Orioles offense this season: inconsistent and struggling to score at home (Gausman note)

Maybe lost a bit last night in all of the postgame talk about Bud Norris hitting Torii Hunter was that besides Norris hitting the Tigers right fielder, the Orioles didn't hit much of anything else last night.

They aren't hitting much of anything at all these days. Where has the offense gone?

The Orioles went to Minnesota and scored six runs in three games. They went to Tampa and scored 12 runs in three games. They came home against Houston and scored 11 runs in three games. They scored one last night. That is 30 runs the past 10 games, and they've scored three runs or less six times in that stretch.

The Orioles have scored 10 runs or more three times on the road this year and that has inflated their road offensive stats a bit but they are simply not hitting much at home in 2014.

Last season, the O's batted .264 at home and now they are hitting .238. Their slugging percentage last year was .445 at home and now it is .345. They averaged 1.4 home runs per home game and 4.7 runs per home game in 2013. Now they average 0.7 homers and 3.0 runs per game at Camden Yards.

Some averages, homers and RBIs at home:

* Nelson Cruz .197/4/7
* Adam Jones .203/1/7
* Manny Machado .190/1/1
* Jonathan Schoop .175/0/2

In order, starting with their first home game through last night, here are the Orioles' runs scored for each home game in 2014: 2, 2, 3, 0, 2, 3, 7, 3, 0, 3, 3, 5, 6, 4, 5, 2, 1.

That is three or fewer runs in 12 of 17 home games and two runs or less in seven of 17 games. Not enough, right?

What is your take on the team's offense right now?

Gausman note: The Orioles have just announced that Kevin Gausman will start tomorrow afternoon against Detroit. It will be his sixth major league start.

This is a very interesting decsion, to say the least. Gausman will be pitching on three days rest. His last outing was Saturday when he went 4 2/3 scoreless innings on two hits. He is 0-1 with a 2.08 ERA over six starts. He just came off a DL stint due to pneumonia to pitch that game on Saturday.

Last season, in his third major league start, Gausman pitched very well against Detroit. On June 2, he went six innings allowing five hits and one run, throwing 96 pitches.

We don't yet know how this impacts the rest of the rotation and which pitcher may be losing his starting spot. But Gausman is back with the Orioles and will start Wednesday afternoon.