Baltimore Orioles: Big Inning Team Strikes Again

Jun 29, 2016; San Diego, CA, USA; The Baltimore Orioles celebrate a 12-6 win over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports /

The Baltimore Orioles used two big innings to defeat the Padres 12-6 on Wednesday while winning their seventh consecutive game.

The Orioles have indeed become the offensive force that many anticipated could eventuate if most of the roster could play at a high level. It is happening in a big way.

The Birds have scored 82 runs over the past 10 games, winning eight of them. They now have a season-long run total of exactly 400 runs scored for a 5.19 average per game. The Red Sox are the only team that has plated more, scoring 434 runs. The O’s are closing the gap on them.

On six occasions over the past six games, the Orioles have scored four or more runs in a single inning. As was said on the radio broadcast yesterday, the O’s are a team that is always in scoring position with a lineup where pretty much everyone can homer.

With all of the runs scored, starting pitchers don’t have to be great, just sufficiently decent. But it has been great over the past two San Diego games to see Ubaldo Jimenez and Yovani Gallardo combine for 11 innings. The Padres scored four runs off them, though three of them came in one swat where Gallardo was perfectly ambushed by the hitter.

If Gallardo in particular can pitch as he did yesterday, that could be as big as pretty much anything else that could happen to the Orioles over the second half of the season. He plays on the corners with a variety of pitches in fashion of a wily veteran. But the occasional good fastball sure would help, and he threw them as high as 92 mph yesterday. That will work for him.

Just when the starters turn a corner, the relievers turn one in the opposite direction. At the same time over the past two games, the bullpen has given up nine earned runs in seven innings. Of course six of those were by Oliver Drake, with another three off McFarland. So this is not something to stress much about.

Baltimore has not lost a game since the silly “one-game series” that was played in Texas. Worries were that this would impact the team negatively. It certainly did not, though it could be said that the opposition since then has been less than terrific.