After getting swept by the Marlins in Miami, the O’s return to the friendly confines of Oriole Park tonight.
I had hoped for a 3-3 road-trip against Philadelphia and Florida; but after sweeping the Phillies, it was extremely deflating to get run out of town by the Marlins.
Baseball at any-level is about adjustments, and dealing with failure. Major League Baseball constantly reminds you that in a 162 game marathon-season, that things average-out over time.
Nick Markakis might not be the 1.020 OPS guy he was in April, but he is also not the .719 OPS guy he was in May.
Chris Ray might not be the guy that had 33 saves in 2006, but nor is he the guy that has an era over 10 in under 20 innings in 2009.
You are never as good as you look when things are going well ( winning 7 out of 8 ) , nor as bad as you look when things go bad, and you make an abundance of physical and mental errors in Florida.
Things average-out over time.
When you step-back from limited sample sizes, things are revealed for what they are.
The Baltimore Orioles are a team not ready to compete, with some obvious holes. On the other-hand, there is a level of talent and depth here that has not existed for over a decade.
There are clearly players existing on the team that you can win with, and should continue to progress.
The O’s home and road-splits are an example of revealing what the Orioles actually are (at least currently).
Baltimore is 32-40 overall, 21-17 at home, and 11-23 on the road.
Clearly the O’s are able to compete at home, and are just horrible away from Camden Yards.
At home this weekend against the Nationals, the O’s should be expected to take a minimum of 2 of 3, and probably should sweep.
In May, the O’s took 2 of 3 in DC, and the Orioles have only improved since then.
The Nationals are 21-49 overall, including 8-24 on the road.
While the Nats have split their last 10 games, they continue to deal with a multiude of issues.
Lastings Milledge was horrible to start the year, and was sent back to AAA, where he has been out of action since early May.
They continue to get limited production from Dukes, and Kearns. Dunn, Johnson, and Zimmerman are producing, but are not enough.
If there is anything DC can feel good about though (besides the recent selections of Strasburg, and Storen) it is the young-pitching that has joined the Major League rotation.
J.Zimmermann, and Detwiler are very solid prospects, and Lannan and Martis are useful.
The scheduled pitching-matchups are:
6/26: Detwiler vs Bergesen
6/27: Guthrie vs Martis
6/28: Uehara vs Lannan
It is expected that Uehara will be skipped with David Hernandez getting the start Sunday.
Owner
Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.