Orioles Weekly Wrap: August 28th - September 3rd

Resutls and Standings

The Orioles went 1-5 again this week against Texas and Tampa Bay, making it 12 losses in 14 games. Ouch. The offensive struggles continued, with the team scoring 16 runs while allowing 37. The one win was via a walk-off, meaning it was a close shave and nowhere near domination.

The team is 64-69 now, 12 games out of first and 6.5 back of a wild card spot. They are not mathematically eliminated, but with 29 games left it is getting that way. Their predicted end-of-season record has slipped all the way to 78-84.

Best Hitter / Worst Hitter

Chris Davis was far and away the team's best hitter this past week, notching a 171 wRC+ on the back of a .261/.346/.652 line with three homers. He appears to be having a strong finish to a season that, assuming recency bias kicks in, may price him out of the Orioles' future plans.

No other Orioles regular had even an average offensive line. On the other end, Adam Jones is scuffling to the finish line. He put up a 6 wRC+ last week with a .167/.200/.208 line. He needs five homers to reach his total of 29 from last year, and six to get back to 30. Will he make it?

Best Start / Worst Start

Here again is where the term 'best start' could get controversial. By the things I'd expect him to control, Chris Tillman's start against the Rays wasn't bad at all, despite him lasting just 4.2 innings and being charged with seven runs. He struck out five and walked two but didn't give up a home run. The Rays had many hits against him and the Orioles defense, and they happened to do so with men on base. It's also important to note that his replacement on the mound, Steve Johnson, surrendered a few hits that contributed to two of these runs.

On the flip side, Kevin Gausman's start in the series was very bad, which is probably why he got yanked after 2.1 innings. He struck out one, walked two, and gave up two home runs.

Have a Game, Why Don't Ya!

Walk-off jacks will almost always get you highlighted in this section, and today is no exception. But Chris Davis contributed in other ways to the Orioles' lone win this past week. He singled to lead off the bottom of the 2nd against Erasmo Ramirez, and then in the bottom of the third he clocked a two-run home run to tie the game at 4. He was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the 6th, and popped out in the bottom of the 8th. But he wasn't done. With the score tied 6-6 in the bottom of the 11th, he drilled a leadoff home run on a 3-0 pitch to give the Orioles the walk-off win, 7-6.

Clutchiest Relief Appearance

Brad Brach also deserves some credit for the win. Well, besides literally getting credited with a 'win'. He faced just three batters in the top of the 10th to keep the game tied, and in the 11th he allowed just a walk to someone named Mikie Mahtook before inducing an inning-ending fly ball from Brandon Guyer.

Upcoming

The Orioles try to jam a prybar into their rapidly closing playoff window. If that fails, they'll play spoiler against Toronto and the Yankees before returning home to face the Royals for three games.