Well that sucked!

[Aristotelian]

Sorry, if there is a lighting issue then Gausman should have used it to his advantage. Unless Valubena was wearing special contacts.

[ReclaimTheCrown]

Sorry, if there is a lighting issue then Gausman should have used it to his advantage. Unless Valubena was wearing special contacts.

Oh I agree - I don't buy an excuse that there was something in the lighting in Houston that made us strikeout an absolutely ludicrous amount of times. Just pointing out that Buck made reference to it.

Whatever it is, though, we haven't looked good down there the past couple trips. Glad we don't go again until 2017.

[Teddy OBP]

While I totally agree with that breaking a 100 year old 3 game strike out record to mediocre pitchers is a tad alarming.

Yep. Infuriating to watch. Lighting or whatever, if the ball is 8 inches off the plate it shouldn't make much difference. Rickard's 3 pitch strikeout with the based loaded was absurd.

They were talking on MLB Radio the other day about Manny Ramirez sometimes intentionally going entire at bats without swinging when he was in a slump. Just going up and watching and learning (seems a little extreme, but it's Manny). Seems like the team could have benefited some from that type of approach.

[Ripken]

Yep. Infuriating to watch. Lighting or whatever, if the ball is 8 inches off the plate it shouldn't make much difference. Rickard's 3 pitch strikeout with the based loaded was absurd.

They were talking on MLB Radio the other day about Manny Ramirez sometimes intentionally going entire at bats without swinging when he was in a slump. Just going up and watching and learning (seems a little extreme, but it's Manny). Seems like the team could have benefited some from that type of approach.

Jones would walk 50% of the time (for a while) if he did that. No one throws him strikes (and reasonably so).

[El Gordo]

They shouldn't have swung at anything that smelled of a curve, 80% would have been balls.

[SteveA]

Just a slump or showing our "true" colours that most everyone thought before the season began?

Well, I don't think our "true colours" are that we will strike out 17 times per game all season. It had never been done in a 3 game series before. So clearly that was an aberration.

The league has a book on how to pitch us. We have to adjust now.

[SteveA]

Buck made reference to it post-game last night:

http://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2016/05/adam-jones-lets-get-the-hell-out-of-houston.html

?Guys don?t want any excuses. I?ve got some real thoughts I?ll keep private, but our guys don?t want to hear about excuses or anything. They?d be the last to use them. It?s not one person, it?s been a challenge for all of them, even guys who normally are pretty good contact hitters.

?Kevin?s not the story, for me. It?s more about us (not) scoring runs. Kevin pitched well. You see all the strikeouts in this ballpark. With the change in lighting, it?s been tough. What did they have tonight, 13? They had 10 or 11 the other night. They get new LED lighting? It?s definitely a different look for the hitters. I?ll tip our hat to the pitchers though.?

Interesting comments, and he's clearly implying more than he's actually saying. Not sure if it's just excuse making, or whatever. We had a similarly frustrating series in Houston last year, too. Just happy we don't have to go back there again. Time to move on and play well against Cleveland with a big homestand coming up.

When did the new lights go in, just before our series? Did the team they hosted before us strike out 50 times?

Right now there is a book on pitching to most of the Orioles. Everyone is going to follow it until we adjust.

FWIW, it looks to me like Manny has already started adjusting. Maybe Wieters too. I hope some of the other guys follow suit.

[Redskins Rick]

Yep. Infuriating to watch. Lighting or whatever, if the ball is 8 inches off the plate it shouldn't make much difference. Rickard's 3 pitch strikeout with the based loaded was absurd.

They were talking on MLB Radio the other day about Manny Ramirez sometimes intentionally going entire at bats without swinging when he was in a slump. Just going up and watching and learning (seems a little extreme, but it's Manny). Seems like the team could have benefited some from that type of approach.

Hitting a little white ball coming in at 90+ MPH is not as easy as some think it is.

[Tx Oriole]

Just a slump or showing our "true" colours that most everyone thought before the season began?

I think it's just a slump. I can't see the team playing this badly for the rest of the

season.

[Tx Oriole]

Hitting a little white ball coming in at 90+ MPH is not as easy as some think it is.

I am sure it isn't an easy thing to do.

[OFFNY]

Hitting a little white ball coming in at 90+ MPH is not as easy as some think it is.

Charlie O. Finley had the solution for that:

[webbrick2010]

Hitting a little white ball coming in at 90+ MPH is not as easy as some think it is.

Apparently for the O's it's a lot easier than hitting a little white ball coming at 84 or 74 or

even 64

[Redskins Rick]

Apparently for the O's it's a lot easier than hitting a little white ball coming at 84 or 74 or

even 64

I have to agree with Tony-OH and what he said in another thread.

This is a good offensive team that went through a bad period, but they are still ranked pretty good offensively.

Baseball is a long distance event, not a quick speed burst.

it sucks to be swept but over the course of the 162 series, it happens.

The season isn't over by a long shot.

[ReclaimTheCrown]

When did the new lights go in, just before our series? Did the team they hosted before us strike out 50 times?

Right now there is a book on pitching to most of the Orioles. Everyone is going to follow it until we adjust.

FWIW, it looks to me like Manny has already started adjusting. Maybe Wieters too. I hope some of the other guys follow suit.

Again, to be clear, I'm not saying I'm buying some types of lights excuse. Or that the Orioles are trying to make that excuse. Just noting that Buck referenced the lights in his post-game interview.

Agree with you, though, that it's on us to adjust. I personally think we'll snap out of the funk and get back to hitting pretty well here soon.

[Ori-Al]

Yeah, the K's really sucked in that series. Also, the team went 4 for 28 with runners in scoring position. Game 2 of the series was particularly frustrating. We had 11 hits and 4 walks in that game, but went 2 for 14 with RISP. But these things tend to be episodic over a long season.

How many of those 24 fails w/ RISP were strikeouts? As Palmer was saying, no way to advance runners if hitters make outs without putting the ball in play (save for relatively rare wild pitch or passed ball on strike three.)

52 of 80 outs in series were strikeouts.