Baltimore Orioles Battling an Offensive Slump

Over the past three games, the Baltimore Orioles have scored a grand total of two runs over 27 innings, leading to three losses.

For those wondering, that averages out to less than one run a game. That isn’t going to win many Major League Baseball games.

The Orioles have not pitched terribly. A few innings that get away from them, a few pitches they would like to have back.

My last article discussed just how good Joey Rickard had been this year. Since then, he has really struggled at the plate, going 2-20 and seeing his batting average plummet from .350 to .288.

For the rest of the team, the story has been similar. Manny Machado is slumping, going 0-11 with a walk in his last 12 at-bats.

Adam Jones continues to face questions as to whether he is healthy. Chris Davis is seeing his strikeout numbers soar, striking out eight times in the last five games, including two games with 3 strikeouts each.

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Jonathan Schoop is the one who is really struggling. Schoop is 2-30 in his last 9 games. His batting average is down to .200. However, there is a bright side to these numbers. Even though Schoop is not seeing the ball well, he only has 13 strikeouts on the year. That is not a lot for someone who has struggled as much with strikeouts as Schoop has in his young career.

There have been some bright spots. Mark Trumbo continues to be the Orioles best run producer, and Pedro Alvarez is starting to wake up. In fact, Trumbo leads the American League in batting average (.373) and hits (28).

After their 7-0 start, the team has now gone 4-8, and watched their lead shrink to half a game. Now, I could care less about being first in the division at this point. I just want the Birds to be playing well.

The pitching continues to struggle to go deep in games, but overall are doing well. The bullpen continues to be very good as well.

At this point, it is just a matter of getting the offense rolling again.

Many Oriole fans may have expected the offense to no longer fall prey to slumps with their new approach in the first month of the season, with more patience at the plate. So far, it appears that may not be the case.

But, that doesn’t mean the team is not working pitchers. Jake Odorozzi only went five innings on Tuesday night. Chris Archer had a better outing, but he is one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Next: O's Playing to Win, Not Fearing Losses

The Orioles’ offense will wake back up in fact, as the pitching settles in. Every team goes through slumps. How many slumps the team goes through will determine how many days they spend at number one in the always tough AL East.

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