Wednesday Bird Droppings: The Orioles offense is scuffling

Good morning, Birdland!

Scoring four runs in an MLB game is not atrocious. It’s rather middling. A team can win on that effort, but you would just as soon take another insurance run or two if you had the chance. For the Orioles on Tuesday night it felt painful.

Baltimore was 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. That lone hit was Cedric Mullins’ second-inning grand slam, which accounted for their entire offense in a 5-4 loss to the Brewers. It was bad.

The lack of follow through was particularly embarrassing in the bottom of the 8th inning. The middle of the lineup was able to load the bases, but the 7-8-9 hitters couldn’t even put the ball in play. In fact, only one of them made contact of any kind, a foul tip from Jorge Mateo.

It was just the latest for a lineup that has had a tough first week of the season. It’s frustrating because, while no one would mistake this batch of hitters for the Big Red Machine, offense was supposed to be one of the “strengths” for this team. Of course, that could still be the case, but the opening five games have been difficult.

On the positive side of things, Mullins looks like he is breaking out of his Tampa funk, Trey Mancini is swinging it well, and Austin Hays had his best day at the plate of the season (1-for-3, two walks).

As bad as last night felt, they can still nab their first series win of the season. It just has to come against the defending NL Cy Young. Corbin Burnes struck out 234 hitters in just 167 innings last year. He might sit down 20 Orioles on strikes tonight.

Links

As MLB teams adapt to Orioles’ Cedric Mullins, he prepares to adapt back | The Baltimore Sun
Mullins is a king of adaptation. He dropped switch-hitting a year ago and turned into a Silver Slugger. At the moment, he embodies the Orioles entire offense despite having a difficult opening series in Tampa.

This, that and the other | School of Roch
Roch touches on the closer situation, and it sure looks like Jorge López is Brandon Hyde’s ninth inning man. He has the team’s lone save, and he was up in the bottom of the ninth inning last night in case the team took a lead. I personally love it, and it’s not like there are any obvious alternatives.

At Least Pretend You Deserve That Money | Defector
A take on $1.2 billion in taxpayer money being spent on the Camden Yards complex. I’m not sure that I care to connect the team’s on-field performance with the money being poured into their stadium. To me, they are separate issues. Would it actually feel better if the Orioles were good? Not really. The Ravens are a perennial contender. Their stadium is getting some of this money too. Don’t love that either.

Orioles birthdays

Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!

Steve Pearce turns 39 today. He had three stints in Baltimore (2012, 2013-15, 2016). and had the honor of playing for every single AL East team in his 13-season career. His standout campaign came in 2014, when he had a 157 OPS+ across 102 games.

This day in O’s history

1954 - The Orioles play their first game since the franchise moved from St. Louis and dropped the Browns moniker. They lose 3-0 to the Tigers.