Baltimore Orioles: Winless in Seattle

The Baltimore Orioles have dropped the first two of four games in Seattle and the offence has quieted. Why is this?

As always, when the offence disappears for any time, the opposition pitching likely has a lot to do with it. Seattle pitching against the Birds has been quite good, as has their pitching throughout the first half of the season. The Mariners rank third in the American League in ERA and fourth in strikeouts and K/BB ratio. This is the sort of staff that can give the O’s some problems if they are pitching well at all.

But the Orioles are helping them out. Baltimore batters have struck out 11 times in both of these first two Seattle games. And we are seeing again some of the wild, overly-aggressive swings at balls well out of the strike zone. Jones, Machado, Alvarez in particular have about swung right out of their shoes on occasions. Why throw a strike when batters do this?

At the same time, the O’s have squared-up some balls right at people, as Jones did in the first at-bat last night – a screamer right at the third baseman. It sorta set the tone. And the Mariners made some especially good defensive plays on Thursday evening.

It is no secret that the Orioles need to find a way to win on the road. While being 31-13 at home, they are now 16-19 on the road. The rest of the season from this point forward features 37 home games and 46 away from Baltimore.

It would be good also to figure a way to score more against these Mariners and get a couple wins. In five games against Seattle, the O’s have only won a single contest back in Baltimore. And the Birds have scored but 12 runs in the five games. Has this always been a problem?

Here is a look at the past four years, noting the seasonal series record, how the Orioles did in Seattle, and the total runs scored by the two teams…

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As often appears in studying recent Baltimore history, the great years of 2012 and 2014 have good-looking numbers, whereas the struggles of the odd-numbered seasons can be seen even in the split being considered.

So the Orioles need to put together a couple of wins in these final games. And they are going to need Tyler Wilson and Ubaldo Jimenez to keep them in the games and give the offense a chance. Seattle is a good team without doubt, but they are plenty beatable.