Schoop still raking but O's lose back-to-back against Houston

Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop made his first All-Star game earlier this month. Lately, each night he continues to show us why he got that honor.

Schoop hits a lot of ropes lately. He has now homered in three straight games and has an RBI in six straight games. He has had multiple RBIs in five straight games, recording 14 RBIs in those five games.

Over this six-game stretch with at least one RBI, Schoop is 10-for-25 (.400) with three home runs and 15 RBIs. Going back six games he has driven in one, and then two, three, three, four and two runs.

Over his past 51 games since May 28, Schoop is batting .330 with 15 homers and 50 RBIs. You can do the math here on what that production is on a pace for in essentially just less than a third of the season. He has so much fun on the field every day and he's been pretty fun to watch all year.

In a recent interview I asked O's hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh for the biggest reason that Schoop's offense took another step forward this year.

"You look at some hitters that are having better years than in the past, like Justin Smoak with Toronto, they have raised their strike zone and raised their sights," Coolbaugh said. "That is what Schoop has been able to do in a nutshell.

"Even though he is aggressive, he is able to raise his sights and eliminate some pitches that he chased before down and out of the zone. Typically, that is what pitchers test you with in a young player's career. They go strike to ball down out of the zone and you can't do anything with that pitch. This year, he has been able to eliminate that pitch as much as possible, knock on wood. It is a credit to him as he comes every day looking to get better," Coolbaugh added.

But Houston's offense has been the better one the last two nights as they have produced 8-7 and 8-4 wins, coming up with 31 hits and six homers at Camden Yards. Houston is 5-0 versus the Orioles this year and has won eight straight against Baltimore. Houston is 11-1 in its last 12 games against the O's.

On this homestand the Orioles went 0-3 versus the Cubs and were outscored 27-11. They went 4-0 against Texas by a 34-11 score and now have lost back-to-back to Houston by a 16-11 score. Pretty easy to figure out what happened in these games. Their pitching allowed 9.0 runs per game versus the Cubs, 2.8 against Texas and 8.0 versus Houston.

Houston is 65-32 for the season and 35-11 on the road. They go for the sweep over the Orioles this afternoon. The Orioles have dropped back to five games under .500 at 46-51 and they are 15-25 the past 40 games.