O' lead AL East by 2, head to D.C.

The Baltimore Orioles survived a bullpen meltdown Sunday in Boston that robbed Kevin Gausman of a win after he pitched brilliantly for five and two thirds. What should have taken nine innings took twelve as the O’s pounded out another victory in Beantown against a team that throws the ball around like little leaguers. Boston's once solid defense has descended into the abyss.

Kevin Gausman

Nelson Cruz continues to dominate Red Sox pitching much to the chagrin of John Lackey and others in Boston. Lackey decided that immediately the five hit performance of Cruz in game two of Saturday’s double header was the best time for him to grumble about the Cruz suspension for appearing in the files of a PED dealer in Miami last year. Apparently Cruz was untroubled. He went three for six with an RBI as the O’s took advantage of two more Sox errors en route to a 7-6 win.

The O’s head back home with a two game lead in the AL East for a huge series in Washington with the Nats that begins tonight. The 48-39 Nats are in second place just a half a game behind Atlanta in the NL East. Chris Tillman will face Stephen Strasburg in the series opener. Both teams are on a roll having won seven of their last ten games.

First Half Review: Second Half Needs

Having passed the halfway point of the season over the weekend and emerging from a disappointing series loss to Tampa, the O’s returned in action at Camden Yards last night with a resounding thumping of Texas. The O’s scored early and often en route to a 7-1 win over the Rangers. Manny Machado began serving his five game suspension last night and the O’s moved Chris Davis from first to third base. He played well in the field despite a throwing error.

Any objective review of the O’s first half would cause the observer to conclude that this team has a real chance to make the playoffs and perhaps win the World Series. Below is a position by position and player by player review of what the O’s need to not only make the post season but prosper.

Outfielders: The O’s outfield is the brightest spot on the team. Adam Jones has mixed just enough patience and discipline in with his unbridled aggression at the plate to be a consistent contributor. Nelson Cruz is the free agent signee of the year in the AL. Steve Pearce has been on a run that could be a career changer. Delmon Young has been a consistent contributor when called upon. Nick Markakis may arguably be one of the very best leadoff hitters in all of baseball, and along with Adam Jones, he helps the O’s cover plenty of ground in right and center field. The soft spot for the O’s outfield is the inexplicable inclusion of David Lough. Lough needs to be in Norfolk (or Bowie) working on his offensive skills. He is not a professional hitter. And the baseball world already has too many small, medium-speed outfielders, with decent gloves, but propensities for hitting fly balls (or striking out), coupled with warning track power.

At third Manny Machado is steadily regaining the form both offensively and defensively that makes him one of the finest young players in the game. He will be well rested for the second half of the year after serving the five game suspension followed by the fast approaching all-star break.

At short J.J. Hardy has lost his concentration in the field from time to time in the first half and his defense has not been nearly as good as it was last year. That still makes him the best defensive shortstop in the league, but by a smaller margin. He is beginning to show signs of regaining his power despite a tendency to take center cut fast balls for a called strike to start almost every at bat. His batting average remains high.

At second Jonathan Schoop is all upside. He simply needs to keep working at improving every day. He is a great physical specimen and seems to do his best work at the plate when there are runners on base. Maturity should treat him well. His defense is already top shelf. Ryan Flaherty is a useful utility player who can play a number of positions. Unfortunately we cannot recall him every putting any off-speed pitch in play. Opposition pitchers know this.

Chris Davis has become an absolute mess. For a portion of May and June it looked like Davis was regaining his approach as a professional hitter with power to all fields. He has hit a few line drives to left and left center field. Unfortunately Davis is clearly thinking way too much during every at bat. As a result his bat speed has lost several notches. Maybe he is not getting the early recognition he needs to be effective. Or maybe he simply needs to shorten his stroke so he can wait. One thing is for sure, even if his stroke is fine, O’s fans will know he has cleared the mental slate and is ready for a superior second half if Davis stops missing medium quality center cut fastballs. For now, his thought processes and guessing have caused him to descend into the mental funk of hitting which has him stuck in an abyss. From my vantage point the Davis stroke looks fine. What can he do? He can continue to go the other way in the batting cage both off a tee and against the machine. However, when he gets to home plate he really only needs to do two things. 1) See the ball, and 2) hit the ball.

The O's catcher position has been shored up by Caleb Joseph in the absence of all-star catcher Matt Wieters. Todd Hundley contributes to the offense with an occasional hit. This spot suffered mightily with the loss of Wieters, but the O’s pitching has improved noticeably since Joseph got the call up from Norfolk. The pitchers improved performances has to say plenty about his defense in the face of an unproductive season at the plate so far.

Ubaldo Jimenez may have pitched his best game last night. He was consistently down in the strike zone with late life on his once dominating fast ball. He, along with virtually every other O’s starter will need to stay consistently down in the strike zone if they hope to be part of post season. Each and every starter has demonstrated an ability to keep hitters off balance. But each has lost command frequently enough to prevent the O’s from going on the badly needed 8 to 10 game win streak they will need to grab control of the AL East.

The O’s bullpen has a major hole in it. It seems that Buck Showalter is limited in how he can play matchups against left hand hitters late in close games. Brian Matusz has been disappointing (5.16 ERA) and Joe Patton was dealt to the Padres for Hundley after being ineffective. On the plus side, Zac Britton has been a quality closer and Darren O’Day is a trustworthy set up man. Still, Tommy Hunter, T.J. McFarland, and Brad Brach need to improve their command.

If Matusz does not improve soon it may be up to T.J. McFarland to take on the role of left-on-left matchup guy late in games. McFarland has been a solid long relief man for most of the year.

This team has a very good chance to get to the playoffs and go deep. They can score late and almost never seem to be out of a game. They beat the league's best pitchers.

Does the team need Chris Davis to return to form? Last year's production seems unrealistic. However, if Davis commits to seeing the ball and hitting the ball and a few others improve the O's 2014 second half could be great.

It should never have come to that

Fresh off of a successful road trip that saw the O’s rebound with two straight wins after a crushing loss to New York Friday night, the birds faced off against a Chicago White Sox squad that sent their ace Chris Sale to the bump last night at Camden Yards.

Bobby Dickerson

Adam Jones got the night off to a rocking start with a line drive two-run homer off the top of the wall in left center field in the bottom of the first.

However, after the two-run first inning things got dicey for Baltimore. Chicago began to slowly but surely chip away and in subsequent innings the O’s left a trainload of base runners stranded.

In the fourth the O’s failed to score with one out and the bases loaded against lefty Chris Sales. O’s third base coach Bobby Dickerson refused to send Manny Machado from third after he had tagged up on a medium depth fly ball to right field off the bat of Steve Pearce. The throw which would have had to be near perfect came in way up the line and Machado could have scored easily.

Unfortunately, Dickerson, who is having a forgettable year making stop and go decisions as the O’s third base coach has, on several occasions, held runners when the opposition was already conceding the run. Dickerson pretty much did this again an inning later last night when J.J. Hardy’s nineteen hop ground ball squeezed through the left side of the Sox infield. With Nelson Cruz running on contact from second, the O’s getting at least one run out of that frame was a foregone conclusion. The Hardy ground ball was slowing to a crawl on its way to left field and Cruz could have scored standing up. However, inexplicably, Dickerson tightened up mentally and ultra-cautiously threw up the dreaded stop sign for Cruz. Chicago's ace Sales capitalized on the Dickerson judgment error and the O’s stranded all three base runners for the second inning in a row.

Chris Davis

Perhaps Dickerson relays signs from manager Buck Showalter quite well. However, any realistic appraisal of his decision-making at third this season would have him optioned to Norfolk, designated for assignment, or re-trained at another position. He simply cannot make enough good decisions to continue in that spot.

The biggest story in the media this morning will not be the momentum stopping over-caution of Dickerson in the third base coaching box. It will be the Chris Davis walk-off three-run bomb in the bottom of the ninth to give the O’s their third straight win. People paying close attention including Showalter know that squandering run scoring opportunities created by the O's bats is not something that the team can afford from their third base coach. It has already happened way too many times this year.

Amazingly, after a strong outing from Wei-Yin Chen, decent relief by Webb and Brach, and fourteen other hits by O’s, the team needed the dramatic pinch hit Davis smash to win the game.

The O's take on Chicago again tonight at Camden Yards with Miguel Gonzales on the hill. They are just 1.5 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for first place in the A.L. East.

Gausman shines, O's take two of three at Tampa, head to the Big Apple

Kevin Gausman

The recent call up of Kevin Gausman from AAA Norfolk has provided a catalyst to the O’s pitching staff. Whether it is the threat of a lost spot in the starting rotation or just a coincidence, minus one forgettable outing by Ubaldo Jimenez, the O’s starters have been carrying a team that is failing pretty regularly to put sufficient runs on the board.

Yesterday afternoon Gausman made it three brilliant starts in a row when he allowed no runs on five hits in six innings. Gausman worked out of a massive bases loaded first inning jam. Had plate umpire Pat Hoberg called balls and strikes with more consistency, Gausman’s pitch count might have stayed down and enabled him to go even deeper into the game. Fortunately for the O’s, ex-closer Tommy Hunter worked two scoreless innings  in the seventh and eighth and Zac Britton dominated again in the ninth with two strikeouts to earn his ninth save.

Runs are still hard to come by for Baltimore. The O’s stranded a slew of base runners (as did the Rays) during the afternoon affair. However, Steve Pearce continues to amaze. His batting average is up to .324 after yet another two hit game. Pearce also drew a walk. He seems to always be on base.

The O’s head to New York for a critical three game showdown with the Yankees that begins on Friday night. Ubaldo Jimenez will take the bump for the O’s while the Yanks have yet to name a starter. The Yankees are a half game in front of the O’s going into the series. Both teams have won six of their last ten.

O's split first two at Tampa, try for series today at 11:00am

The first two games of the O's series at Tampa are a study in contrast. Jim Bradley, the legendary high school football coach once responded to a reporter question after a loss. "We played just well enough to lose," he explained.

On Monday night in Tampa the O's played just well enough to lose. There were many reasons for the 5-4 loss. It is counter-productive for teams to point fingers. However, it is harder to improve your team without some examination of cause and effect that causes a team to play just well enough to lose.

The bottom third of the O's lineup is an ongoing problem. There is just no other way to put it Ryan Flaherty, Caleb Joseph, and David Lough are the place in the batting order where rallies go to die.

Brian Matusz came into the game to hold the Rays and failed, surrendering a key homerun. In the end the O's blew a lead and lost a very winnable game.

Last night it was the O's we all continue to believe in. They played well enough to win. The O's hung a five spot on former O, the well-travelled Eric Bedard in the third. And despite a less than stellar outing from Miguel Gonzales, the O's added two more runs in the seventh, finding the route to a 7-5 win.

Chris Davis hit a grand slam home run in the third, a towering opposite field shot that hit the pole. His stroke continues to look more and more balanced as he continues to get pitched mostly hard in and soft away. Davis faces pronounced shifts in every at bat with the defenses tilting dramatically to the right side making it very difficult to hit safely on the ground to right.

Buck Showalter once again shook up the bottom third of the order with Manny Machado going back to the seven hole and Jonathan Schoop hitting in the eight hole. Along with Caleb Joseph, each man contributed singles to the offense.

Steve Pearce continues to shine in the two hole with two walks and two hits including a homer in the seventh in five trips to the dish last night. Both Pearce and Delmon Young give the O's a productive 1-2 punch at DH.

The O's will be back at it early today with an 11:10 first pitch to decide which team takes the series. The O's send Kevin Gausman to the bump today.

O's Matt Wieters heading for Tommy John surgery?

No cigar for the Baltimore Orioles yesterday in the series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays. After taking two of the first three games of the series and creating an opportunity to close the Jays division leading gap from 4.5 to 2.5 games yesterday, the O’s found themselves back to square one at the end of the weekend.

The problem was pretty simple. The O’s bats went silent again. Though Chris Tillman struggled early, he wound up scattering eight hits and surrendering three runs over seven innings. Tillman pitched well enough to win if the O's bats had responded.

Matt Wieters

There is a buzz around the O’s organization regarding Matt Wieters and it is not good. Wieters will be re-examined by his surgeon in Florida today and is now expected to have Tommy John surgery recommended. Unable to throw even lightly without discomfort, Wieters would be lost for the remainder of this season and would be a longshot to return by opening day in 2015.

And so it seems that the O’s will have to carry on with backstops Nick Hundley and Caleb Joseph. Joseph has been kept in Baltimore while Steve Clevenger, who is pounding the baseball unmercifully at Norfolk, stays down at AAA. Clevenger was actually hitting a hundred and fifty points higher than Joseph when he was sent down after the Hundley acquisition. It would seem that Buck Showalter much prefers the defensive skills of Joseph to Clevenger's.

As is the nature of a long baseball season the O’s have no time to cry in their beer over the lost opportunity weekend. They headed out to Tampa, Florida and are set for a three game weekdays series against the floundering Rays before a huge three day series over the weekend at Yankee Stadium.

Norris stellar again, Davis top hand happy uppercut disappearing

It is only June 15^th. But the Baltimore Orioles are facing by far their biggest game of the year today when they host the finale of a four game set against division leading Toronto at Camden Yards. Start time is 1:30pm. The O’s have taken two out of three so far, but a 2-2 split is not what the birds have on their minds. Taking three of four will send the O's out on the road with some momentum.

The O’s continued to get strong pitching when Bud Norris took the hill yesterday afternoon. Norris had already pitched a gem earlier in the week against Boston. Norris continued to look like the best of the veteran starters on the O’s staff with another good outing yesterday.

Chris Davis

Maybe the biggest potential story of the year continued to develop yesterday as Chris Davis shows more and more signs of re-establishing the swing that made him the most feared hitter in the American League last season. Davis hit a two run homer into the O’s bullpen in LEFT CENTER FIELD in the fifth yesterday to give the O’s what they needed to beat R.A. Dickey and the Jays. Inexplicably a fresh off the DL Tommy Hunter took a risk of injury to catch the ball. Someone should explain to Hunter that he does not get paid to catch homers in the pen.

Davis has been seen working hard lately to rid himself of a top hand happy uppercut pass through the hitting zone. His resurgent power couldn’t come at a better time for the O's as Nelson Cruz continues to hit lately, but with less power.

Delmon Young continued his productive ways as DH with a hit and an alert first to third base running decision that keyed the O’s run in the fourth.

On the downside, J.J. Hardy continued his struggles with another 0-4 afternoon. Homerless all season it appears that the opposition around the league has the book on Hardy. He is taking center cut fastballs for called first strikes repeatedly this season and consequently finds himself making weak contact producing defensive swings late in the counts in almost every at bat.

Today it will be Chris Tillman’s chance to right his own personal ship and give his team a lift. Tillman has had early game command issues this season resulting in an alarming walk total. When he has missed it has often been high and when he has not walked people, he has center cut too many fastballs and hung too many breaking balls to be effective.

Should the O’s win the series finale they would move to within 2.5 games of the Blue Jays while heading out on the road again to face Tampa for three and the Yankees for three.