vs. ROYALS, 4/23

Baltimore Orioles (10-5, 1st +2.5) @ Kansas City Royals (11-5, 1st +0.5)

Streak / L10

BAL: -1, Won 2 of 3 / L10: 5-5

KCR: +2, Won 3 of 4 / L10: 7-3

Game 2 (7:15)

(QS=0)Tyler Wilson (0-0) 1.13 (1.00/.200), 4/2 (0HR)

vs.

(QS=1)Kris Medlen (1-0) 2.38 (1.41/.211), 11/8 (0HR)

Tyler Wilson: This will be Wilson's first start against the Royals and it will come in their house. He has only thrown eight innings so far in 2016, but opponents are hitting .294 when Wilson pitches from the windup and lefties are faring better early on. This is going to be a tough start for Wilson. We will see how pitching to contact goes over against an offense that just won a World Series.

Splits & Sits

14 vs. left: .231/.286/.286

18 vs. right: .176/.222/.222

Bases Empty: .294

RISP: .200

RISP w/2 outs: .333

Men on w/2 outs: .143

Man on 3rd, < 2 outs: NA

Career @ Kauffman Stadium (0 starts)

First start!

Career vs. KC (0 starts)

First start!

vs. Batter

Damnit, I said first start! Who writes these things anyway?

Kris Medlen: Medlen is being tried again as a starter this season after missing all of 2014 to have his second TJ surgery and throwing only 58.1 innings last season in relief. He has one quality start which was his last one where he went 6.1 innings and allowed only one earned run and two hits, but walked four and needed only 86 pitches to get that far. Medlen has a 16/11 ratio keeping the ball on the ground more often than not. Medlen has allowed only four runs in 11.1 IP so far with only eight hits, but the eight walks isn't good.

Medlen has not pitched well at Kauffman so far and got roughed up by the Orioles in the 12 innings he has logged against us. None of our guys even have 10 AB's with Alvarez's 2/8 being the largest sample size.

Splits & Sits

22 vs. left: .111/.273/.182

24 vs. right: .300/.417/.292

Bases Empty: .182

RISP: .182

RISP w/2 outs: .286

Men on w/2 outs: .286

Man on 3rd < 2 outs: NA

Career @ Kauffman Stadium (5 starts, 2 relief)

(2-2) 6.37 (1.27/.287), 6HR

Career vs Baltimore (1 start, 2 relief)

(1-0) 5.25 (1.50/.279), 12H / 6BB in 12 IP

vs. Batter

Pedro Alvarez 2/8, RBI, BB

Adam Jones 3/4, HR, 2RBI

Chris Davis 0/3

Manny Machado 1/3, 2B

Nolan Reimold 1/3

J.J. Hardy 1/2

Jonathan Schoop 1/2

Matt Wieters 0/2, 2K, BB

Gallardo only going two innings and allowing four earned runs was something the Orioles could not recover from as Chris Young continues to pitch well against the Orioles and at his home ballpark. We will have to wait to see if Gallardo is injured, but TJ McFarland pitched very well in relief and despite keeping the Royals off the board the rest of the game, the Orioles were only able to get two runs of their own and take the 4-2 loss.

In game two, it's Kris Medlen and Tyler Wilson. Medlen has not settled into his new home ballpark as his numbers are not pretty in seven appearances at Kauffman stadium nor are they pretty in the 12 innings he has faced the Orioles. Wilson on the other hand will be popping his KC cherry as he will see both this team and this park for the first time in his career. As we saw in game one, pitching to contact might not be such a good approach. We'll just have to see how Wilson does. This one really could go either way. Aside from the walks, Medlen has looked pretty good. The Orioles seem to be back to their old free swinging ways and if that's the case, Medlen may do well in this game.

At the time of writing this, Boston's game has not yet finished, but they are ahead of Houston 5-1 in the 8th inning which would put Boston 2.5 games behind us. If they somehow lose that game, I'll correct it later. The Orioles are now 5-5 over the last 10 games as they struggle to win on the road. I find it interesting that no team in the division has a winning L10. Baltimore, Toronto and TB are all 5-5 and Boston will join them if they win tonight while the Yankees are a miserable 3-7 as they sit 6-9 in last place four games out. The Orioles have the best home record at 7-1 while all the others are .500 or worse at home and all except Boston have losing records on the road, too. Who will be the first to get hot and take charge?

I was in KC a few years back and had a wonderful time at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

https://www.nlbm.com/s/index.cfm

Straight out of KC

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It's game time, let's get it done, we need this one tonight.

Surprisingly I am very happy to see Kim instead of Alvarez. Although I am curious what Alvarez's bat looks like if he plays the field

It's game time, let's get it done, we need this one tonight.

It's 8:00 start right?

It's 8:00 start right?

Nope, almost ready for first pitch.

Hello, all.

I come not to bury the Orioles, but to praise them (I hope.) I'm looking forward to a good start from Tyler. He is a good control pitcher. It would be nice if the offense woke up, too, as they have not been a good job scoring run, for the most part, since the seven-game winning streak (contrary to Rick Dempsey's reviews.)

So, go O's!

Yaz went deep for the third time this week.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hello, all.

I come not to bury the Orioles, but to praise them (I hope.) I'm looking forward to a good start from Tyler. He is a good control pitcher. It would be nice if the offense woke up, too, as they have not been a good job scoring run, for the most part, since the seven-game winning streak (contrary to Rick Dempsey's reviews.)

So, go O's!

It will be interesting to see how Kim does. Wilson pitches to contact, so Kim should get plenty of fielding chances. I hope he does well.

Winning is also harder because of the expanded playoffs. It was much easier when you only had the AL champion versus the NL champion before expansion led to division and divisional playoffs, and then came wildcards. By the way, I like the one game wild-card game. If the team doesn't want to be in a one-game playoff, when the division, otherwise thank the baseball gods you can now get into the postseason without winning your division.

Joe Angel hasn't given Hunter a nickname yet as far as I can tell.

Sign this guy!