6-6 at .500-Your Thoughts?

[Rene88]

This one hurt because it was on a national stage. Overall, if we can't beat this team of subs, we are in deep trouble.

However, it is a long season. But you got to win games against the Yankees against their scrubs.

I see the following this far:

We have better options than Pearce.

Jake may never "get it". He gets a few more starts (2-3) and it will be next man up.

Mark Reynolds would really have helped this team.

This Bundy injury is worse than they are letting on. (Just an opinion)

Lew Ford could help this team.

[baltfan]

Only thing that disappoints me is losing 2 out of 3 from Minnesota. Feel fine about the rest of the series. I am hoping our pitching depth over the course of the season makes a big difference.

[HoustonOrioleFan]

Karoda is no scrub....pitched a heck of a game....a great performance shutting downs the O's offense....move on to the next game.

[TradeAngelos]

This is a .500 team on paper and so far in the standings, my thoughts are I am not surprised in the least bit. They are who we thought they were. (well, some of us)

Looong way to go though.

[Ommaculate]

Kuroda was dealing tonight. Sometimes you have to tip your cap.

[eddie83]

Bullpen is getting better every game.

Starters are throwing OK but need to start going deeper.

I think Nolan might start to get going soon.

Wouldn't mind seeing Casilla get a chance and he will vs TB, they are throwing 2 lefties.

Feel like we should be 7-5 because of the 3 tough/sloppy losses we had. Kuroda and Buchholz pitched great and our pen had 1 bad night.

[MDK02]

I'm trying not to over react to every loss and win, I just hope to have a chance at playoffs come Sept. that's all i ask for.

[Gurgi]

At least we got beat tonight and didnt really beat ourselves.

[bpilktree]

I don't get the we can't loose to these scrubs. Their offenses with the subs didn't beat us their top two pitchers pitched two great games. C.C. pitched well then Mo though we had a few chances against both them and they scored their runs on a drop fly ball. Kuroda was just on his game tonight. The starters pitched well in the games and we only gave up 8 earned runs in a series in Yankee stadium not bad.

[Tbone83]

I guess a loss is a loss, but game 1 and game 3 in this series were just bad losses, for different reasons.

Positive:

Jones and Davis look great

The bullpen has evened out

Manny progressing

Negative:

Starters can't go deep to save their lives

Wieters, after a good first couple games, looks lost at the plate again

Bottom of the order is awful; the DH position is a waste.

Several games have been lost by the Orioles via mistakes rather than won by the other team.

[ShaneDawg85]

This one hurt because it was on a national stage. Overall, if we can't beat this team of subs, we are in deep trouble.

However, it is a long season. But you got to win games against the Yankees against their scrubs.

I see the following this far:

We have better options than Pearce.

Jake may never "get it". He gets a few more starts (2-3) and it will be next man up.

Mark Reynolds would really have helped this team.

This Bundy injury is worse than they are letting on. (Just an opinion)

Lew Ford could help this team.

Subs or no subs, there's no substitute for good pitching. If Kuroda were pitching for the Orioles a lot of folks here would be confident going into any game no matter who was in our lineup. That's what Kuroda is for the Yankees.

Overall there hasn't been any game in which the Orioles weren't at least in it at some point. They've been competitive, and if not for some defensive miscues (Jones) and mistakes (Davis), and bad pitching management by Buck in leaving Chen in too long twice, the results might be a little bit different. The lineup is inconsistent in that the few are carrying the load for the many, but, and this is coming from someone who is not enamored by him, Nolan Reimold can't stay down forever, at least I don't think he can. Flaherty might not get it, but between him and Casilla someone has to step up and hold the fort down till Brian comes back. Wieters is slumping, but he's prone to hot streaks so he'll come around. The bullpen has done well for the most part, and the rotation has bent but not broken for the most part save for a terrible start by Tillman and an uneven performances by Arrieta.

People need to get over Mark Reynolds. He's not an Oriole anymore, and nothing changes that. More importantly, if by the end of April he's struggling, which he's doing in every measurable way save for homers and slugging percentage, are people still going to be saying they miss him? Mark Reynolds doesn't make Buck better at pulling Chen, he doesn't make Davis field a ground ball or Jones catch a fly ball, etc. He's hit some home runs, but that's all he's done, and any offense needs more than that.

[Jonesy10]

I don't think 6-6 is too bad considering the team can obviously play better (Wieters, Hardy, Reimold, 2B have all been black holes for the most part) and the fact that we already had 3 tough road series' against TB, NY, and Boston, although I would've liked a better shoring at home against Minnesota.

[Three Run Homer]

This one hurt because it was on a national stage. Overall, if we can't beat this team of subs, we are in deep trouble.

However, it is a long season. But you got to win games against the Yankees against their scrubs.

I see the following this far:

We have better options than Pearce.

Jake may never "get it". He gets a few more starts (2-3) and it will be next man up.

Mark Reynolds would really have helped this team.

This Bundy injury is worse than they are letting on. (Just an opinion)

Lew Ford could help this team.

I don't agree on Lew Ford and refuse to entertain the idea that Bundy is seriousy hurt.

Otherwise I agree with most of this. It would have been nice to beat the Yankees while they are beat up, but their front line pitching is healthy and better than what we have, and that made the difference this series.

I never understood why we were in such a hurry to dump Mark Reynolds. Once we got him off 3B he wasn't a defensive liability. He has weaknesses as a hitter but he also has power, draws walks and sees a lot of pitches. It's one thing to let him walk if you have something decent to replace him with, but it's another thing to let him walk so that you can give playing time to Steve Pearce. I guess Russ Canzler will be the next man to get a shot at the RH bench bat job when Pearce plays himself back to AAA.

[SteveA]

We have lost 3 games where we have given away runs on defensive lapses.

We have a few guys hitting the ball well, a few guys not so well... pretty much to be expected.

Frobby nailed it... Chen has become the next Guthrie. Pitches well, gets no runs.

Like our bullpen. Concerned about Arrieta like everyone else.

Second base is a black hole in our offense.

[oriole]

At least we got beat tonight and didnt really beat ourselves.

I don't agree. The Orioles approach at the plate tonight was terrible. Swinging at everything and once they caught on to take a few pitches, Kuroda did them one better and made sure they were watching strikes go by instead of hacking for the fences every at bat. Kuroda looked good tonight but the hitters made him look even better.