Baltimore Orioles (12-16, .429, 5th AL East) @ Seattle Mariners (19-10, .655, 2nd AL West)
As expected, the Baltimore Orioles are in a bad way – they’ve lost 5 straight, including, most recently, an unceremonious sweep in Oakland, and boast a pitching staff that doesn’t look to have the chops to get them out of this mess. We’re happy to have them – always a death knell – as this represents something of an opportunity to get the USS Mariner back on course after drifting so listlessly for the last three contests. Of course, that is not to say that our winning here is nothing more than a foregone conclusion – it’s not – as Baltimore is no doubt licking their chops at the prospect of seeing us on the other side of the field, mired in our own losing streak, and quickly forgetting what it felt like to be so cocksure before we welcomed
Trout and his merry men to town. The Orioles do some things well – they hit for average, have a middle-of-the-road .331 OPS, and are ranked in the top five for both wOBA and Starters ERA. Everything else, however, is suspect – something we’d like to pick at a little bit. A good opportunity to course-correct – let’s hope we don’t squander it.
30 of 162: Dean Kremer (3-1, 5.64) @ Matt Manning (0-1, 3.68)
Win, 5-2.
Big Bat Bobby Dalbec put two bad ones on Baltimore and drove in 4 of our 5 runs while
Matt Manning put together a strong 6.1 inning performance, giving up only two runs while fanning 9 hapless hitters. The bottom of the 6th is where
Bobby D brought this one home for us – a three-run blast that, his second dinger of the day, and 9th on the year. A good enough effort against a ho-hum Orioles club – SAC BUNT for
Haniger, SAC FLY for
Wong (who also recorded a HBP and stole his 3rd bag of the season), and two tasty double-plays. We’ll take it and two more just like it… please & thank you.
Elsewhere: Minnesota’s
Byron Buxton joined Bobby D in today’s 2 JACK club – he went 3 for 4 with 2 dingers, 3 RBI, and 3 runs during the Twins’ 6-0 victory over the Texas Rangers. It should also be noted that Texas (along with the Detroit Tigers and the Washington Nationals) is one of only three teams that have not yet won 10 games. 8-22 to start the 2021 campaign for the representative from the Lonestar State. What's the opposite of yee-haw?
Other Notes: Oakland’s
Matt Olson and Cincy’s
Mike Moustakas each took home the Player of the Week trophy for their respective leagues, Boston’s
Alex Verdugo is leading the majors in doubles while playing Center Field at 13 (4 ahead of Baltimore’s Austin Hays who is in 2nd at 9), and we dropped to 6th in the weekly power ranking… top five, etc is below.
Power Rankings:- Oakland Athletics
- Atlanta Braves
- Tampa Bay Rays
- New York Mets
- Cleveland Indians
Notables… Seattle - 6th, LAA - 7th, LAD - 8th, MIN – 14th, CWS – 15th, PHI – 18th, NYY – 21st, HOU – 24th, SD – 27th.
Record: 20-10
Up Next: We continue our attempt to cure all that ails us against the Orioles in Seattle.