Dear Rain Gods: Please rain tonight's game out.

[ExileAngelos]

I am hoping for a rain out but for other reasons.  This is the one of two games that us DC area fans can conveniently attend and I'm not going tonight to sit through mid '50's drizzle with possibility of postponement.  And I couldn't go last night because of Caps <sigh>

 

I'm hoping they reschedule for a much nicer day. 

[xian4]

Rainout suits the Nats too, they get Kelley and Glover back tomorrow

[mskrulz]

I would hope if they were gonna rain out they would take into consideration the contigent of fans driving from Baltimore. I should have listened to a friends weather prognostigation rather than my own

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, TINSTAAPP said:

They don't need a quality pitcher. They just need a guy who can come in and soak up innings without embarrassing himself so the bullpen isn't gassed out by the All-Star break. The Red Sox have a much better starting rotation than the Orioles yet even they are carrying 12 pitchers. It's hard to survive in this division with a 11-man pitching staff. 

I'm not saying the O's should stick with an 11-man staff.   I'm saying the biggest problem is the load on Brach, O'Day and Givens, and that adding another reliever won't fix that problem.    Unfortunately, the way to fix it is by having someone else in the pen pick up some of the innings those guys are throwing -- and it will be someone who isn't as good.     The shuttle has worked well at addressing innings 1-6.

[SteveA]

I have a really nasty cold.   Stayed home from work yesterday.   Had to come in today because of something I need to get done, even though I am still very congested and I think I have a fever.   At least the sore throat is gone.

Anyway, I am punting on the trip down to DC for the game.   I just can't see going out in this weather even if they do play.

So I'm hoping for a rainout too, so I can use this ticket on a nicer day.

[TINSTAAPP]

Just now, Frobby said:

I'm not saying the O's should stick with an 11-man staff.   I'm saying the biggest problem is the load on Brach, O'Day and Givens, and that adding another reliever won't fix that problem.    Unfortunately, the way to fix it is by having someone else in the pen pick up some of the innings those guys are throwing -- and it will be someone who isn't as good.     The shuttle has worked well at addressing innings 1-6.

The offense and starting pitching are to blame for all of those high leverage innings pitched by the back end of the bullpen. If they can play better and have more comfortable leads late in the game, the Orioles wouldn't have to use Brach and O'Day and Givens four times a week.  The rest of the team needs to start picking up the slack. 

[DirtyBird]

3 minutes ago, TINSTAAPP said:

The offense and starting pitching are to blame for all of those high leverage innings pitched by the back end of the bullpen. If they can play better and have more comfortable leads late in the game, the Orioles wouldn't have to use Brach and O'Day and Givens four times a week.  The rest of the team needs to start picking up the slack. 

This is ridiculous.

The starters are towards the top of the league in quality starts and the offense has been scoring plenty over the past few weeks.

The bullpen has been turning low leverage situations into high leverage situations. They are making their own bed.

[Malike]

A rain day isn't going to fix the bullpen. Its bad. It's been bad and it will stay bad.

[Malike]

24 minutes ago, TINSTAAPP said:

The offense and starting pitching are to blame for all of those high leverage innings pitched by the back end of the bullpen. If they can play better and have more comfortable leads late in the game, the Orioles wouldn't have to use Brach and O'Day and Givens four times a week.  The rest of the team needs to start picking up the slack. 

A 6-2 lead isn't comfortable in the 8th? How about 11-4? Lol.

[TINSTAAPP]

32 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

This is ridiculous.

The starters are towards the top of the league in quality starts and the offense has been scoring plenty over the past few weeks.

The bullpen has been turning low leverage situations into high leverage situations. They are making their own bed.

The Orioles have three blowout wins compared to the Yankees nine while the Astros, Rockies and Nationals all have six blowout wins. Since April 16, the Orioles have won only one game by more than three runs. The Yankees, Rockies and Astros have six wins by four or more runs over that same stretch while the Nationals have won five. It's really not debatable. It's a fact. The Orioles put more stress on the back end of their bullpen than other top teams out there by virtue of playing a lot more close games. 

[Frobby]

7 minutes ago, TINSTAAPP said:

The offense and starting pitching are to blame for all of those high leverage innings pitched by the back end of the bullpen. If they can play better and have more comfortable leads late in the game, the Orioles wouldn't have to use Brach and O'Day and Givens four times a week.  The rest of the team needs to start picking up the slack. 

Well, the offense is what it is.    Averaging 4.52 runs/game, slightly above league average and pretty much the same as last year.    As to the starters, they have an ERA of 4.04 which is 6th in the league and about a half-run better than last year.   Their IP/game is low (5.45), but that's largely due to the games where Gausman was ejected and where Miley got hit with two line drives.    Without those two games they're at 5.76 IP/game, which is above league average.  

I think what it boils down to is we've been winning a lot, which means there are a lot of late inning leads to protect, and we haven't had a lot of blowouts either way.   We've also played a lot of extra inning games (we've had 6; the average team has had 3).     So there have just been a lot of situations where it was appropriate to call on the "A team," and Britton's not there to bear a share of the load.    

[DirtyBird]

30 minutes ago, TINSTAAPP said:

The Orioles have three blowout wins compared to the Yankees nine while the Astros, Rockies and Nationals all have six blowout wins. Since April 16, the Orioles have won only one game by more than three runs. The Yankees, Rockies and Astros have six wins by four or more runs over that same stretch while the Nationals have won five. It's really not debatable. It's a fact. The Orioles put more stress on the back end of their bullpen than other top teams out there by virtue of playing a lot more close games. 

In the past week, Bundy left with 6-3 lead (6-5 final), Gausman left with 6-2 lead (6-4 final, men on base, running error), Miley left with 6-2 lead (only 5 innings, 7-6 loss).

[Frobby]

In another thread, OFFNY transcribed an interview with O'Day where he suggested that if this game is rained out, the O's could reschedule it for a day game on a day when they have a night game in Baltimore.    Has anything like that ever happened?     That idea seems crazy to me, even though theoretically possible.   It would place the O's in a severe disadvantage for the night game against a rested opponent and with half the bullpen probably unavailable.   

[DirtyBird]

41 minutes ago, TINSTAAPP said:

The Orioles have three blowout wins compared to the Yankees nine while the Astros, Rockies and Nationals all have six blowout wins. Since April 16, the Orioles have won only one game by more than three runs. The Yankees, Rockies and Astros have six wins by four or more runs over that same stretch while the Nationals have won five. It's really not debatable. It's a fact. The Orioles put more stress on the back end of their bullpen than other top teams out there by virtue of playing a lot more close games. 

Our pen has the 3rd highest BAA and 8th most walks. That's a lot of extra pitches that they are creating for themselves, and is no fault of the offense.

[thezeroes]

A lot of times a pitcher could stay in for the three inning save and they are pulled for the Big Three at the back end. 

Sunday May 07, Asher was pulled with a Four Run lead just to get Brach in the game for a save.  Should have left Asher to finish the contest.

Monday May 08, Gausman was pulled after seven innings with a 4 run lead.  We rush to the backend again by using O'day (1 Run) and Brach (1 Run) and left Hart and Verrett on the bench.

Tuesday May 09, we were behind and used Verret to finish up what Ubaldo and Givens had held together.  We then optioned him to the Minors and brought up Nuno.

Wednesday May 10, Ahead by Three runs we run Givens, Hart, Asher and Brach out to preserve the win while the call up of Nuno sits on the Bull Pen Bench.  If Nuno can not be trusted with three runs in the sixth then why did we recall him in the first place??