The Good & the Bad from Yankees v. Orioles (April 7-9 2017)

Two series down, two series victories and 1 game short of back-to-back sweeps to begin the season.  It’s been an impressive start to the 2017 season for the Baltimore Orioles, a lot of good and some bad.  Time to take a look back at the weekend series against the New York Yankees and see what went right and what went wrong.

GOOD: Comeback birds

In both wins for the Orioles in this series they had to come back.  In game 1 on Friday night it was a 5-1 deficit, and in game 2 it was 4-1.  Manny Machado got things going on Friday night with his first home run of 2017 then new Oriole Seth Smith gave the O’s the lead they would never relinquish.  In game 2 Machado again began the comeback in the 5^th inning and the O’s would win 5-4.  If nothing else this looks like the same Orioles who won’t give up, no matter the score.

BAD: Starting pitching

I think it’s safe to say that the main point of concern for the Orioles heading into 2017 was their starting pitching.  Well against the Yankees it was definitely a weak point.

Ubaldo Jimenez – 4.1 IP, 7 hits, 5 ER, 5 strikeouts

Kevin Gausman – 4.2 IP, 8 hits, 4 ER, 4 strikeouts

Wade Miley – 5 IP, 1 hit, 0 ER, 5 strikeouts

Don’t let Wade Miley’s line fool you.  He only lasted 5 innings because he had 100 pitches and SEVEN walks.  The Orioles have to get better outings from their starting pitchers.  The bullpen may be the club’s strength but if they are pitching 4-5 innings a game they will wear out quick.

GOOD: Zach Britton

Zach Britton was able to save both wins for the Orioles and in doing so was starting to look like his dominant self of 2016.  Britton pitched in both games of the opening series against Toronto but struggled despite not giving up any runs.  He even loaded the bases in game 2 before getting a game clinching double play.  Against the Yankees he was much better.  Friday night he retired the Yanks 1-2-3 while only throwing 9 pitches.  Saturday he had a scare with a long fly ball, but again was incredibly efficient facing 4 batters and needing only 11 pitches.

BAD: J.J. Hardy’s rough start at the plate

This probably pains more than most of you think.  I’ve always been a huge fan of JJ Hardy ever since he’s been an Oriole, but I have to call them like I see them.  Hardy has been struggling hard at the plate this season.  Against the Yankees he went 2 for 9 with 4 strikeouts and only 1 RBI.  His season batting average is only .125 after 5 games.  Lucky for Hardy he still plays gold glove caliber defense.  Unfortunately the injuries and his age might be too much for him to be the player he was from 2011-2013.

Other notes from the Yankees series.  Seth Smith had a good two games going a combined 4-9 and hitting the game winning HR on Friday night.  Also what happened to the Orioles pitching in general on Sunday?  O’s pitchers walked 11 Yankees on Sunday with Wade Miley and surprisingly Darren O’Day being the biggest culprits.

All in all it was a good weekend series for the Orioles.  They have played 5 games in 2017 and are 4-1, all against AL East teams.  Up next for the birds is another AL East opponent, a favorite of many pundits to win the AL East, the Boston Red Sox.  It will be another short 2 game series before they head north of the border to face Toronto again.

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The Good and Bad from the Orioles-Yankees Series (April 13-15)

I think we can officially say we are in the baseball season.  Three series under most teams belts, before you know the end of April will be here and we will start separating the contenders and pretenders.  The Orioles have had an OK start to the 2015 season, like I've said many times before, not getting too excited not getting too worried about anything happening on the field.  That being said let me overly dissect this past series where the Orioles took 2 out of 3 against the hated Yankees.

GOOD: Miguel Gonzalez

Wow, what else can you say about Miguel's performance on Tuesday night.  Miguel pitched 7 strong innings giving up just 1 run on 4 hits and struck out a career high 10.  Gonzalez always seems to perform well against the Bronx bombers and Tuesday was no different.  Gonzalez after just two starts has an ERA of 1.42.  It was also nice to see him get through seven innings, that needs to happen more form the Orioles pitching staff.

BAD: Tommy Hunter

Mr. Hunter did not have a very good series against the Yankees.  Hunter only pitched 2 innings in the series but in those 2 innings he gave up 5 hits and 6 earned runs.  In game 1 of the series he gave up a grand slam that proved to be the difference.  In game 3 he turned a Orioles 4 run lead into a 2 run lead, even the outs he was recording in game 3 were hit hard.  Again too early to panic but if Tommy Hunter wants to stay in the late inning role he's been a custom to, 6 earned runs in 2 innings wont cut it.

GOOD: Caleb Joseph

Let's give some love to the catcher for the Baltimore Orioles.  One of the main topic of discussions for Orioles fans is when is Matt Wieters coming back.  Well if Joseph keeps playing like he did against the Yankees, fans wont be so quick to rush Wieters back.  Caleb Joseph registered 7 hits in 11 at bats scored a run and drove in 2 in the 3 game set.  Now Joseph isn't as good at throwing guys out like Wieters is but, cant complain with how Joseph is holding his own while the all star backstop gets healthy.

BAD: Inconsistent Chris Davis

Oh Chris Davis what are we going to do with you.  Chris Davis for me might be turning into one of the most frustrating players on the ball club.  The first 2 games of the series Davis went 0 for 7 with 6 strike outs, and some of those strike outs he looked really, really bad.  Then Wednesday comes around and he drives in 3 runs including a huge 2 run double that gave the Orioles the cushion they needed for the win.  Even with the 2 hits and 3 RBIs last night, he still struck out 3 times.  I'm not asking for 2-3 hits every night from Davis but it would be nice to see him be a little more productive, you can still make an out and have it help your ball club, not much help can come from striking out 9 times in three games.

GOOD: Adam Jones staying hot

I mentioned Adam Jones in my last post about how he played in the Blue Jays series.  Well he continued hitting the ball extremely well hitting home runs in games 1 and 2 and having at least 1 hit in every game of the series.  It's tough to argue that anyone in baseball right now is seeing the ball better than Adam Jones.  Oh yea, and he's playing gold glove caliber defense as well, Tommy Hunter should thank him for Wednesday night.

Up next for the birds is a 4 game series in Boston against the Red Sox.

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