JR Oriole

The Rays have played all of 13 road games. 10 of which have been against Washington, Cincinnati, and the white Sox. Their schedule has been easy as hell and unless you think they are literally going to win 80% of their games all year, they are due to lose. A lot.

The Boston game is made even more annoying by the fact that despite all of our wishes for them to be terrible, they are a .600 team nearly a quarter of the way through the season. Sweeping 4 games against Toronto and winning 2 at the NL champs is no joke. Losing last night's game is not a big deal given how insanely talented Atlanta is. Pitching to known Os murderer Kevin Pillar was the problem. If he comes up in a big spot today, just walk him and let anybody else on the roster beat you.

I don’t ever want us to throw a strike to Pillar again. Walk him every time. How many times do we have to watch the same damn hitters destroy us before we get the clue.

I, along with many Os fans, was at the game last night. And everyone I saw (including me) had enough Os gear on to make it obvious that we were fans of the road team. I had no issue with Braves fans. I also went in 2018 when Chris Davis actually had a great series and again, no issues. Maybe it was just a few random people in the past who chose to act like jerks. Not sure. Maybe now, since they recently won the World Series (and UGA has won multiple titles), they are far less ornery and easier to deal with. Yet another reason championships are so important.

I am more concerned with the fact that our division is completely insane. We are already 42 games over .500 and it is May 5. The next best is the NL East at a whopping 5 games over. Every other division is under .500. You can remove Tampa, Baltimore, and Boston and the AL East would STILL be more games over .500 than any other division. I knew the Red Sox were way more talented than people wanted to admit, but good grief. Things should level off at some point, but this is crazy.

Kevin Pillar, over the course of 91 games against the Os, has hit .321 with an OPS of .868. His 47 career RBI against us is 15 more than he has against anyone else. Absurd. I live here in Atlanta and I will be at the game tomorrow night.

He should make everyone nervous. Every outing is a nightmare

Did Bautista become Mitch Williams in the off-season?

Man, that second baseman just channeled October 2001 Jeter.

Agree. Tampa deserved that loss today as much as any team deserves an April loss. A 23-5 record going into today was ridiculous and their 2-4 record against Toronto and Houston was more reflective of who they really are then 22-1 against everyone else. Their May schedule is brutal.

Yeah it is important. Can't lose every series you play to division rivals. Bad for confidence.

We were 9-9 against Boston, Toronto, and Tampa heading into our last game with each of them and with a chance to win the season series against all three, we lost each game. Those three wins were the difference between 83 and 86 wins and the playoffs. I totally agree with you guys about how we as fans should feel and how the team should feel about matching up with our divisional rivals. But I need to see us actually come through and win these big games against them before I believe we are there. It starts with Boston this coming week. Have to at least take 2 out of 3, especially with first ballot HOF slugger Duvall out of the lineup.

Do they ever play Saturday home games in the afternoon? I don't have the stats, but it feels like the Orioles play fewer Saturday home games in the afternoon than any team in the majors. I am not sure what they have against them when it can't be that much hotter during the day than it is in many of these other baseball cities. Especially not in April and May.

I love the fact that he was basically impervious to the pressure that most players feel in October, so I would love someone like him in the playoffs who we know can mentally handle it. But that was also a long time ago and he just doesn't seem even remotely close to being that guy anymore. I am fine with not adding him and instead just being eternally thankful to him for being the only reason the 2014 Royals didn't win the World Series.

I can't say that I am particularly anxious to face divisional rivals in these series. The only two series we have lost this year were to Boston and New York. Last year, we lost the season series to all four rivals. We were a pretty good team last year and especially so outside of our division, but the AL East seemed to have our number in key games like they so often have in the past. So I need to see us start to win these series on a consistent basis before I get excited about matching up with them. Boston is, on paper, not even close to a typical last place team. They are far better than that, which speaks to the ridiculous strength of the division. I am glad we are no longer the doormat to gift wrapping everyone 90 wins like we were just 2 seasons ago.