score – SEA 8, BAL 3

Let’s take a trip AtD to for the April 29 – May 1 series against the M’s.

First Base

O’s middle infielders and designated hitters (yes, the irony is not lost on me) have been atrocious at the plate this season, and this series was no exception. These guys went a combined 4-33 (.121) with 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

I would say that Hardy has been a real problem (and he has), but he accounts for those two RBIs, so he’ll get a pass here. The second basemen got one hit between them. I love that there are some fans who are on #TeamFlaherty or #TeamCasilla (please don’t let those be real things), but the truth is that it doesn’t matter – both are playing like bums right now. Adequate in the field, but lost at the plate.

Now do you see why we’re so serious about The Brian Roberts Watch? He may not be the All-Star he once was, but at 35, the oft-injured Roberts resembles a major league second baseman much more than do the other two.

Second Base

Joe Saunders made the Orioles look really dumb for not opening their wallet up a little further to resign him. Going the distance, Saunders made quick work of the Orioles offense by throwing strikes and avoiding the big inning. Man, that guy is just rubbing it in our face, isn’t he?

Before waxing nostalgic over Elimination Joe/Colonel Saunders, take a look at the rest of his appearances, prior to the 4/29 win over his former club.

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Kind of pedestrian, right? Other than the 9-inning gem where he made us look bad, he hasn’t thrown much better than the Orioles staff. That game hurt to watch, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we should have overspent to keep him.

Third Base

The whispers about Adam Jones’ defense are going to get VERY loud at this point. Wednesday night’s game was… unpleasant. What is the deal? Jones is clearly a gifted athlete, who has some hardware for his outfield play. That ability doesn’t just go away (most of the time).

Some fans will call for his playing time. “NATE MCLOUTH IN CENTER” they’ll slur. But that’s crazy talk. Jones is in a funk, and the only way to break out of it is with playing time. Sure, he could take a game or two off, or serve as the DH a couple of games for a week or so… but that may do more harm than good. Buck won’t go for that. He’ll ride the Adam Jones Experience until Jones gets right.

It’s easy to be frustrated by Jones’ play because we know he’s capable of being a superstar. One thing fans cannot get upset about is his accountability and brutal honesty. Here are some of Jones’ post-game comments:

I missed the ball… doesn’t really matter if you misjudge it, you missed it. So, you make an excuse no one wants to listen to it. I missed it and cost my team. That inning turned out to be a pretty big inning. I need to clean my shit up defensively. It’s frustrating.

…

There’s some things that I’m not doing well in the field and it’s frustrating… But you think it’s going to stop me from playing hard and stop the way I’m playing, it’s not. Just got to pretty much clean it up. You can formulate it all you want to do. You can say this, you can say that. Just got to get back on the field and get some reps and make the plays. Because those pitchers on the mound are fighting their tails off each and every day for us. And we’re a good defense. Being the center fielder, I need to play to a center fielder standard.

Clean it up, Adam. We need better.

Home Plate

I feel like we should have this ready to go by the third inning of each game. We’ve said it before, the Orioles’ starters have got to start going deeper into games. In only 15 innings this series, Orioles starters allowed 25 hits, issued 8 walks, and alloed 13 earned runs.

Scott beats me up on not being more of a stats guy, but when they’re this depressing, can you blame me?

It is frustrating to watch the staff abuse the bullpen, and put the offense behind the 8-ball. It’s even more frustrating to watch guys come up from AAA and get shelled. I’m looking at you, Britton, Stinson, and Clark. Dan Duquette chose to stand pat on the pitching front this off-season – partially because he believed in his staff and partially because he believed in his depth. Both have let him down thus far.

There are going to be some very smug national writers if the Orioles staff can’t pull it together to give their team a better chance at winning. If they can’t, Duquette will be forced to rely on that organizational depth, or forfeit some young talent to get someone in her who can get the job done.

So as not to be all doom-and-gloom, let me say that there is plenty of inventory left that is worth being optimistic about. Freddy Garcia and Jair Jurrjens are pitching well at Norfolk. Steve Johnson and Tsuyoshi Wada will be available from the DL by early June. Kevin Gausman hasn’t developed discomfort in his mass flexor, so he remains an option for later in the season (OK, maybe that was a little doom-and-gloomy).

Back to the Dugout

It’s all about series wins, baby. This is only the second series loss the Orioles have endured this season. There will be more, and some of them will be worse (after all, we got to enjoy Tuesday, right?). The trouble is that the O’s seemed to lose momentum in the 4th game of the Athletics series and carried it into Seattle. The real task before them now is to avoid carrying the Seattle series with them into Los Angeles/Anaheim/California.

This is about the best time you could hope to face the Angels. They’ve been bitten by the injury bug, their pitching has been inconsistent, and their very expensive sluggers have yet to break change. Let’s put it this way: the Halos are 7 games behind the AL West leading Rangers, but only 2.5 games ahead of the Astros. Yes, those Astros.

It’s the old cliche: good teams beat the teams they’re supposed to beat. They also take advantage when another team is down. Both the Orioles and the Angels are looking to get well in this series. As our friends at MASN would say “who will own it?”

AtD – O’s Drop Series to Mariners