We know that Caleb Joseph is a very solid defensive catcher. He was behind the plate last night when Ubaldo Jimenez pitched eight strong innings in a win over Oakland. Matt Wieters was behind the plate Saturday afternoon when Mike Wright gave up five runs in five innings.
Some fans were so impressed with Joseph's defensive work last year (and rightfully so) that they thought the Orioles pitchers were in better hands with him catching over Wieters.
Orioles pitchers tell us a different story....
Orioles right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez was motivated to pitch well tonight. But not, he said, because he gave up six runs in his last start.
"There is always motivation to pitch good," Jimenez said after pitching the O's past the A's 5-2. "But I try to forget what happened in the past because there is nothing you can do with it. In baseball, every day is a new day. If you want to be there for your team, you have to find a way to move on.
"The two-seam fastball was pretty good. I was able to...
Orioles right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez bounced back very well from a poor outing. The Orioles offense came up with a much-needed big inning to back him. It all added up to a 5-2 win for the Orioles over the Athletics and a split of the day-night doubleheader at Camden Yards.
The Orioles are 17-12 overall, 12-5 at home and 7-2 against the A's since the start of the 2015 season.
Jimenez allowed nine hits and two runs over eight innings, matching Kevin Gausman for the longest 2016 outing by an...
Having scored just 10 runs their last five games, the Orioles host the Oakland Athletics tonight in the nightcap of a split doubleheader. The A's won 8-4 earlier to improve to 14-16, while the Orioles are 16-12.
The pitching matchup tonight features right-handers: Ubaldo Jimenez (1-3, 5.20 ERA) makes his sixth start and Oakland's Jesse Hahn (1-0, 0.00 ERA) makes his second.
Jimenez had an ERA of 3.91 before his worst outing of 2016 last Sunday against the White Sox. He gave up six runs and...
Orioles starter Mike Wright did not give up too many hard-hit balls today, but he did give up a lot of hits. Wright allowed 10 hits and five runs in the Orioles' 8-4 loss to the Athletics in Game 1 of the day-night doubleheader.
"I felt like I was throwing really well," Wright said. "Just like the other games, I was executing pitches and felt my velo was pretty good. Felt pretty solid about it."
Oakland scored single runs off him in the second, third and fifth innings. Then he gave up an...
A team struggling to score runs faced a hot pitcher. It was not a good combination today for the Orioles. They lost Game 1 of the split doubleheader 8-4 to Oakland and left-hander Rich Hill.
The Orioles had scored just two runs their previous 30 innings until they scored three in the ninth today. The Orioles fall to 16-12 overall and 11-5 at home. Oakland ended a four-game losing streak, improving to 14-16. Oakland had lost nine of 12 games before this win.
Hill had pitched to an ERA of 1.42...
The Orioles are 4-3 with three games to go on this 10-game homestand. They host Oakland today in a split doubleheader at 1:05 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. after last night's rainout.
If they win two of three this weekend, the Orioles will have a winning homestand at 6-4. They have played much better this year at home than on the road. Taking a look at the stats, that has been more about pitching rather than offense.
* The Orioles are 11-4 at home with a team ERA of 2.82. They have hit .278 at home,...
The Orioles today begin a stretch of 22 straight games playing non-American League East opponents. It starts with a three-game series, now spread over just two days, against the Oakland Athletics to end this 10-game homestand. This stretch ends on May 30 when the Orioles host Boston.
The 22-game stretch is the longest run all year in which they will not play an AL East rival. So far this season, the Orioles are 9-5 versus division teams and 7-6 against teams outside of the East.
The Orioles are...
The Orioles offense has seen some ups and also some downs in recent games. Here is a look:
* After an 8-3 win on April 23 in Kansas City, the Orioles scored just five runs in the last four games of a road trip to K.C. and Tampa Bay, going 1-3. Three of those runs came via a Joey Rickard homer.
* Then the Orioles returned home and scored 23 runs in three games against the team with at that time the best team ERA in the majors, the Chicago White Sox. They went 2-1
* Since then, they have scored...
The Orioles' starting rotation has kind of quietly been on a pretty solid run of games lately. The O's starters have recorded seven quality starts over the last nine games, pitching to an ERA of 2.95 in that stretch.
After right-hander Kevin Gausman's eight scoreless innings last night, O's starters pitched to an ERA of 1.29 in the Yankees series. Over 21 innings, the rotation allowed 12 hits with seven walks and 17 strikeouts. They produced three consecutive quality starts for the first...
In matching scoreless innings tonight with Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka, Orioles right-hander Kevin Gausman looked like an ace himself.
Through three starts, he has an ERA of 1.42 and a batting average against of .152. Tonight, he gave up just three hits over eight scoreless innings on 98 pitches.
In a season where the Orioles hoped he would step up his game and become a top-of-the-rotation starter, he has so far done exactly that.
"Obviously, my confidence is growing and I just feel a lot more...
After they dueled through nine scoreless innings tonight, the Orioles produced a walk-off win in the last of the 10th against the Yankees.
Hyun Soo Kim led off the 10th with a high-chop infield hit off right-hander Johnny Barbato. Then he advanced to third on Jonathan Schoop's second hit of the night, a single to center. The O's sent out Nolan Reimold to third to pinch-run for Kim and New York went to Andrew Miller to face lefty-hitting Pedro Alvarez.
Alvarez ended the game with a sac fly to...
The Orioles have won three of four series against American League East teams this year. Tonight's game against the Yankees will decide this series after the teams exchanged wins the last two nights.
The Orioles are 8-5 against AL East teams, going 2-1 against Boston, 3-2 against Tampa Bay, 2-1 versus Toronto and 1-1 against New York.
Orioles starting pitchers are slowly making some progress. After the team's rotation produced just three quality starts in the season's first 18 games, they now...
Orioles center fielder Adam Jones can be a focal point for fan criticism when both he and his team's offense are struggling. And right now, some fans have expressed concern about his slow start.
Through 22 games, the O's five-time All-Star is batting .205 with one homer and seven RBIs. He is slugging just .295 with an OPS of .582. His career numbers in both categories are .460 and .778.
Is it that strong track record of success that can lead his manager Buck Showalter to expect Jones to start...
The Orioles offense has certainly been streaky lately. In the last four games of the road trip to Kansas City and Tampa Bay, the Orioles scored just five runs. Then they came home and scored 23 runs in the first three games against the Chicago White Sox. Now they have scored just five runs over the last three games.
Eight times this year, the Orioles have scored six or more runs in a game. But seven times this year, they have scored two runs or less. That includes last night, when CC Sabathia...
The Orioles could not get it going tonight against 35-year-old left-hander CC Sabathia in a 7-0 loss to the Yankees. He gave up six hits over seven innings to improve to 2-2 with an ERA of 3.81.
This was Sabathia's first scoreless outing of seven or more innings since April 7, 2013 at Detroit. The O's Chris Davis talked about the lack of offense against him tonight.
"Extremely difficult," Davis said of trying to get hits off the veteran Sabathia. "I think over the years he has really had...
The New York Yankees finally got to Tyler Wilson and later added on. The Orioles never could get to left-hander CC Sabathia.
The Yankees (9-16) scored three runs in the sixth off Wilson and went on to beat the Orioles 7-0 tonight at chilly Camden Yards to snap their six-game losing streak. The Orioles fall to 15-11 as their six-game winning streak over the Yankees ends.
Wilson began the sixth in a scoreless game at 69 pitches after he needed just seven pitches in a 1-2-3 fifth. But New York...
At one time, Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia was a dominant pitcher against the Orioles - and a few other teams. But in recent years, the Orioles have had a lot of success when facing Sabathia.
The 35-year-old lefty owns an 18-7 career record and ERA of 3.45 when pitching versus the Orioles. But since 2012, he is just 2-7 with an ERA of 5.06 over 11 starts against them. Since May 20, 2013, he has won just one of his last seven starts versus the Orioles.
Sabathia will try to pitch the Yankees...
When Manny Machado took his position at shortstop last night, not only was he replacing J.J. Hardy, but he was once again forming a double-play combination with his good friend, second baseman Jonathan Schoop.
The two have played a few major league games together as a DP combo, but also many on the farm. Fans in places like Frederick and Bowie have seen how good that duo can be playing together up the middle. They were the DP combination that led Single-A Frederick to a Carolina League title in...
On Monday an Oriole player picked up the American League Player of the Month award for the first time since Chris Davis was honored in April of 2013.
Manny Machado took the award for April after a month where he batted .344 (33-for-96) with 20 runs scored, 10 doubles, seven home runs and 16 RBIs over 23 games.
It is his first AL monthly honor, but probably not his last. Among AL leaders in April with a minimum of 70 at-bats, the 23-year-old Machado finished first in hits, batting average and...