Starting Pitching Carries Baltimore Orioles in Sweep

The Baltimore Orioles are fresh off a sweep of the Minnesota Twins, and now prepare to play the team who is supposed to have the best pitching in the division.

What an opening series for the Orioles. Timely hitting, working counts, good starting pitching, and a good bullpen as well.

As you know with me, it is all about the starting pitching. So, I want to dissect how it has gone.

Game 1 – Chris Tillman – 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 5 Ks, 0 BBs

For sake of evaluating this game, let’s also include Tyler Wilson, who relieved Tillman after the rain delay:

Tyler Wilson – 3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 SO, 0 BBs

Game 2 – Yovani Gallardo – 5 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 4 SOs, 3 BBs

Game 3 – Ubaldo Jimenez – 7 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 9 SOs, 0 BBs

So, that is a total of 17 IP, 12 H, 2 ER (3 runs total), 19 Ks, 3 BBs

Let’s get some cumulative numbers. That is a WHIP of 0.882. For reference, FanGraphs says a WHIP of 1.00 or below is excellent and the average WHIP in 2015 was 1.29.

1.12 strikeouts per inning pitched, which translated to 10.08 strikeouts per nine innings. A K/9 inning rate of 10.0 is rated as excellent. In 2015, the average K/9 inning for starters was 7.40.

Now, the Twins aren’t exactly the best hitting team in the world. Their average last year was .247, 26^th in the league. Their on-base percentage was .305, 28^th in the league.

So, what can we take from these 2.5 starts? Well, let’s not jump to any vast conclusions. Only two teams in baseball have allowed fewer runs so far, and they played each other in the first series, and also in the World Series last year. The Mets and Royals also have only played two games at this point, allowing four and five runs respectively.

But, what we can see is that the Orioles starting pitchers are off to a good start. If the team can average six innings pitched throughout the year, it will allow Buck Showalter to continue his mastery of the bullpen.

The other thing that appears to be the case, much like it was in 2014, is that the rotation is feeding off of a good start. When one pitcher has a good start, it motivates the others to keep pace.