Red Sox series May 27th-29th

[Moose Milligan]

Monday, May 27, 1:05 PM:  Cooper Criswell (2.86 ERA) vs. Cole Irvin (3.15 ERA)

Tuesday, May 28th, 6:35 PM:  Brayan Bello (4.04 ERA) vs. G-Rod (3.20 ERA)

Wednesday, May 29th, 6:35 PM:  Kutter Crawford (2.89 ERA) vs. Burnes (2.60 ERA)

The AL East is starting to separate with the Yankees and the Orioles at the top of the division and the Rays and Jays both out of it by double digits already down at the bottom.  Nestled in 3rd are the Red Sox who are 7 games back of us but fairly surprising so far.  IIRC, I think a lot of us picked them to finish 4th or 5th this season.

We are missing Tanner Houck who is sporting a 1.90 ERA this year in 71 innings but this series can still be a test.  Boston's team ERA (3.09) is second in all of MLB behind the Yankees.  They're 10th in the majors in strikeouts, 5th in WHIP, 7th in batting average, 28th in walks allowed....they're pretty stingy.  For a team like the Orioles who have an offense that has sputtered a little bit lately and is still featuring low OPS guys like Santander, Mullins and Hays...this is going to be hard.

They're better on the road than they have been at Fenway, too.

I don't know much about Cooper Criswell, but by looking at his statcast page, he seems to be the type of guy that'll give us fits.  A soft tosser (his fastball is averaging 89.1 mph, am I reading this right?) who's offspeed run value is in the 97th percentile and seems to generate a lot of grounders due to his sinker.

We faced Bello on April 9th, he went 5.1 innings, giving up 3 runs (one earned), striking out 3 and walking 2.  That's the game we got to Wincowski for 4 runs across the 7th-9th to win 7-1.  

We faced Crawford on April 10th, he stifled our offense for 5 innings, allowing two hits, no runs, walking 4 and striking out 6.  As soon as he left the game we scored 3 runs in the 6th and 4 in the 7th to win 7-5.

Centerfielder Jarren Durran is at 2.9 rWAR with a .799 OPS.  Devers has a .911 OPS.  Connor Wong is at .855.  Wilyer Abreu, .829.  The pesky Rob Refsnyder is at .929 in limited playing time.

I'm not upset that Triston Casas is on the 60 day IL.

This is going to be a tough series.  The goal, as always, is to take 2 out of 3.

[Flash- bd]

Why has DirtyBird downvoted this, lol? So random.

Nice that Crawford matches up with Burnes. Hopefully Bradish's performance motivates him a bit. A bit weird to say when he's got a 2.60 ERA but in this current climate where it feels like 40 pitchers have a 1.50-2.50 ERA, I wanna see another dominant performance from Burnes, something like opening day. 

[Moose Milligan]

6 minutes ago, Flash- bd said:

Why has DirtyBird downvoted this, lol? So random.

Nice that Crawford matches up with Burnes. Hopefully Bradish's performance motivates him a bit. A bit weird to say when he's got a 2.60 ERA but in this current climate where it feels like 40 pitchers have a 1.50-2.50 ERA, I wanna see another dominant performance from Burnes, something like opening day. 

That's what he's known for, it makes me laugh every time.  

[Malike]

Definitely not going to be a walk in the park. We played the Red Sox when we were hitting the snot out of the ball and leading the league in runs/game I believe. We aren't the same offense right now and they are still 2nd in the league in pitching.

MIL bombed Crawford on Friday night. 4.1IP 6ER.

[Philip]

I think they lost one of their starters? 
Justin Slaten is a feel good story, but I am curiously unthreatened by the Bosox.

[Malike]

11 minutes ago, Philip said:

I think they lost one of their starters? 
Justin Slaten is a feel good story, but I am curiously unthreatened by the Bosox.

Tyler O'Neill is one of their better bats. He's day to day with a sore knee. He didn't play today but they have him likely for tomorrow.

[24fps]

Great write up.  I like the pitching match ups and look forward to the O's breaking out of their funk when it comes to soft-tossing junkballers.

WTF is up with the downvote?

[Malike]

3 minutes ago, 24fps said:

Great write up.  I like the pitching match ups and look forward to the O's breaking out of their funk when it comes to soft-tossing junkballers.

WTF is up with the downvote?

That's his sole contribution to the board.

[24fps]

1 minute ago, Malike said:

That's his sole contribution to the board.

Not when he actually makes an attempt.  That's what's puzzling.

[Malike]

Just now, 24fps said:

Not when he actually makes an attempt.  That's what's puzzling.

Sadly for every post of substance, there are 25 that insult people's mothers or something along those lines.

[SteveA]

Is no one going to bring up the elephant in the room?   Tomorrow's giveaway is a travesty.

They are giving away hot dog race t-shirts, but you are RANDOMLY assigned a condiment.

I'm going to the game, and my preference would be relish.   But i could live with mustard.   If I am forced to take possession of a ketchup shirt, it will truly offend me.   You might as well just hand me a Yankee jersey for XXXXXX's sake..

[24fps]

1 minute ago, SteveA said:

Is no one going to bring up the elephant in the room?   Tomorrow's giveaway is a travesty.

They are giving away hot dog race t-shirts, but you are RANDOMLY assigned a condiment.

I'm going to the game, and my preference would be relish.   But i could live with mustard.   If I am forced to take possession of a ketchup shirt, it will truly offend me.   You might as well just hand me a Yankee jersey for XXXXXX's sake..

I expect a barter-based black market to spring up immediately as such an injustice won't be tolerated for long in one of the proud thirteen original states.

[Number5]

30 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Is no one going to bring up the elephant in the room?   Tomorrow's giveaway is a travesty.

They are giving away hot dog race t-shirts, but you are RANDOMLY assigned a condiment.

I'm going to the game, and my preference would be relish.   But i could live with mustard.   If I am forced to take possession of a ketchup shirt, it will truly offend me.   You might as well just hand me a Yankee jersey for XXXXXX's sake..

 

[sportsfan8703]

Irvin might be a little extra fired up after his bullpen demotion. 

[btownoriole]

8 hours ago, SteveA said:

Is no one going to bring up the elephant in the room?   Tomorrow's giveaway is a travesty.

They are giving away hot dog race t-shirts, but you are RANDOMLY assigned a condiment.

I'm going to the game, and my preference would be relish.   But i could live with mustard.   If I am forced to take possession of a ketchup shirt, it will truly offend me.   You might as well just hand me a Yankee jersey for XXXXXX's sake..

I’m a proud Orioles fan and a proud ketchup-on-hot-dog guy!