Orioles Weekly Wrap: August 21st - 27th

Results and Standings

The Orioles had a miserable week. No two ways about it. They went 1-6 against Minnesota and Kansas City, scoring 24 runs and allowing 32. They are currently 63-64, 8 games out of first in the AL East and 2.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. Their predicted final record dipped to 81-81.

Best Hitter / Worst Hitter

If you want an indication of why the team struggled this week, look no further than the offense. Jonathan Schoop led the team in offense with an hot week, hitting .333/.333/.519 with one dinger for a 133 wRC+. Yes you read that right, his average and OBP were the same, indicating zero walks.

A 133 wRC+ is very good but it's nothing to write home about in the course of a week. But dig deeper and you start to see the problem. The next-highest wRC+ from a regular player came from Manny Machado with 65. After him you have Adam Jones with 57, Chris Davis with 46, Gerardo Parra with 32, and Matt Wieters with an atrocious -5. Yuck.

Best Start / Worst Start

It was close, but Kevin Gausman recorded this week's best start. In seven innings against the Twins, Gausman struck out eight and didn't walk anybody, although he did surrender a home run. He also had a pretty-good 41.2% ground ball rate. An honorable mention goes to Wei-Yin Chen who held his own despite allowing a lot of hits. The week's worst start though goes to Miguel Gonzalez, who lasted just 4.1 innings against the Royals. In that start he struck out just one, walked three, and gave up a home run.

Have a Game, Why Don't Ya!

Part of Schoop's big week came against the Twins on Sunday, the game that Gausman pitched. Batting against Mike Pelfrey in the first inning with the Orioles down 2-0, he grounded out. But when he came up in the bottom of the third with two runners on base, he singled into right field to score Gerardo Parra and narrow the gap to 2-1. Int he 5th inning, he again came up with two runners on base and drove them both in with another single to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead. He singled again in the bottom of the 8th but was stranded by his team mates. He would've been the hero of the game, but Zach Britton blew the save and sent the game into extra innings. Schoop struck out swinging in both the 10th and the 12th; the latter K ended the game.

Clutchiest Relief Appearance

Not to be outdone by Gausman and Schoop, Mychal Givens had a good game on this day as well. He came in to pitch the top of the 10th and had a clean inning, including a strikeout of Byron Buxton. He stayed on into the 11th and got two quick outs before giving up a double to Miguel Sano. Thankfully he got Eduardo Nunez swinging to end the inning.

Three good performances by Orioles players made it all the more frustrating that the Twins scored the tying and go-ahead runs on a couple of defensive lapses.

Upcoming

There is still time left. The Orioles try and right the ship against the Rangers on the road and then come home to play three against the Rays.