Baltimore Orioles: A Look at Sunday’s Startling Details
By Nate Wardle
Another rough outing for Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Kevin Gausman against the Boston Red Sox Sunday afternoon.
It was another day and another loss for the Baltimore Orioles‘ Opening Day starter. After the successful end of his 2016 campaign, this was supposed to be the year Gausman became a star.
Not so far.
Gausman now sits at 1-2 on the year, with a 7.50 ERA. In 24 innings, he has allowed 34 hits and 15 walks for a WHIP over 2.000. He has allowed 20 ERs and four HRs, with three of those HRs occurring on Sunday.
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Gausman has only struck out 17 people in those starts.
Sunday, he went 5.1 innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and the three homers. After the first two batters singled for Boston, Mookie Betts hit a 3-run HR to start the game. Hanley Ramirez then went back-to-back.
Mitch Moreland added another home run later to finalize Gausman’s line.
Even in his good starts, which would be the two against the Toronto Blue Jays, Gausman has labored through innings, leading to him pitching 5.1 and six innings in those games.
Perhaps even more glaring is that the rest of the pitching staff has been consistently good (except for Ubaldo) while Gausman has struggled.
Offense continues to struggle
The Baltimore Orioles are 12-5, the best record in the game.
However, since Opening Day the team has scored the following runs per game: 3, 3, 6, 5, 3, 1, 12, 2, 6, 1, 11, 3, 2, 2, 2, 4, 2.
The Orioles are averaging four runs a game. Their run differential is +7, which speaks more to how strong the pitching has been so far.
In the game where the Orioles scored 12 runs, seven of them were via the home run, on a day when the Orioles hit five home runs.
In the game where the Orioles scored 11 runs, eight of them were via the home run, on a day when the Orioles hit four home runs.
Trey Mancini hit two home runs in both of those games.
Take out those games, and the Orioles have scored 45 runs in 15 games, a three-run per game average.
The bottom line is this team is not scoring runs. Some of it is cold starts by players. Jonathan Schoop was ice cold the first week but is now carrying the offense. Manny Machado has been quiet but had a nice weekend with the bat. Adam Jones and Welington Castillo have both been good. Mark Trumbo and Chris Davis have been quiet.
The pitching staff has done a great job so far, and who is to say it won’t continue?
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But, the Orioles are built as a team that will score runs, and so far that hasn’t happened.
More than any look ahead to the next game against Boston, the Gausman issues and the offensive woes are what is most concerning.