Baltimore Orioles: Slumps and Streaks, Streaks and Slumps

May 24, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones (10) celebrates short stop Manny Machado (13) home run against the Houston Astros in the sixth inning at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports /

The Baltimore Orioles of 2016 are clearly a team that is going to go through both times of streaks and times of slumps.

That the O’s are such a Jekyll and Hyde outfit is really not a surprise. The team is a sum of the parts, and many of the parts are players particularly streaky in nature.

The season began with seven consecutive wins. They next went 9-12 over the subsequent 21 games before ripping off another seven-game win streak. Since then they are 3-5.

The most consistent part of the game for the Orioles is the bullpen, not surprisingly. Even so, they have now dropped to third-best ERA in the American League, after having had the best for most of the season. The top four teams are honestly very close (including the Royals, White Sox, Mariners).

The starting rotation is right at the league average in most every category. Ubaldo brings a maddening lack of consistency, though now of late it could be said he is trending toward becoming regular – consistently bad!

But it is the offense that is the most-streaky element of the team. This is supposed to be the team strength, the thing that carries the Orioles when the allegedly awful rotation falters over and over. Expectations were that the O’s were going to have to be a team that out-slugs everyone else.

The early anticipation was that there would be many high-scoring games that the Birds would lose. In fact, of the 17 losses, only one time featured seven runs scored, once with five runs and twice with four runs. The other 13 losses have been by three or less. Along the way, the O’s have won five games by scoring three or less runs.

I know what Adam Jones would say. “You’ve got to tip your cap to the other guys and keep grinding.” It is true that there have been some good pitching performances against the Orioles. But if you can’t get to winning close to 50% or so of games against top-tiered pitchers, how can you hope to win a championship?

Think through the lineup. It is full of streaky hitters. Right now, many of the top threats are in something of a funk. Even Manny Machado, who is less susceptible to such slumps, is 5-for-45 in the past 10 games, though with three helpful home runs.

Mark Trumbo looks rather quite lost at the plate in recent games. He has one hit in his last 18 at-bats (a home run), along with seven strikeouts. We knew there would be times like this, even as we acknowledge that this has been a great acquisition in the big picture of things.

Adam Jones looked to be breaking out of his early-season difficulties. After an eight-game stretch in which he was 15-for-34, he has since reverted to a 3-for-30 in the past seven contests.

Chris Davis is yet to hit a truly hot stretch. In the past 10 games he is 5-for-33, though he does get on base with eight walks. However, there are the 14 strikeouts as well.

Joey Rickard dropped from an April average of .280 to that of .233 so far in May, though we understand that this is a growth time for him. On the other side of the ledger is Matt Wieters, who has gone from a .214 average in April to .375 in May. And the same with Jonathan Schoop, going from .218 in April to .333 in May.