Baltimore Orioles: Losing Early Means Losing Late

Jul 8, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; A general view of Oriole Park at Camden Yards during the fifth inning of the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Angels. Los Angeles Angels defeated Baltimore Orioles 9-5. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports /

The Baltimore Orioles, despite their overall good record, have allowed too many early runs in games.

This is of course symptomatic of a very troubled rotation. And even the better pitchers on the Orioles have a tendency to yield too many first-innings runs (i.e. Chris Tillman).

Falling behind early in games puts a great deal of pressure on the offense, though fortunately the Orioles have a lineup that can and does come back. That the Orioles rank among the best couple of teams in the game in come-from-behind wins is not only a statement about the powerful lineup, it also is the product of deficits due to poor starting pitching.

The problem appeared again last night, predictably with Ubaldo Jimenez starting. On a night honoring the Orioles’ first World Series Championship team of 50 years ago, it was not a good sign that UJ, in only 1.1 innings of pitching, gave up 2.5 times more runs than the entire pitching staff did in the 1966 Series.

This simply has to be the end of the road for Jimenez. The word from the beat writers covering the Orioles is that they are willing to eat the money and let him go. It is time. Heck, it is well past time! In baseball equivalency, we are in about the 15^th or 16^th inning of patience.

Even so, Mike Wright was not categorically better. Scioscia is an attitudinal pain in the derriere to watch hanging over the dugout railing with his chin on folded arms. But can you blame him for being irritated by watching the same pitcher ding three of his guys, including breaking the hand of one of them?

At the end of the night, the Orioles went down to defeat 9-5. They did hit three home runs and were only set down in order in one of the nine innings. But the Birds failed to capitalize on opportunities, going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring positions. And you know you’re not destined to win when J.J. Hardy makes errors on back-to-back plays.

For the season, the first innings numbers for Baltimore are really quite dreadful. The staff has given up a total of 62 runs, which is equal to 6.56 per nine innings. The O’s offense has scored 46 first inning runs. The only other inning that comes close to these numbers for Baltimore pitching is the sixth, actually worse at a 6.88 per nine innings rate. Of course we have seen this be a difficult transition inning when starters are struggling to truly get deep into the game.

If you think it was a rough night for the Birds, the Bowie Baysox had it worse. They dropped a game to the Reading Phillies by a final score of 21-4, giving up all of those runs in the first five innings. Just trying to be like the Big Club, I guess. The Reading team has a record of 62-26, possibly still the best in all levels of baseball. Matthew Grimes – Carolina League all-star with a 1.69 ERA on the season – makes his second AA start tonight and will look to cool off the Phillies.

Is there any good news anywhere in Orioleland? Actually yes. The Delmarva Shorebirds won last night 5-0 on a no-hitter pitched by Ofelky Peralta. It was rain-shortened to five innings, but it still counts! Peralta is a 19-year-old from the Dominican Republic in his third year and is currently 5-4 with a 3.45 ERA. He gave up only one hit in six innings in his previous start, both of these games being against the first-half champion Hagerstown Suns.