BALTIMORE—The Orioles begin their longest road trip of the season on Friday in Washington. They’re hoping a return to the road might mean a return to winning.
The Orioles play three games against the Nationals, three more at Minnesota and four in Chicago against the White Sox before returning May 31st to Baltimore, where they are 6-18.
Since John Means no-hit Seattle on May 5th, the Orioles have lost 10 of 12. On Thursday, they were non-competitive in their 10-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays before 6,916 at Oriole Park. The Rays swept the three-game series, including Wednesday night’s game in which they trailed Means and the Orioles, 5-0, before rallying for a 9-7 victory.
“We have not played well the past couple of weeks,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Our pitching is really beat up right now. We have to have starters go longer.”
Hyde was asked if bullpen help might be arriving before Friday’s game with the Nationals and said he hadn’t talked with the front office at that point.
The Orioles (17-26) were outhit by Tampa Bay, 18-2, on Thursday. In the series, Tampa Bay scored 32 runs, on 43 hits, including 11 home runs.
“They had seven lefties in the lineup,” Hyde said. “Credit to them, all series, they didn’t swing at pitches outside the strike zone.”
Rich Hill, a 41-year-old left-hander, allowed just two hits in six innings, one of which was a Trey Mancini home run. The Orioles didn’t have any hits against the Rays’ bullpen in three innings. The two hits is a season low.
In the three-game series, the Orioles had just seven hits in 11 2/3 innings against Tampa Bay relievers.
“We just have to get a lot better from an approach standpoint offensively,” Hyde said. “We go in and out with that and we have to be more consistent with that.”
Not counting Adam Plutko’s one inning as an opener on Sunday, which was followed by 5 2/3 strong innings from Bruce Zimmermann, Oriole pitchers had three starts of three innings or fewer in the last five games. Jorge López lasted just two innings against New York on Saturday night, Matt Harvey was lifted after 1 2/3 innings on Tuesday, and Dean Kremer lasted only three.
“We have to get some length out of our starters,” Hyde said. “We’re running on fumes right now—May 20th.”
The Orioles finished the series with position player Stevie Wilkerson on the mound in the ninth. He retired the first two Rays on some 46-mph curveballs before Joey Wendle, who had four hits, hit his second home run of the game.
Hyde used closer César Valdez, who hadn’t pitched since Sunday, for the eighth inning, something he didn’t want to do. He also didn’t want to use Travis Lakins, who ended up throwing 39 pitches and allowing three runs in an ugly seventh.
“Everything piles up,” Hyde said. “Don’t want to use Valdez in that situation, but I had no other arms to throw.”
Kremer threw 63 pitches in three innings. His worst inning was the second when he allowed four runs. Wendle led off with his fourth home run of the season. Kevin Kiermaier singled and, with one out, Brett Phillips walked. Randy Arozarena followed with his third home run in two games, his seventh of the season.
After Kremer left the bases loaded in the third, Hyde decided that Keegan Akin would start the fourth. Kremer (0-4) allowed four runs on five hits in three innings and his four walks equaled a career high.
“They’re a pretty hot team, as you can see,” Kremer said. “They’re swinging the bats pretty well. When you leave too many balls center cut, you pay for it. I also wasn’t able to land enough breaking balls or changeups, and that’s how it went.”
Kremer doesn’t know why the Orioles are so bad at home.
“It’s not fun, whether it’s home or on road,” he said. “Just getting loss after loss is not an enjoyable way to spend the season.”
Mancini’s home run in the fourth was his 10th. It was the Orioles’ first hit of the game.
Akin allowed two runs in the sixth when the first three Rays (26-19) reached. Ji-Man Choi, who walked in his first three at-bats, singled to score Arozarena, and Brandon Lowe’s sacrifice fly to left increased the lead to 6-1.
Arozarena, the breakout star of last year’s postseason, had seven hits in the last two games, and drove in four with his four hits.
McKenna optioned: The Orioles optioned outfielder Ryan McKenna to Triple-A Norfolk. Anthony Santander is expected to be activated before Friday night’s game with the Nationals, who will start Stephen Strasburg.
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Catch 22, I kind of get it, you want your starters to stretch, yet your pulling them, at this point this sounds sacrilegious, screw winning the game, it looks like that’s the plan anyway, stretch your guys, do whatever the hell you need to do, maybe throw bats in the shower...lol...go O’s...
Lollygaggers.
I don't know what was worst. Losing like we did yesterday, or like we did today? They're both painful.
Just like Hyde, I wouldn't want to pitch Valdez or Lakins either. Not because 'things pile up', but because these guys wouldn't even be considered for a job with any of the other the AL East teams. They are not good.
Outside of Means and 2 or 3 others, this pitching staff is pathetic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the relievers have done a great job all year we're told. Look at the stats you say! Pssshhhhhhaawwww...let's look at the stats come all star break and see where they stand.
This is the kind of garbage staff the Mike Elias has assembled and is selling tickets to folks. But just wait until '24!!
Go O's! Fly United
I’m with you, kind of hard picking which loss was “worste”, pitching is god awful, it’s tough being an O’s fan...go O’s...
No way we go from worste to firste now.
Needed that, funny...:)...go O’s...
No question the Orioles pitching staff is a mess, but the reality is that while waiting for the young guys like Kremer and Zimmerman to (hopefully) develop, Elias has no money to work with. Unlike Duquette, who was able to spend $100 million on two pitching flops (Ubaldo and Cobb), Elias' only option at this point is to sign cheap veterans like Lopez and Harvey at, or barely above, the major league minimum salary.
And by the way, Elias' decision to unload Bundy and Cobb is looking pretty smart right now. Both are having terrible seasons so far with the Angels.
Flops? I would give my right arm for either Ubaldo or Cobb right now.
Considering Ubaldo is 37 and hasn’t pitched since 2017 and never got close to living up to his contract he signed with the O’s and Cobb’s era is 4.78 for the Angels currently, have fun losing an arm for these two.
Silly Rabbit .... I'm talking about the Ubaldo while he was with the O's. He may not have lived up to his contract, but if you put him on this Orioles team, he'd be the #2 starter .. no question.
That's all I was saying.
Not that I care, but Cobb’s era is a full run less than Harveys, so is the state of O’s pitching...go O’s...
The Angels are paying about $7 million of Cobb's salary for 2021 ... Do you believe that Elias would be allowed by ownership to spend $7 million on a pitcher this year? ... Elias has no option but to sign guys on the cheap like Harvey, LeBlanc, etc.
But then again, Elias could have kept him 'eh? That was an option.
Maybe not, Elias was probably directed to unload at least part of Cobb's $15 million salary for 2021, so he made a deal where the Angels would cover $7 million of it.
That may be true, but when hired, we were assured by management AND Elias himself, that he had full autonomy to make baseball decisions. The buck stops at his desk.
Besides ... Elias or management doesn't matter. They could have elected to keep Cobb.
"Pitchers burnt out,starters gotta go deeper". Well at this point the ball is in your hand Mr. Hyde--no matter how bad things are going for them they HAVE to go 5 or 6. Kremer threw 63 pitches--send him back out there. As far as "the front office not saying anything yet"-- what's there to say? Norfolk's pitching is in a flux like the O's. Unless they have the guts to pull 21 year olds out of Bowie this pitching staff as it now stands is on it's own. Getting Tate and Hunter Harvey back is a hope. But the good news I guess is that they're now on the road.Just hoping DC isn't too close to Baltimore.
Akin... 76 pitches in three innings... WOW!!! Double A is his high mark. He talks the good talk about making adjustments but all we get is the same old stuff. Like I’ve posted here since he made his first appearance as an O, he’s not going to be someone to count on. But the O’s just won’t accept the fact that he’s NOT major league quality. How many pitching coaches has he worked with with none of them getting through to him? Just saying....
... and where was Armstrong? A perfect place for him. He only threw 36 pitches on Tuesday.
Totally agree, especially with Armstrong...go O’s...
Lakins went from unhittable to “get Wilkerson warmed up” really quickly.
lol
I hate to say this but Hyde as nice a guy as he is is not the right person to be managing this team
Can’t be buddies...go O’s...
I’m not sure Casey Stengel could win with some of these players. Not saying Hyde is a good manager, however. Outside of John Means the rotation has been atrocious. You guys have already touched on that.
The only offense the O’s seem to have is Trey Mancini. It’s sad that the front office can’t manage to put more talent around him. I know this is supposed to be a rebuild but, man, it looks like Baltimore is in a free fall that doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.
That's a little unfair to Mullins to say only Trey has any offense. Hays has had his moments, and doesn't look lost. The biggest disappointment thus far offensively is Mountcastle. As others have noted, got to stick with him. He is already pressing, and batting him 4th will only put more pressure on him to produce. Mancini is a better 1B and Hays a better LF, so RM will need to DH. DH's need to hit. The IFs, Utility players and the catchers are not capable to be in the major leagues for a club, rebuilding or otherwise. The defense of each of them is mediocre, which for a team with young pitchers is a death knell. Not all Elias' fault, but he deserves some criticism - as does Duquette for having been unable to add middle IFs anywhere is the organization. Now the question is do we rush some youngsters here only to find they are overmatched, (like the Nats' 3B) or trade them for top talent (e.g. Story - SS w/the Rockies?
I hear ya Bruce, but frankly, I'm not sure any judgement of Hyde as a manager is fair with this team. He's in a no win situation. I'm not sure I care for his handling of the staff, but I'm certainly not going to fire him based on what we've seen thus far.
Obviously Willie Nelson’s “On the road again” should be this teams theme song.
I’m not sure Casey Stengel could win with some of these players. Not saying Hyde is a good manager, however. Outside of John Means the rotation has been atrocious. You guys have already touched on that.
The only offense the O’s seem to have is Trey Mancini. It’s sad that the front office can’t manage to put more talent around him. I know this is supposed to be a rebuild but, man, it looks like Baltimore is in a free fall that doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.
You could say that again.
Please don’t...... :)
Don’t know if I can put it on Hyde alone. Tampa seems to have similarly obscure / unheralded players, castoffs from other teams, but has a way of getting a lot more out of them. What that is I don’t know but it seems the Os don’t know either. Maybe they should have poached the Rays FO instead of Houston, whose success we now know wasn’t “analytics” unless that term encompasses cheating.
Go O’s.
I only wish the O’s could be like Tampa Bay but I don’t see it happening. Yes the manager needs better players but Tampa has one of the smartest mangers in the league and always seem to have great pitching coaches . As far as a earlier statement from someone I respect on this chat I have to disagree Ubo was one of the worst free agent pitching signings ever and Cobb was only a fraction better. Which translates to terrible. As for Bundy he has his good nights and bad nights some pitchers like Evoldi after TJ surgery still throw 100 some like Bundy and Harvey lose the whip on their fastball and have to become finesse pitchers
Hey ... Ubaldo was a bad signing ... overpaid ... but he put in his innings and was a serviceable #3 or 4. Cobb couldn't stay healthy for most the contract. I'm not defending either one of them. I also think you're misunderstanding my intent.
All I was saying is this:
If you were to insert one or both of these guys into our current staff, they would immediately become our 2nd and 3rd best starters. This staff is that bad.
:)....go O’s...