Last night was one of those games that kind of makes you ashamed to be an Orioles fan. There have been entirely too many of those games in the last few years, but so it goes. There's nothing quite like seeing a parade of relievers who don't belong on a major league roster getting shelled repeatedly. Those same pitchers are going to be in the bullpen tonight, and probably for most/all of the rest of the season. At least after a day off, Jim Johnson and Koji Uehara should be available. So at least that's something.
If there was one positive thing about last night, it was the O's scoring ten runs off Red Sox pitching. The same relievers who got shelled last night are also still in Boston's bullpen. Plus, the O's will be seeing the same Kyle Weiland who they hit fairly hard for six earned runs over 4 IP a little over a week ago. We can only hope that the O's haven't used up their allotment of offense for the week.
Jeremy Guthrie will be on the mound for the O's. This used to excite me, but Guts has had a tough last month. There have been a lot of jokes on CC that he must really like Baltimore because he is doing his best not to be traded. He hasn't had a good start in a while. No one except for Alfredo Simon has had a good start in a while. The O's 4.89 ERA as a team is still the worst in MLB. They are among the bottom five in nearly every category: strikeout rate, walk rate, home run rate, balls in play rate, HR/FB rate, LOB% and ground ball percentage. They are bad all the way around.
Nothing says wanting to break out of a funk like having Matt Angle leading off, Mark Reynolds batting 7th and Nolan Reimold batting 8th. Who even knows any more? I'm adding yet another self-imposed moratorium and I will no longer complain about the lineup. Everything that could have been said has already been said. We are stuck and no help is on the way. This is what we're rolling with. There are two months left in the season. Oh, geez.
But I'll still be watching the whole way, and so will you, because we are insane. At least we can go into the padded rooms together.
| Red Sox (K. Weiland - R) @ Orioles (J. Guthrie - R) | |||