The 2023 MLB season is formally two weeks previous.
After opening the season with six street video games, the Orioles got here again to Baltimore for his or her first homestand of the 12 months. The seven video games at Camden Yards had their ups and downs, with a collection loss to the New York Yankees and three wins in 4 video games in opposition to the Oakland Athletics.
Baltimore ended the homestand 4-3, capped with an 8-7 walk-off win Thursday over the Athletics. The membership additionally confirmed off its offseason acquisitions, prime pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez and a brand new dwelling run celebration at Oriole Park.
Here are 5 takeaways from the Orioles’ first 13 video games.
Starting pitchers (not named Kyle Gibson) aren’t going deep sufficient.
When supervisor Brandon Hyde was requested Thursday morning what he was on the lookout for out of beginning pitcher Cole Irvin that afternoon, he shortly responded “nine” — joking that he needed the left-hander to pitch all 9 innings.
Hyde would’ve taken six. Irvin, who was optioned to Triple-A after his poor outing, didn’t even present that.
For the third straight sport, an Orioles starter couldn’t attain the sixth as Irvin struggled for his third consecutive begin to open the season and pitched solely 4 innings. Only 3 times has an Orioles starter recorded greater than 15 outs this season — Kyle Gibson (twice) and Tyler Wells.
“I’m concerned about our pitching in general right now,” Hyde stated. “I feel like we’re gonna turn the corner, like we’re gonna improve. But we gotta get deeper in the game.”
The inefficiency and ineffectiveness from Hyde’s starters have downstream results on the bullpen, which has been overworked already this month. Orioles starters have pitched simply six extra innings than the bullpen — 60 1/3 versus 54 1/3 — by the primary two weeks whereas recording a 6.86 ERA. A first-rate instance of the bullpen’s load is Logan Gillaspie, who pitched in seven of the group’s first 12 video games and warmed up within the thirteenth on Thursday.
The Orioles’ bullpen was a vital a part of the group’s success in 2022. The Orioles’ starters aren’t placing the bullpen in positions to achieve success thus far in 2023.
The Orioles have a scary 2-3 punch.
If not for Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle, the beginning pitching struggles could be much more magnified.
Rutschman and Mountcastle — Baltimore’s Nos. 2 and three batters — are two of the most popular hitters in baseball, and with out them, a 3-1 collection win over the Athletics might have been a 1-3 collection loss.
Rutschman went 11-for-24 with three dwelling runs and eight walks on the homestand. The star catcher has reached base in all however one in all 13 video games. His current sizzling streak continued along with his 405-foot walk-off dwelling run Thursday.
Mountcastle, in the meantime, is 10-for-36 with 5 dwelling runs, three doubles and 16 RBIs since he went 0-for-4 with 4 strikeouts on April 3. He leads the American League with six dwelling runs, 4 of which he hit in opposition to the Athletics.
The duo has already proved to date to be a troublesome one for pitchers to face. The Athletics on Tuesday pitched round Rutschman twice, and Mountcastle got here by in each situations with an RBI single and a grand slam in his nine-RBI sport.
That 12-8 win was one of some video games this season during which the Orioles’ lineup has bailed out the pitching employees. Baltimore entered Thursday with the fourth-most homers within the majors and the eighth-best OPS.
Starter Grayson Rodriguez stated after permitting 5 runs in 4 1/3 innings Tuesday that the “offense had my back.”
“That’s something that this team is about to be known for,” he stated. “There’s a lot of guys in this clubhouse who can swing it.”
The protection continues to be an issue.
Perhaps probably the most confounding a part of the Orioles’ season to date has been the membership’s poor outfield protection.
Last season, the Orioles ranked prime 10 within the majors in a number of key defensive metrics with plus defenders in Rutschman, third baseman Ramón Urías, shortstop Jorge Mateo and middle fielder Cedric Mullins.
Baltimore entered 2023 relying as soon as once more on its protection, because the membership went out and bought strike-throwing, low-swing-and-miss starters in Gibson and Irvin. So far, these pitchers haven’t obtained the protection Orioles pitchers acquired final season.
From the a number of blunders within the opening collection in opposition to the Boston Red Sox — with Ryan McKenna’s dropped fly ball on the prime of that record — to miscommunication between the left fielder and shortstop on a number of events to some situations of overrunning popups, the Orioles’ protection hasn’t been ok.
“That’s been bothering me is the defense we’ve played,” Hyde stated. “We need to play better defensively, really how we did last year. We played great defense last year, and we’ve got to get back to that.”
It’s not simply bodily errors, although. Some psychological errors, like left fielder Austin Hays throwing to the improper base in Wednesday’s loss, have crept in, too.
“There have been a couple mental lapses we haven’t had in the past. Our guys are very aware,” Hyde stated. “For us to be successful, we’re gonna have to play really good defense.”
The Orioles are enjoyable and attention-grabbing …
First baseman Ryan O’Hearn was introduced as much as the massive leagues from Triple-A on Thursday, and he stated he might inform from Norfolk that there have been “really good vibes going on” in Baltimore.
Good vibes, certainly.
The Orioles rank third within the majors in runs, fourth in dwelling runs and tied for first in stolen bases. They additionally rank first in dwelling run celebrations and, in all probability, hydration, too. The membership broke out its new dwelling run celebration this week to a lot fanfare — and a few disappointment.
The “homer hose,” because it’s been named by the group, acquired lots of use in opposition to the Athletics, with Mountcastle, Rutschman and Hays all chugging water from the orange and black hose.
“I absolutely love the fact that we have personality,” Hyde stated. “I think it makes it a lot more fun in a six-month grind of a season. I want our guys to be loose and have fun. All those things — the home run chain this year, the SeaWorld acts we have going on right now — those are all things that didn’t come from the coaching staff. It’s player generated. That’s when, for me, it’s awesome. That just shows you how awesome that personality is.”
… however whether or not they’ll be good stays to be seen.
Despite all of the enjoyable and the homers and the steals, it’s nonetheless early in a 162-game season.
The Orioles are 7-6, with collection wins over the Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics — two of the worst groups within the AL final season — and collection losses to AL East foes within the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The struggles in opposition to the division is an early continuation of the identical development from 2022, when the Orioles performed nicely in opposition to nondivision foes and struggled versus the AL East.
On one hand, the Orioles being above .500 whereas having a 5.49 ERA (fourth-worst in MLB) might present that the group is poised for higher issues forward. On the opposite, the truth that the Orioles are the third-highest scoring group in baseball and are just one sport above .500 — in opposition to a schedule that features three groups that posted 84 losses or extra in 2022 — could possibly be a warning signal.
“We’re still not playing our best baseball by any means,” Hyde stated. “We just have to improve in a lot of areas.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com