vs. RAYS, 4/26

Baltimore Orioles (11-7, 1st +1.5) @ Tampa Bay Rays (9-10, 4th -2.5)

Streak / L10

BAL: -2, Lost 3 of 4 / L10: 4-6

TBR: +2, Won 3 of 5 / L10: 6-4

Game 2 (7:10)

(QS=1)Ubaldo Jimenez (1-1) 3.71 (1.59/.288), 20/8 (2HR)

vs.

(QS=1)Jake Odorizzi (0-1) 3.97 (1.28/.278), 23/4 (2HR)

Ubaldo Jimenez: The interesting thing here is the whopping .406 BAA pitching from the windup, but dominating numbers with guys on base. I wonder if the Orioles have considered eliminating his windup like they did with Tillman and just have him pitch from the stretch all the time. He certainly seems like a candidate for something like this right now. Jimenez has conflicting numbers since he is 4-1 against the Rays in five starts (4-0 at home), but pretty awful numbers at the Trop in two starts. This could be a tough one to win if Odorizzi continues to be dominating at home and Jimenez continues to struggle at the Trop.

Splits & Sits

28 vs. left: .348/.464/.500, HR

46 vs. right: .256/.304/.348, HR

Bases Empty: .406

RISP: .143

RISP w/2 outs: .125

Men on w/2 outs: .091

Man on 3rd, < 2 outs: .000

Career @ Tropicana Field (2 starts)

(1-1) 4.91 (1.91/.318), HR

Career vs. TB (5 starts)

(4-1) 2.56 (1.29/.242), 2HR

vs. Batter

Desmond Jennings (10 AB) .200, 2B

Evan Longoria 2/9, RBI

Brad Miller 0/3

Logan Morrison 3/3, 2B, 2RBI

Nick Franklin 0/2, 2K, BB

Jake Odorizzi: Odorizzi has been alternating good/bad start and is coming off a bad one. In his two good starts totaling 12.2 IP, he has a 0.71 (0.87). In the bad totaling 10 IP, he has an 8.10 (1.80) which is an extreme difference. His last two was a start of seven scoreless innings against the White Sox allowing only four hits and a walk with six strikeouts. In his last start, he allowed five runs on eight hits including a home run and a walk in only four innings. When we faced Odorizzi on the 10th, we tagged him for four runs on nine hits (1HR) in six innings. If his pattern continues, he would pitch well in this one especially considering the locale. Odorizzi pitches very, very well at the Trop which just happens to be where his two good starts took place and it will be where this one takes place as well. He is a completely different pitcher at home games, but the Orioles have had their way with him overall in nine appearances with Jones and Machado having the most success.

Splits & Sits

37 vs. left: .194/.216/.243

58 vs. right: .333/.362/.517, 2HR

Bases Empty: .259

RISP: .217

RISP w/2 outs: .000

Men on w/2 outs: .111

Man on 3rd < 2 outs: .500

Career @ Tropicana Field (34 starts, 2 relief)

(11-10) 2.76 (1.08/.209), 13HR

Career vs Baltimore (8 starts, 1 relief)

(2-3) 4.94 (1.42/.275), 10HR

vs. Batter

Adam Jones (20 AB) .400, 2B, HR, 3RBI

Manny Machado (19 AB) .368, 2HR, 5RBI

J.J. Hardy (17 AB) .235, HR, 2RBI

Chris Davis (16 AB) .188, 2B, HR, 2RBI, 6BB

Ryan Flaherty (10 AB) .100

Jonathan Schoop 3/8, 2B, RBI

Caleb Joseph 0/8

Matt Wieters 0/6, RBI

Mark Trumbo 2/5

Pedro Alvarez 1/3

Hyun-Soo Kim 1/2

Joey Rickard 1/2, RBI

Kevin Gausman looked very sharp early on consistently hitting the upper 90's with his fastball and commanding it very well and his breaking pitches were no different. Archer also figured himself out for the first time this season and the two went toe-to-toe for the first five innings. The disappointing thing was seeing Gausman lose his composure after a few bad calls and throwing at a batter and barely got out of the inning. He has got to have better mental toughness out there or he's going to get rattled all year at every little thing that goes wrong. In baseball, like in life, sometimes things don't go your way and you have to be ready to deal with it and persevere. The umpire was not consistent by any stretch and I can see why Gausman was upset, but you can't let that get to you. It's part of the game of baseball where half the time, things don't go your way.

As for the offense, well, I hope no one seriously expected anything different. Week long hot streaks where we score 50 runs and prolonged cold streaks where we can't score enough to win is very likely to be the norm this year. Factor in the questionable/inconsistent rotation and I really don't understand how anyone can see a playoff team here. It very well could happen as anything can happen in this sport, but I don't see it at this point. At least Alvarez finally made some good contact tonight which is good to see, but it is revealed yet again that Adam Jones is still playing hurt and would explain why he hasn't been very good this year so far. Why do we let him play is the question? He could have been coming off the DL right around now fully healthy, but nooooo; we have to let him play through it at 70% instead of letting him heal up to 100% where he does the team the most good. I can't stand this pride/ego crap. DL him whether he likes it or not because it is best for the team to have him healthy instead of playing hurt all year.

Jimenez and Odorizzi; well let's see here. Jimenez is horrible at the Trop, but generally very good against the Rays. Odorizzi is a home pitcher and is very good at the Trop, but horrible against the Orioles. There's no telling which way this textbook conflicting data will go, but I guess we will find out tomorrow night!

In the division, Boston has won two in a row as they close to within 1.5 of the first place Orioles with the loss tonight while Toronto lost to Chicago leaving them 2.5 back in third.

That line-up makes more sense. The MLB site preview lineup lists Dariel rather than Pedro Alvarez as DH!

Which Ubaldo do we get tonight? Box of chocolates. If he can get thru the first without too much damage he gets better...if he gets banged up..he usually doesn't recover.

I just saw he is in the top (bottom) five in exit velocity allowed.

Rickard has been pretty quiet of late.

He's really flailing at the ball. Swing doesn't look natural.

Nice at bat by Adam.

Rickard has been pretty quiet of late.

He's a rule five kid.

Rickard has been pretty quiet of late.

He making up for it by missing the cut-off man.

He's a rule five kid.

That is what some of us were trying to tell folks.

He does need to tighten up a bit in the field.

He making up for it by missing the cut-off man.

A guy who never competed at this level, at this game speed.

Ineptitude would be a compliment for how bad that inning was.

Will the real Orioles please stand up.

They adjusted for Rickard. He has to adjust.Slow and outside.

I miss the 1st week of the season and Lady LUck. Does anyone remember what it's like when we got all of the breaks? Like when JJ hit two homers of less than 330 feet.

Now Jones is smoking balls that are outs. Alvarez just missed a homer last night. Breaks aren't going our way.

Will the real Orioles please stand up.

This might be the real Orioles, unfortunately.

Double, wild pitch. Yay!