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Zach Britton has faced 1,090 batters in his big league career. The good news is that their collective slugging percentage against him (.404) is lower than that of what passes for an ace on the Orioles staff this year. Chris Tillman has allowed a .420 slugging percentage this year. The bad news is he walks so many hitters.
The Indians send this lineup against him:
Indians lineup vs. O's: Bourn CF Swisher 1B Kipnis 2B Santana DH Gomes C Cabrera SS Raburn LF Aviles 3B Stubbs RF. McAllister RHP
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) September 4, 2013
Only Nick Swisher has faced Britton more than ten times. He has four hits in twelve at-bats and has taken a walk four times.
The big problem for Britton, courtesy of the Orioles game notes, is that he has a 2.70 ERA in the first five innings and a 20.25 ERA in the sixth inning on. It's almost as if, like so many O's starters before him, he has problems with his stuff getting through a batting order the third time.
Here are your Orioles facing off against Zach McAllister:
#Orioles 9/4 lineup vs #Indians: Roberts DH, Machado 5, Davis 3, Jones 8, Markakis 9, Wieters 2, McLouth 7, Hardy 6, Flaherty 4, Britton 1
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) September 4, 2013
Wilson Betemit has faced McAllister nine times, is 3-7 with two walks, and is not in the lineup tonight. We should all be OK with this, because that was probably a healthier Betemit. He has seen McAllister more than any other Orioles player.
J.J. Hardy and Ryan Flaherty have each hit a home run off McAllister, who is right-handed. The O's lineup has several righties who hit right-handed pitchers better than left-handed pitchers, which may be a good sign.
They need today to be a win. They've needed a lot of games to be wins that they've lost recently, so it's not worth much. But maybe this group can pull it off today. They need to get things rolling with a solid start from Britton, then the hitters need to maybe score some runs. It sounds so easy.