Can the O's hit Lugo and Wacha?

[Sports Guy]

Obviously yes but they can’t go up swinging at everything. And yes, you have to hit the hittable pitches. They missed a ton of them yesterday. A more disciplined offensive approach scores 4+ runs yesterday.  

Edited 2 hours ago by Sports Guy

[glenn__davis]

7 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Obviously yes but they can’t go up swinging at everything. And yes, you have to hit the hittable pitches. They missed a ton of them yesterday. A more disciplined offensive approach scores 4+ runs yesterday.  

Agree.  I know Ragans is good but frankly they missed a lot of pitches right in the zone trying to hit the ball 450 ft.  

[Sports Guy]

Just now, glenn__davis said:

Agree.  I know Ragans is good but frankly they missed a lot of pitches right in the zone trying to hit the ball 450 ft.  

Which is crazy since they put 7 on the board vs Ragans hitting all singles. They had an approach that worked and then they went away from it.

[Bemorewins]

Can they? - Yes it's possible. Anything is possible. 

Will they? - I have my doubts. The team was abysmal (minus Cedric Mullins and O'Hearn's pinch hit appearance) with the bat in their hands yesterday. And for many of our hitters this was nothing more than a continuation/carryover from the second half of the season. 

[Fiver6565]

I admire those of you who have such confidence in this offense. It’s been absolutely terrible for months, other than the last week of the season. It was beyond terrible yesterday- yes Ragans was good but the approach was awful by every hitter. I’ll be thrilled for them to prove me overly pessimistic, but I have zero faith in these bats. 

This is at least partially a defense mechanism. I am not ready for the baseball season to be over, and another terribly quick exit from the postseason would just be so dreadful. I don’t need them to win the WS. But winning one GD game would be nice. Not looking forward to six months without baseball. 

[Moose Milligan]

44 minutes ago, wildcard said:

What a ray of sunshine you are.

Don't ask questions you might not like the answer to.

Edited 1 hour ago by Moose Milligan

[Sports Guy]

Need Eflin to step up, that’s for sure.

He struggled his last time out. Can’t have that carry over.

Edited 1 hour ago by Sports Guy

[eddie83]

10 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

I admire those of you who have such confidence in this offense. It’s been absolutely terrible for months, other than the last week of the season. It was beyond terrible yesterday- yes Ragans was good but the approach was awful by every hitter. I’ll be thrilled for them to prove me overly pessimistic, but I have zero faith in these bats. 

This is at least partially a defense mechanism. I am not ready for the baseball season to be over, and another terribly quick exit from the postseason would just be so dreadful. I don’t need them to win the WS. But winning one GD game would be nice. Not looking forward to six months without baseball. 

Not asking them to score 10 runs. 
 

They need some confidence to get confidence. It’s the old catch 22. 

[Sports Guy]

15 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

I admire those of you who have such confidence in this offense. It’s been absolutely terrible for months, other than the last week of the season. It was beyond terrible yesterday- yes Ragans was good but the approach was awful by every hitter. I’ll be thrilled for them to prove me overly pessimistic, but I have zero faith in these bats. 

This is at least partially a defense mechanism. I am not ready for the baseball season to be over, and another terribly quick exit from the postseason would just be so dreadful. I don’t need them to win the WS. But winning one GD game would be nice. Not looking forward to six months without baseball. 

To be fair, they needed a sac fly yesterday. Now, they failed but the point is, they only needed 1 run to get into extra innings.

The take away from yesterday is that the Os got good pitching and defense, that they didn’t have to use their pen much at all and KC did, including having their closer throw 23 pitches and another key reliever throw 20 pitches.

If Eflin is on, they don’t have to score a lot. 
 

[Fiver6565]

8 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

To be fair, they needed a sac fly yesterday. Now, they failed but the point is, they only needed 1 run to get into extra innings.

The take away from yesterday is that the Os got good pitching and defense, that they didn’t have to use their pen much at all and KC did, including having their closer throw 23 pitches and another key reliever throw 20 pitches.

If Eflin is on, they don’t have to score a lot. 
 

I hear all that and I realize all is not lost - you make good points here.  But on the flip side, ALL they needed was a sac fly and they failed to get it, again. 
 

Nothing makes me feel more hopeless as a fan than watching the entire lineup just flail away for nine innings. So frustrating. 
 

I’m also still pissed they pitched to Witt. That was asinine 

[Sports Guy]

 

[Hank Scorpio]

1 hour ago, wildcard said:

What a ray of sunshine you are.

Well... what have you seen that makes you think otherwise? 

Up and down the lineup, they're pressing and hacking away at everything. Part of the narrative was that the "experience" they received last year would benefit them this year. Sure as **** didn't benefit them yesterday... they were deer in headlights from the get go. 

It's the playoffs. All it takes to lose are a couple bad swing decisions and an unfortunate call or two. 

[LGOrioles]

They had a .120 xBA as a team yesterday. They’re lucky they had 5 hits - they were that bad. And if Savant is correct? They had a 53% chase rate against Ragans. That’s just absolutely pathetic if true and shows they have zero ability to calm things down and perform under pressure. 

[Sports Guy]

Just now, LGOrioles said:

They had a .120 xBA as a team yesterday. They’re lucky they had 5 hits - they were that bad. And if Savant is correct? They had a 53% chase rate against Ragans. That’s just absolutely pathetic if true and shows they have zero ability to calm things down and perform under pressure. 

I buy the chase rate. They could have had several walks.  Now, the ump was inconsistent and it caused them to chase at times. The borderline pitches I get. But there were a lot of pitchers that weren’t borderline that they looked awful on.

[Sports Guy]

The Os only have 32 at bats vs Lugo but they have been successful. No one than 6 PA vs him.

Slater is the one with 6 at bats and he has 3 hits vs him.

Mountcastle, Mullins and Westburg each have 2 hits vs him.

Cowser and Westburg have a homer and Westy and Santander each have a triple.  Cowser has the only walk.

The Os scored 4 runs, had 9 hits, 1 BB and only struck out once when they faced him in April. So again, like the one Ragans start, they had a lot of hits and a good approach…but can they carry that over?

 

Lugo had one bad start in September, vs Detroit. The rest of the month, he pitched 23 innings and gave up 3 runs. He shut down the Giants, Yankees and Cleveland. His last outing was 2 innings vs Atlanta and they didn’t store off of him.