Orioles Report (4/11)

Photo by Paul Rutherford/ Getty Images

New weekly segment we're going to be bringing to y'all, focusing on our local, hometown Orioles! I'm very aware that this first blog is occurring a week and a half into the season, but we wanted to get a little more action under our belt before we jump into things. Expect these to be out exactly seven days apart from here onto the end of the season, ideally sometime toward the end of October...but we shall see! Let's hop into our first ten games.

Record since Last Orioles Report: N/A

Overall Record: 5-5

Red Sox Series

What a roller coaster of a series this was...the first few innings of game one gave us so many things to be excited for. An 8-2 lead, Adley raking, Kyle Gibson looking competent. The fact that it took a pretty gutsy job by Felix Bautista to secure a 10-9 victory was definitely a worrisome sign. Rutschman finished 5-5 on the day, with a walk to give himself a perfect opening day OBP. Ramon Urias and Adam Frazier were sharp too, but two big errors gave the Sox a few too many chances-- and they almost took advantage.

Fast forward to game two and Boston did not fail to utilize the extra opportunity Ryan McKenna gifted them. This loss was particularly tough, with the O's giving up four unanswered runs over the last three innings to blow a guaranteed series win. Dean Kremer's stuff looked good, but he wasn't sharp overall, giving up five earned runs in just three innings. Austin Hays gave us the 5-5 stat line in this one, with Ryan Mountcastle, Anthony Santander and Cedric Mullins also each chipping in five combined hits. Horrible loss though that hopefully doesn't come back to hurt them.

Rubber game from this series was disappointing as well. Our road warriors tied things three apiece in the fifth, but quickly surrendered the lead and never recovered. Cole Irvin was a bit of a disappointment in his inaugural start for the Birds, giving up six earned in four. Mullins and Frazier stayed hot though, at least giving us fans something to smile over in the box score.

Rangers Series

The Rangers came out opening weekend and starched the Philadelphia Phillies, but failed to build on that momentum in their first swing at the Birds. Jon Gray had a brilliant start wasted, going 6 1/3 with two earned runs and seven strikeouts. Those two runs were the only scored on the entire day, on solo dingers by Gunnar Henderson and Jorge Mateo. A liner off the right foot in the second inning cut Kyle Bradish's night short, which was a shame to see because he was pumping on the mound. Tyler Wells was the savior, putting in five excellent innings of work. Four pitcher combined one hitter! Thoughts out to Josh Smith too, who ate a brutal Danny Coulombe pitch off the jaw.

Tuesday night was much of the same: pitchers holding it down and Mateo raking. Kyle Gibson gave up just two in seven strong innings of work, while the speedy shortstop went 2-4 with a dinger and two RBI. Outside of his botched double play in game one, he's been absolutely electric in all facets of the game, which could prove itself to be positively problematic for Mike Elias, given the glutton of middle infield talent on the farm.

April 5th will forever go down as the afternoon of Grayson Rodriguez' first start. He walked his first batter before allowing two earned in his inaugural big league inning, but bounced back really strong over the subsequent four. His day finished with five innings pitched, four hits, that single walk and five strikeouts. It was more than acceptable. Unfortunately for him, Jacob DeGrom was absolutely locked in...striking out eleven over his six innings. Tough loss to end the series but taking two of three on the road is never a bad thing.

Yankees Series

Home opener! What a crowd there was on hand for this incredible game. The good guys jumped in front 4-0 early, headlined by a Gunnar Henderson RBI double. The Bombers fought back though, taking a 5-4 advantage in the sixth. Adley and Ramon Urias delivered from there, providing a single and double that each brought in one. Urias eventually came in on a wild pitch for what turned out to be a critical insurance run. He made a slick double play to bail Cionel Perez out of a jam and Felix Bautista slammed the door on a 7-6 victory. 

Unexciting second game of the series. Cole Irvin looked bad again, walking four in just 4.2 innings work. We only managed four hits on the day. Onto Sunday.

Apparently Brandon Hyde forget to tell everyone in the lineup, except for Adley, to show up for the game Easter afternoon. The phenom went 4-4, collecting two thirds of the teams hits off of Nestor and company. It was a predictably dominant start for Cortes against a team he's owned lately. Tyler Wells pitched pretty well again, could be forcing his way into the rotation. Mullins home run robbery was cool too. Not the series we were looking for against our hated rivals however.

1 Game of the A's and the Week Ahead

Kyle Gibson's third start began a little shaky, but he really settled in after the first, ultimately going 6.1 for Baltimore while notching win #3. Mountcastle, Rutschman and Austin Hays provided most of the team's runs, each hitting bombs out of the park to keep the A's at bay. It was as much of a must-win game as you'll get in April, but no excuses for the Orioles to have dropped this with their ace on the mound.

They've got three more scraps against Oakland in Camden Yards this week, which should amount to at least two more victories. After that, Brandon Hyde and the boys will be heading to the Midwest to square off with the scrappy White Sox for a three game weekend series. We'll touch on those six games next week!

Farm Report

Grayson and DL didn't blow anyone away in their first two starts for the Tides, but they had some bright moments at least. The boys in Norfolk are hitting though, with Hudson Haskin and Connor Norby connecting on some bombs during the first series. Norby's been on fire through their first eight, slashing .343/2/10.

Journeyman Josh Lester had a three homer night, singlehandedly winning the team's second game. 

Colton Cowser's bat presumably isn't far behind, but it's been a really shaky start for the 2021 first rounder. He's currently 3-30 at the dish with ten strikeouts... We've got no reason to think Cowser won't turn it around, but some level of concern is justified.

Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad have really real power. They each hit bombs in Bowie's series win over Akron.

Justin Armbruester pitched five shutout innings in his inaugural start of the 2023 season, only to be upstaged by Chayce McDermott, who closed out the game with four scoreless frames of his own-- recording two more K's than the starter.

Cesar Prieto's a stud, finishing the weekend with a .429 average. Very encouraging start at the plate.

Jean Pinto was sharp in his first start for Aberdeen, allowing just one run on five hits with six strikeouts in 4.1. He's continued to quietly shine at every level of play.

Jud Fabian hit his first dinger for the Ironbirds on Saturday, going three for ten in the series with four RBI.

5th round pick Trace Bright struck out ten in 3.1 during Aberdeen's Saturday double header. For those not good at math, every out he recorded was by K.

Shorebirds started out their year with a 2-1 record. Creed Willems has shown some real pop at the plate that wasn't as common in 2022. Samuel Basallo has brought much of the same, with two home runs in their opening weekend.

Jackson Holliday's the real deal, hitting .462 with four RBI while playing well in the middle infield. The kid looks like his ceiling is only still rising.

Pitching will likely be a problem for much of the year on Baltimore's low-A level, currently surrendering 8.3 runs per game.

Concluding Thoughts

Coming into the season, it seemed very clear that the offense was going to be more than competitive than our pitching. After the Boston series, this observation (concern?) seemed to be quickly coming to light. The starters were not efficient overall, the bullpen looked shaky and had to eat a lot of innings. Not a good combination for future success. Hopefully Dillon Tate and Mychal Givens are able to get back onto the field sooner than later here.

The starting pitchers were better in Texas and against the Yankees overall, but it seems pretty evident that this team's ceiling is only so high with their current rotation. Fortunately, there's a plethora of prospects playing at a really high level that could be dangled.

Speed on the base paths was an area of strength for us that we've really delivered on thus far. The O's stole ten bases in their first three games, the most by any team since 1906. Love that.

Unfortunately, they also allowed 9+ runs to Boston in those first three games. It was just the third time a team has scored that many runs in their first three games since 1901. Not so lovable. 

Gunnar Henderson looks like the real deal. The contact is slowly coming along, as evidenced by his oppo taco dinger vs. Texas, but his eight walks in thirty five plate appearances indicates that he's got a truly elite eye at the dish. Only a matter of time until the average starts to catch up.

Here's to hoping for more productive weeks at bats ahead for Anthony Santander and Cedric Mullins. They've each made some big plays, but .200 and .175 respective averages aren't going to cut it if we want to be a contender.

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@Choppinglines

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