Final thoughts on West Coast road trip

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Orioles road trip has moved to the East Coast and they face the New York Yankees tonight. The Orioles (6-10) took two of three from the Yankees (10-6) in the series in Baltimore that preceded this trip.

New York scored just six runs in three games in Baltimore. But in winning five of six since then - and they just swept three from Cleveland on Sunday - they’ve scored 28 runs.  

The Orioles have not won back-to-back series against the Yankees since taking the last series against them in 2016 and the first of the 2017 season. So it’s been a minute.

Here are a few thoughts from the West Coast part of the trip.

Mancini is mashing: Trey Mancini is batting .237/.288/.339/.627 and those numbers in no way reflect the quality of his contact. He hit a three-run homer Sunday and he has been mashing baseballs during the entire trip where his OPS is just .646.

Mancini is the Orioles' leader in average exit velocity at 92.5 mph and that ranks in the top 12 percent in the major leagues, per Statcast. He ranks in the top 6 percent in hard-hit rate, the top 8 percent in expected slugging and the top 19 percent in barrel percentage. The contact numbers say he is owed either some balls that find grass and/or maybe, if this all truly evens out over a long season, some bloops are coming his way.

The Orioles have scored 20 runs the last four games after scoring 24 in their first 12 games. And since Mancini’s ejection in Oakland, the Birds have scored 20 runs their past 32 innings.

López has been amazing: When he recorded two straight saves Friday and Saturday at Anaheim, Jorge López showed dominant stuff. He is 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA and four saves. Over his last five games, he’s thrown 6 2/3 scoreless with no walks and 11 strikeouts. He looks like a 30-save vet on the mound right now.

López’s average velocity last year was 95.2 mph and now it is 98.0, which ranks in the top 1 percent in the majors. He’s in the top 4 percent of pitchers for lowest hard-hit percentage. He’s retired 20 of his past 22 batters faced since allowing two runs on three hits and a walk on April 13. Each of his eight appearances have come in high-leverage situations, according to Baseball-reference.com, the most among all major league pitchers.

Said manager Brandon Hyde: “When the season started, I told him, ‘I’m going to pitch you late game against the toughest part of the lineup.’ Because I believe so much in his stuff. Whether that is going to be the seventh, eighth or ninth, he’s going to face the middle of the order. He’s taken it and run with it. He’s super confident on the mound. It’s never been about stuff with Lopie. His stuff has ticked up out of the 'pen because it’s a shorter sprint.”

Zimmermann is channeling Mike Flanagan: Bruce Zimmermann is pitching like a crafty lefty, one we remember from years past. The Ellicott City kid is off to a blazing start at 1-0 with a 1.20 ERA, 16 strikeouts over 15 innings and a WHIP of 1.13. In the dictionary under "pitchability" right now, you see his picture.

He’s throwing his excellent changeup 32 percent of the time, almost as much as his fastball, and getting a 40.5 whiff rate with that offering. His pitch mix has been outstanding. His ERA would be in the top 10 in the majors had he enough innings to qualify for the league leaders. He is one inning short.

What a performance against the Angels magnificent top-of-the-order trio of Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon. On Friday, they went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts against him the first two times through the order. He fanned all three of them in the fourth inning on three different pitches.

“That 1-2-3 (in their lineup) is a serious punch,” Zimmermann said after that game. “It’s definitely a challenge, but ... what makes this game fun is playing against guys like that.”

He's making it look fun and easy right now.

The catchers excel: While Birdland is excited about Adley Rutschman playing with high Single-A Aberdeen beginning tonight and anticipating his big league debut later this season, the catchers the O’s currently have are doing a great job leading the pitching staff. A staff that ranks, as of Monday, third in the American League in team ERA at 3.17, sixth in rotation ERA at 3.68 and sixth in bullpen ERA as 2.75.

Hyde had particular praise for Robinson Chirinos over the weekend, after he returned to the lineup after that near miss to his face when he was hit by pitch Wednesday at Oakland.

“It’s what he’s been doing since the day he got here," Hyde said. "It’s just a professional attitude. Incredible energy, incredible communication in the dugout, on the field, the way he slows the game down for the pitchers. The homework he does prior to the game. The confidence that the pitchers have in him.

"Someone who has caught in big games for good teams with good staffs. He knows what that looks like. He knows how to help guys navigate through lineups, and you’re seeing the confidence in our pitchers. I think that Robby, and Boomer (Anthony Bemboom) also, they have a ton of confidence in both those guys. It’s been a huge difference for us with our pitching, and those guys deserve a ton of credit for what we’re doing on the mound.”

Down-to-the-wire games: The Orioles continue to play a number of close games. Their past five have been decided by one or two runs and they are 3-2 in those games. For the season, the Orioles are 3-4 in one-run games and 2-3 in two-run games.

The O’s offense continues to perk up a bit, too. They scored 24 runs in their first 12 games and have scored 20 runs the last four. They are 10-for-39 (.256) with runners in scoring position in that span, so they finally improved in that stat. The Orioles have scored 20 runs the past 32 innings since Mancini was ejected Thursday.

The Orioles hit a season-high two home runs on Sunday. In a strange development, they are 0-5 this year when they hit a home run.

I'm doing fine: Thanks to anyone and everyone that reached out and showed concern for me over the past two days. I did have a medical issue Sunday that sent me not to Angel Stadium, but to the ER at UC-Irvine Medical Center. But I got great news yesterday and am headed home today. I'm relieved and thankful for people at that hospital that treated me like a member of their family. I get a bit emotional thinking about how great they were.

What looked like a potentially dire situation was, in the end, not that. It was a scare and I can happily say now it was nothing more.

No, I did not have COVID. Never have had it, don't have it now and it had absolutely nothing to do with this. But, hey, fun speculation for some for a while. Have I mentioned I do not have COVID?

Thanks to my family at MASN and the Orioles. They treated me like family yet again and their first question was only, 'How can I help?' I always have known I'm lucky to work with this group.

At this point, I'm tired and relieved, but happy to be heading home today. I want to move forward and get back to coverage of the 2022 season. I saw a few things on this trip from the Orioles that were quite encouraging. 

Now on with the rest of the season!