Rob Long: Offensive Surge
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The Baltimore Orioles managed to win two out of three games against the Seattle Mariners while scoring only six runs. No, that's not a complaint, that's a fact. You can look at it as the team's offense is struggling or you can say the team's pitching is really doing well. Either way, it means the Baltimore Orioles won yet another series and increased their lead in the American League East.
On Monday, while many fans were calling into the radio station expressing their concern with the O's offense, and rightfully so, I took a look at the opposing pitching. The Mariners, Los Angeles Angels and Oakland A's have been getting really good pitching as each team is playing for the right to get to the postseason. The Birds managed to win 10 out of 16 games against those playoff contenders.
I made a comment on the Vinny and Rob Show that maybe you would see a different offense once the Orioles got away from the hot pitching of the American League West, you would see the offense catch fire.
The Birds faced Tanner Roark on Monday, and while you can't exactly look at a guy who was coming into that game with a 2.74 earned run average as a step down, you could look at the fact that this was a chance for the team to jump start the offense on the road where they are hitting better with runners in scoring position.
Thanks to five runs combined in the seventh and eighth inning the Birds won 7-3 over the National League East's best team. They improved their average to .296 on the road with runner's in scoring position. They also won the season series against the Washington Nationals three games to one.
Now the Orioles are 63-48 for the year and 33-23 on the road. With an important three game stretch in Toronto that could either help the Birds extend their lead in the division or make this thing even more interesting, manager Buck Showalter will be relying on Bud Norris, Wei-Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzalez to take care of the Blue Jays bats. Is it me, or does this all seem like a crazy dream right now? The Baltimore Orioles are in first place and are in control of the outcome with 32 games remaining against the American League East.
CALLING ALL O's FANS....Let's ride this one out.
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