It has now been 21.2 innings since we scored against an opposing team's bullpen.

[glenn__davis]

Just thought that needed to be mentioned.

Also, 8 straight losses now to both the Twins and Royals.

Also, 6 straight games scoring 3 runs or less.

I'm a glass half full guy but this is painful to watch.

[webbrick2010]

Well I thought Steve Pearce looked good

[sportsfan8703]

Two teams that do the little things and have really good bullpens. We just don't work the count.

[spiritof66]

Well I thought Steve Pearce looked good

He did. He also looked angry. Everyone else seems to be taking this meltdown in stride, with a "Tough loss. But it's a long season, and we'll get 'em tomorrow" attitude. That may have nothing to do with what they're feeling, or how they're reacting in the clubhouse. But it's what I see on the field.

[Three Run Homer]

It seemed to me that the Orioles are shut down (3 runs or less) a lot more than you'd expect for a team with a good offense overall.

But I checked using the situational tool of baseballreference.com, and surprisingly the O's offense hasn't been shut down an inordinate number of times this year. They've been held to 3 runs or fewer in 55 games, which is tied for 22nd in MLB.

However, the O's record in those games is 9-46. Their winning percentage when scoring 3 runs or less is 25th in MLB. (The Cardinals are 27-34 when scoring 3 runs or less, which is insane, BTW.)

So it's not so much that the O's offense gets skunked a lot. It's that the O's do very very badly when they don't score at least 4 runs.

[JayThomas]

Two teams that do the little things and have really good bullpens. We just don't work the count.

I pointed out in the game thread that Mike Moustakas did something that I never see any Orioles doing. He waited on a pitch, then just put his bat on the ball and poked it the other way for a hit. On that pitch every Oriole that I see would've been swinging from the heels.

The two responses that I got were that we hit a lot more home runs.

I looked it up and we are #8 in runs scored with 547. KC is #9 with 545.

The point is that this year, for all our homers, we aren't outscoring the Royals. With our style we might get 15 runs one game and 3 runs for 5 games in a row. With the Royals' style they'd be more apt to get 5 runs 6 games in a row.

I know which one I'd bet on to win more.

[SteveO]

It seemed to me that the Orioles are shut down (3 runs or less) a lot more than you'd expect for a team with a good offense overall.

But I checked using the situational tool of baseballreference.com, and surprisingly the O's offense hasn't been shut down an inordinate number of times this year. They've been held to 3 runs or fewer in 55 games, which is tied for 22nd in MLB.

However, the O's record in those games is 9-46. Their winning percentage when scoring 3 runs or less is 25th in MLB. (The Cardinals are 27-34 when scoring 3 runs or less, which is insane, BTW.

So it's not so much that the O's offense gets skunked a lot. It's that the O's do very very badly when they don't score at least 4 runs.

I would expect the Cardinals or any NL team to have a better record when scoring 3 or less because 3 runs holds up a lot better in the NL than the AL. That said the Cards record is phenomenal when scoring three or less and is a testament to the good pitching they have, our record is not good and is a testament to how mediocre our starters as a group have been. KG gets a mulligan, he is young, got bounced around a bit this year, but he learning and showing some signs of improvement. The rest other than obviously Chen have been mediocre and inconsistent at best. When you have at best 2/5th of your staff bringing it at any one time, its hard to win consistently and build momentum, its not surprising that eventually the cards come crashing down. As much as the offense can be maddeningly inconsistent, its the starting pitching that has doomed this squad. As surprisingly decent as they were the 2nd half last year, they have been equally bad most of this year.

[SteveO]

I pointed out in the game thread that Mike Moustakas did something that I never see any Orioles doing. He waited on a pitch, then just put his bat on the ball and poked it the other way for a hit. On that pitch every Oriole that I see would've been swinging from the heels.

The two responses that I got were that we hit a lot more home runs.

I looked it up and we are #8 in runs scored with 547. KC is #9 with 545.

The point is that this year, for all our homers, we aren't outscoring the Royals. With our style we might get 15 runs one game and 3 runs for 5 games in a row. With the Royals' style they'd be more apt to get 5 runs 6 games in a row.

I know which one I'd bet on to win more.

This is actually a good argument to NOT shell out a ton of dough for CD and rather to find speedier, more diverse players at multiple positions. We cant expect this team to spend 20+ million to bring back CD and have the money to reshape the rest of the offense, replace Chen and hopefully upgrade another starter because even with Chen this staff was not good enough this year. Its just not realistic.

I would rather let CD walk, resign Pearce relatively cheap and let some combo of Pearce, Walker, Mancini, or another veteran bat fill that hole. I would then bring in a pair of OF who are clear upgrades over what we started last year with. Decent fielder, little speed, some pop, good OBP types. I would bring in a substantial upgrade over Flaherty to back up JJ. I think JJ would benefit from more time off, I think the only way Buck feels good about that is if he has a decent option to turn to. I think it also provides a modicum of better protection if Schoop or Manny goes down god forbid.

I think that is a doable plan on a budget which reality dictates there will be. I think you can create an offense that is a little more diverse and perhaps a little more consistent. They might not outscore this years team but they should be good enough if we improve the pitching. I think with the number of FA pitchers out there, there are going to be opportunities to do that. I also think this approach to things also gives you some leeway to get a guy or two on the market to plug in the rotation and creates the long term flexibility to give Manny an ungodly sum to stay. If your not paying CD 20million dollars 6 years from now, that alone makes keeping Manny long term more realistic.

[Herman]

Two teams that do the little things and have really good bullpens. We just don't work the count.

The Church of Sabermetrics would suggest that this isn't a big deal lol

[Herman]

I pointed out in the game thread that Mike Moustakas did something that I never see any Orioles doing. He waited on a pitch, then just put his bat on the ball and poked it the other way for a hit. On that pitch every Oriole that I see would've been swinging from the heels.

The two responses that I got were that we hit a lot more home runs.

I looked it up and we are #8 in runs scored with 547. KC is #9 with 545.

The point is that this year, for all our homers, we aren't outscoring the Royals. With our style we might get 15 runs one game and 3 runs for 5 games in a row. With the Royals' style they'd be more apt to get 5 runs 6 games in a row.

I know which one I'd bet on to win more.

Thank you!!! This is a very good point (which of course is marginalized by the Church of Sabermetrics) and it's a shame that the Orioles' hitters don't take a similar approach. Pitchers don't need to throw strikes to get them out.

[Tryptamine]

The Church of Sabermetrics would suggest that this isn't a big deal lol

What part of sabermetrics suggests that getting ahead in the count and seeing a lot of pitches per at bat is a bad thing?

[SteveO]

The Twins have a decent bullpen and manager who is smart enough to use it right like Buck does.

KC just has some serious horses to trot out. Its not surprising that they have struggled against these two teams BP.

[MDtransplant757]

This is actually a good argument to NOT shell out a ton of dough for CD and rather to find speedier, more diverse players at multiple positions. We cant expect this team to spend 20+ million to bring back CD and have the money to reshape the rest of the offense, replace Chen and hopefully upgrade another starter because even with Chen this staff was not good enough this year. Its just not realistic.

I would rather let CD walk, resign Pearce relatively cheap and let some combo of Pearce, Walker, Mancini, or another veteran bat fill that hole. I would then bring in a pair of OF who are clear upgrades over what we started last year with. Decent fielder, little speed, some pop, good OBP types. I would bring in a substantial upgrade over Flaherty to back up JJ. I think JJ would benefit from more time off, I think the only way Buck feels good about that is if he has a decent option to turn to. I think it also provides a modicum of better protection if Schoop or Manny goes down god forbid.

I think that is a doable plan on a budget which reality dictates there will be. I think you can create an offense that is a little more diverse and perhaps a little more consistent. They might not outscore this years team but they should be good enough if we improve the pitching. I think with the number of FA pitchers out there, there are going to be opportunities to do that. I also think this approach to things also gives you some leeway to get a guy or two on the market to plug in the rotation and creates the long term flexibility to give Manny an ungodly sum to stay. If your not paying CD 20million dollars 6 years from now, that alone makes keeping Manny long term more realistic.

I thought about this today, and you're right. We need to sign Cespedes or someone who has pop in the bat and a good starting pitcher like Price or someone of that caliber. No pick is attached to either. But, Chris Davis is a beast....or he can be horrible. Inconstancy is in the name of his game, but he's a beast when he's clicking

[Frobby]

Two teams that do the little things and have really good bullpens. We just don't work the count.

The Twins have a decent bullpen and manager who is smart enough to use it right like Buck does.

KC just has some serious horses to trot out. Its not surprising that they have struggled against these two teams BP.

The Twins' bullpen had a 4.22 ERA going into the Orioles series, not good at all. It was surprising they were able to shut us down. It's not surprising that KC has shut us down. They have the best bullpen in the league.

[JR Oriole]

The Twins' bullpen had a 4.22 ERA going into the Orioles series, not good at all. It was surprising they were able to shut us down. It's not surprising that KC has shut us down. They have the best bullpen in the league.

It is surprising to me that we are currently 0-9 against Minnesota and KC this year. Seriously, we can't win 1 single game against these teams? Just 1 game where we have more runs than they do by the time the 9th inning is over? KC has a great bullpen, but these guys do have ERAs and do give up runs sometimes....someone should let our offense know.