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The Royal Baby was born today, and the Orioles are opening up a four-game series against the Royals. What do you say, CCers? Is this a good omen or a terrible one? Or is it an irrelevant piece of news from another continent that could not possibly impact tonight's baseball game in any way? Oh, don't be such a stick in the mud.
Standing in between the Orioles and the longest winning streak of the season is Wade Davis. Why did the Royals trade Wil Myers in a trade that netted them Davis? Yeah, they got James Shields too, but that was probably a silly trade, mostly because they have sucked so far this year. Davis has also sucked. Like, it's late July and he has a 5.89 ERA sucked. A big part of that is he gets lit up on the road to the tune of a 7.71 ERA, but then he has a 4.44 ERA at home, so, that's not great either.
BABIP has utterly destroyed Davis. He has a .381 this season. This is the case in spite of the Royals, as a team, having the highest overall UZR of all teams in MLB. So it's probably not playing in front of a bad defense that hurts him. Maybe he just isn't pitching very well this year.
All of which means he's no-hitting the Orioles tonight.
The other thing standing between the O's and that winning streak is Scott Feldman. He is their big trade acquisition and that pretty much says it all. Maybe he will yet represent an improvement in the rotation, which he could start by, you know, getting some ground balls and not giving up runs.
Kansas City has scored more than 100 runs fewer than the O's have. Part of that is their stadium, probably. Another part is having over 100 plate appearances by Jeff Francouer (gone), Chris Getz, and Mike Moustakas, among other light-hitting luminaries. Bummer. Also, Miguel Tejada is starting tonight. How is that even possible?
This is a series that could be a serious let-down for the O's, who just swept a contending team in Texas. Now they're facing a team with nothing to play for, on the road. They need to keep winning because Boston and Tampa Bay are playing one another, so there is ground to be gained no matter what, as long as the O's win. They need to keep winning to prove they can fire off a long winning streak, and they need to keep winning because every game counts.
Winning series is nice and all, but it's not adding up to what the O's need it to yet. So win even more than that. Please?