Orioles offense not living up to 2013 performance so far

The Orioles scored six runs yesterday at Kansas City. But until Adam Jones hit a three-run homer with his team down by five in the ninth, the Orioles were on their way to scoring three runs or less for the 13th time in the last 21 games.

In my opinion, the Orioles' lack of offense through 42 games is the biggest mystery of this season. It can't all be put on a lack of walks and on-base capability because last year's team ranked 10th in OBP and 14th in the American League in walks, but tied for fourth in runs.

Of course, that team homered at a much greater rate than this one so far.

Here is a look at several key team offensive stats from 2013 to 2014, and in every category, the Orioles are down so far this year:

Average: .260 to .259
OBP: .313 to .307
Slugging: .431 to .386
OPS: .744 to .693
Homers per game: 1.31 to 0.86
Walk rate: 6.8 percent to 5.8 percent
Runs per game: 4.60 to 3.98

The team's runs per game has been trending down since the beginning of last season:

Before 2013 All-Star break: 4.8 per game
After 2013 All-Star break: 4.3 per game
September 2013: 4.0 per game
2014 season to date: 3.98 per game

This hasn't been just a poor series or week, or even a homestand or two. It's been a struggle to score runs for 42 games - and longer if you want to go back to the last half or end of the 2013 season.

If you go back to last September through the first 42 games of this year, the Orioles have scored 279 runs in those 70 games for an average of 3.98 per game. If a team scored that many per game all of last season, it would finish with 645 runs. That was 100 fewer than the O's actually scored last year and would have been only 12th most in the AL last year.

When Adam Jones chased a pitch and struck out in the ninth inning Saturday night, it touched off an avalanche of negative comments on this blog. The fan frustration was evident. Some expressed it well, others not so much. But I digress.

Despite the fact many of you want this team to work counts better and improve its collective plate discipline, outside of possible small gains, I don't see it happening. It's not what they do well. They are going to have to find other ways to score and that probably includes an increase in homers. It's needed and soon.

The core group is going to have to carry the load. That means Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Nelson Cruz, J.J. Hardy, Nick Markakis and Manny Machado. It has to come from that six for the most part. The others will help, but the core group has to carry the heaviest load over the bulk of the year.

Davis just looks out of sorts up there right now. Machado's bat seems to be coming around. Jones has a 13-game hitting streak. Markakis has been getting hits, but not driving the ball much. Hardy is still homerless, while Cruz has certainly done his part.

It's a mixed bag from this group of hitters. But when they become more consistent and start hitting more homers, the O's outlook on offense should finally get brighter.