O's Win Again Despite Pitching Woes (Countdown 75)

The Orioles managed to pull off another win last night with a 7-5 showing. They now sit atop the AL East and have won their first three series of the season. They've take two out of three from the might, spend happy Yankees, and two out of three from the AL Champion Rays. And they have a chance to sweep Texas tonight. The bats of the Orioles seem to be on fire. They've scored 50 runs already this season and the offense has showed little sign of slowing down anytime soon. They even have a chance to sweep the Texas Rangers tonight. If you had told me all those things before the season started I'd be ecstatic.

But looking at all that doesn't really show what's going on with this team. Just focusing on the positive paints an overly rosy picture of this team. Usually I like to focus on the positive. As an O's fan it's what you have to do to stay sane and keep caring. But I can't do that right now. Which is a shame because who knows how long we're going to be able to keep winning and be in first place. I really want to just focus on the positive but our pitching is in such bad shape that I just can't.

The Orioles used six different pitchers last night. SIX! Ok, so Simon is apparently injured and only lasted four outs. And our bullpen did step up and hold the Rangers off until Sherrill let up a two run homer in the 10th. Even Sarfate didn't allow any runs. But this is not a viable solution. The O's need starting pitchers. At this rate the bullpen will be worn out by June. Is it a possible game plan to just have a bullpen and have each pitcher pitch one inning every game? Could that work? Because it seems like the O's are working with something like that.

Hopefully, this is a minor injury for Simon and he will come back and be a consistent starter. I'm not asking for greatness here. I'm just asking for an average starter that can pitch more than two innings without blowing the game. Hendrickson is up tonight. His last outing was exactly what I was looking for in a starter. He pitched 5.1 innings and with one earned run. That is what a pitcher at the bottom of the rotation should be doing. I'm not looking for complete games. I am looking for more than one time through the line up. I'm hoping he brings his consistent game back tonight. I don't need flashy or dominant. I just want consistent wins.

Adam Eaton struck out six in four innings in his start against the Rays. He also allowed four runs. I'd like to focus on his ability to pitch strikes but I was at the game and he got blasted. Hopefully, he'll start pitching more strikes the other team can't hit. I'll cut him some slack because it was against the Rays. And they were in the World Series last year. But he wasn't that great for the Phillies last year. And it just makes me wonder what Baltimore is thinking.

With an offense and a start like this I want to be celebrating. Instead, I'm just worrying about when the other shoe is going to drop. I'll take the wins where I can get them. It's still early and there is still time for things to fall into place. But if the starting pitching doesn't improve, I'm not sure the countdown will make it to zero. Even though we seem to keep winning, I already feel like Strive for .500 is in jeopardy. Oh yeah, the Orioles are now only 75 wins away from a .500 season.

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O's Win Slugfest in Baltimore Jersey Debut.....(Countdown 76)

Yesterday the Orioles out scored the Rangers 10-9 to win their fifth game of the season. I'm incredibly superstitious. So I'm not only happy for the win, but happy that the O's were able to win their first game with Baltimore back on the jersey. I'm glad the long awaited jerseys got a good start. Otherwise, it's possible that these jerseys would be considered jinxed. Returning Baltimore to the jersey should only be viewed as a good thing and a win helps that. At least in my mind. The Orioles did their best to return to old form at the end of the game and try to blow it. But they were able to hold on and win.

The pitching is looking more and more questionable, but as long as the O's bats stay hotter than their opponents I guess we can still hope the pitching comes together. I'm not going to give up on Uehara yet. He's had one good game and one bad game. I just hope he has more good games than bad this season. And when you can walk away from a bad game with a win I guess you have to look at it from the positive. In general the Orioles have problems with the Texas Rangers. Some of their most embarrassing games have come against them. However, he's still 2-0. So if he can get the run support than I guess I can't complain too much. Hopefully, this was just an off game. (I'm going to keep saying this until I have a definitive reason to believe otherwise.) The Orioles really need to have more than one consistent starter. I love Guthrie, but we really do need more.

At least the top of our batting line up, Roberts, Jones, and Markakis, are all batting over .350. I'm hoping the bats stay hot to help out the pitching as much as possible. Even without pitching huge offense is going to win us some games. And big bats and solid defense should help to lure free agents to the Orioles. If it looks like they are only a few pitchers away from being contender, which I'm not saying they are, that makes them more desirable to play on. After what the Rays did last year, it's hard to count any team out. The O's are now 76 wins away from a .500 season. Let's keep striving for .500.