Haynie: Orioles' Starting Pitchers Have To Stop Being Bad
Heading into Tuesday night's contest against the White Sox in Chicago, the Baltimore Orioles had lost five-straight games and had fallen near the bottom of the American League East standings. Only a half-game separated the Birds from last place.
There are two main reasons why the Orioles have gone 9-21 over their last 30 games.
1) They stink on the road.
2) Their starting pitching has been atrocious.
Through Monday's games, only the Oakland A's (9-23) have a worse road record in the American League than the Orioles (10-21). Heading into Tuesday, the Birds had lost 10 in a row away from Camden Yards and 14 of 15 overall.
During Baltimore's 9-21 skid, the rotation has an abysmal 6.70 ERA. For the season, the starting staff's ERA is 5.27 which is last the AL and 29th in all of baseball.
Aside from Dylan Bundy, every starting pitcher has been really bad on multiple occasions during the 2017 campaign. At 3-5 with a 6.49 ERA, Kevin Gausman has been a big disappointment. Expectations were high for him coming into the season. Needless to say, he has not come close to fulfilling his potential.
If the Orioles expect to be respectable--much less contenders--this season, the quality of the starting rotation will have to improve in leaps and bounds.
An improvement in the rotation will improve Baltimore's chances of winning no matter where they play. I'm not sure the players are in place to make that happen.