Baltimore Orioles: The Strikeouts are Really Adding Up
The Baltimore Orioles have tallied 37 strikeouts over the past two losses, squandering scoring opportunities and stranding runners.
It was bad enough to watch 19 strikeouts in a 13-inning game on Tuesday evening, but last night the Birds added another 18 in a regulation contest. Between the two games, the Orioles had 92 plate appearances end with 37 strikeouts, which is a rate of 40%. For comparison’s sake, the American League average is 21%.
More than a little credit goes to the Astros’ pitching staff. They have been throwing some nasty breaking stuff and off-speed pitches. But the Orioles are significantly helping them by flailing wildly at pitches all over the place, in and out of the zone.
The MASN announcers commented upon what I was sitting and thinking: that the advanced scouts of upcoming opponents are watching this. There is going to be a plethora of breaking balls thrown at O’s hitters until they can either prove they can hit it, or they gain the plate discipline to make the pitchers come to them.
The Orioles did manage to out-hit Houston 11-8 last night, but the Birds were also a ghastly 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Tuesday night it was 2-for-9.
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There is plenty of blame to go around, everyone is pretty much contributing to the strikeout walk of shame back to the dugout.
Here are the Orioles in order of percentages of plate appearances that end in strikeouts. Again, about 21% is average: Ryan Flaherty – 32%, Chris Davis – 31%, Nolan Reimold – 30%, Mark Trumbo – 28%, Matt Wieters – 25%, Pedro Alvarez – 24%, Caleb Joseph – 22%, Jonathan Schoop – 21%, Adam Jones – 19%, Manny Machado – 18%, Joey Rickard – 19%, J.J. Hardy – 15%, Hyun Soo Kim – 5%.
As we have noted several times here on The Baltimore Wire, the strikeout totals for the Orioles have not been unique or even near the top of the league. They have been about average, but the last two evenings look like there could be a change coming.