26 inning shutout streak

[Moose Milligan]

The last time the Orioles allowed a run was in the bottom of the first inning during the White Sox series.  That was G-Rod's blowup inning where he allowed 4 runs before settling down.

Since then, it's been straight zeros across the board.  

I'm not saying the pitching is this good, but I also don't know if the pitching was as bad as it was to start the season.  The truth, as usual, is probably somewhere in the middle.  But for now, it's nice to have a streak going like this.

[RZNJ]

Playing some poor teams has allowed us to straighten out our bullpen and rotation while still being able to win some games.   Oakland is not good but hit the snot out of our pitching.   Washington's lineup looks really weak.   

[sportsfan8703]

Oh wow.  I hadn't realized that.  It seems even longer with the off days.  

[Mooreisbetter27]

I know the Gnats offense sucks... but they were also coming off a game where they scored 7 off of the Indians that Shane Bieber started.  

[Just Regular]

You can only play who's on the schedule, and hold serve in the Dick Vitale cupcake city stretches.

It still bugs me more OAK hit us around than the relief from handling WAS (8 homeruns YTD vs 21 league average).

Peeking at the team stats on 4/20, the Royals have a .264 OBP.   

B-Ref today shows the MAX OPS+ of the 9 primary Tigers at Riley Greene's 97.

Kerry Carpenter, Gunnar's 2022 rival as a top Eastern League Bat, is going good. 

[Sports Guy]

29 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

The last time the Orioles allowed a run was in the bottom of the first inning during the White Sox series.  That was G-Rod's blowup inning where he allowed 4 runs before settling down.

Since then, it's been straight zeros across the board.  

I'm not saying the pitching is this good, but I also don't know if the pitching was as bad as it was to start the season.  The truth, as usual, is probably somewhere in the middle.  But for now, it's nice to have a streak going like this.

Bradish being back helps.

GRod can be a game changer.

Baker is on track to have a big year.

As of right now, my biggest questions going forward are..

1) Tate and Givens..when are they back and how good can they be? 

2) What is Wells’ role going forward?

3) Is Perez turning into a pumpkin?

4) Will Irvin get back to the guy we thought he was?

[waroriole]

Thanks for the jinx dick

[Moose Milligan]

3 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Bradish being back helps.

GRod can be a game changer.

Baker is on track to have a big year.

As of right now, my biggest questions going forward are..

1) Tate and Givens..when are they back and how good can they be? 

2) What is Wells’ role going forward?

3) Is Perez turning into a pumpkin?

4) Will Irvin get back to the guy we thought he was?

Perez looks like he still has some good stuff but he's certainly not as effective as he was last year.

Quite frankly, if Bradish, Kremer and G-Rod can build upon what they've done lately, I am not at all worried about Irvin being a contributor at all.

[Pickles]

If anything it's been good for the team stats.

Orioles now down to 9th in team ERA and 9th in Runs allowed.

ERA+ up to 98.

[Sports Guy]

18 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Perez looks like he still has some good stuff but he's certainly not as effective as he was last year.

Quite frankly, if Bradish, Kremer and G-Rod can build upon what they've done lately, I am not at all worried about Irvin being a contributor at all.

 

24 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Perez looks like he still has some good stuff but he's certainly not as effective as he was last year.

Quite frankly, if Bradish, Kremer and G-Rod can build upon what they've done lately, I am not at all worried about Irvin being a contributor at all.

Irvin’s value is the innings he can eat. That will matter as the season goes on.

[Aristotelian]

29 minutes ago, Pickles said:

If anything it's been good for the team stats.

Orioles now down to 9th in team ERA and 9th in Runs allowed.

ERA+ up to 98.

Are you looking at an upside down list? I'm seeing us 20th and 19th, although I am sure that is an improvement. 

[Pickles]

1 minute ago, Aristotelian said:

Are you looking at an upside down list? I'm seeing us 20th and 19th, although I am sure that is an improvement. 

9th in the American League.

[Gofannon]

57 minutes ago, waroriole said:

Thanks for the jinx dick

This is one of those sentences that emphasizes the importance of commas.

[Tony-OH]

The good news in all of this is we're starting to build a little depth with the pitching.

The Rotation now includes:
Kyle Gibson
Tyler Wells
Grayson Rodriguez
Dean Kremer
Kyle Bradish

The starting depth includes:
Voth (Yes he's not been good this year so far, but he could get stretched back out if needed)
Irvin (No one but Wildcard expected him to be in AAA by mid-April, yet here he is with no clear path back to the rotation besides an injury)
Hall (I'm putting him here but I'm also going to put him in the relief where he belongs IMHO)
Rom (Off to a good start in AAA though the stuff still remains suspect as a starter)
Watkins (Deep depth, more of a long guy/spot starter)
Zimmermann (Left-handed version of Watkins, break glass in case of emergency guy)

The bullpen has started to take shape with the surprise additions of Coulombe and Cano becoming big pickups to the pen:

Closer: The Mountain has been fantastic
Setup: Bryan Baker - That split finger has become a weapon and outside his first appearance he's been nails)
Setup: Yennier Cano - Who would have think it coming into the year that his stuff and command would take such a step forward at 29-years old?
Setup (LHP): Perez - He's struggled to refind his 2022 magiv and while his FIP suggested he would regress this year, his struggles to command are a bit worrisome.
Middle: Michael Baumann - Seems to have finally found his role and perhaps his consistent breaking ball with the knucklecurve.
Middle: Danny Coulombe - He's been absolutely huge so far this season and may end up in more high leverage situations if Perez doesn't snap out of things.
Long: Austin Voth - Finally had a clean outing in his last appearance and hopefully has settled down a bit after giving up home runs in every appearance before then.
Long: Akin - Has had a lot of his mind with the wife being pregnant so his early struggles can be excused a bit. The Orioles would like for him to the the long guy with an all right-handed rotation but he has an option and Coulombe has taken over the as the second (maybe first) lefty out of the pen for now. With options remaining, Akin could be on thin ice when Tate or Givens comes off the IL.

Depth
Tate and Givens are reportedly close to rehab appearances. 
Hall could be a Perez replacement at some point
Krehbiel and Vespi (LHP) have been pretty good 
Gillaspie wasn't very good, but he was good enough this spring for the orioles to take him north to start the year, so he could still be a depth guy.

So honestly, when you look at things, they don't look that bad overall but everything needs to be caveated that the Orioles have faced some bad offensive teams of late. 

Saying that, it appears Elias has some depth to work from right now if an injury or poor performance dictates moves.

 

[Moose Milligan]

In response to facing bad offensive teams, I will say that the Orioles pitching has done what good pitching SHOULD do against bad offensive teams.