The Wednesday afternoon Orioles game thread: at Twins, 1:10

A lot has already gone wrong in a series when you come into the last game trying to avoid a sweep. A lot more could go wrong before it ends. Like, "Steve Pearce is the cleanup hitter in 2015" wrong, and "Christian Walker is the #5 hitter when he was in Norfolk yesterday" wrong. These two preceding things are facts, although whether or not they end up being things that go wrong is something that we will see about as the game unfolds.

Scoring more than two runs in a game would be a nice start. Of course, it'll also be helpful if Ubaldo Jimenez turns in a strong start so that whatever number of runs the O's end up scoring ends up being enough. I feel a good bit better about Jimenez than I do about the offense, which frightens me. Whenever I feel good about the Orioles, nothing good happens. That's in the bylaws somewhere. I looked it up once. It probably explains a lot about the attitude I project in these writings.

On that note, the Twins starter today is Tommy Milone, a left-handed pitcher with an average fastball velocity of a shade less than 88 miles per hour. This is why the Orioles have called up Walker for perhaps just today and loaded up with righties in the middle of the lineup, even if the righties there are weird names for the middle of the lineup. Soft-tossing lefty... well, the good news is that when the Orioles get swept into the All-Star Break, they'll only be two games below .500.