The starting rotations in Bowie and Baltimore

If you are looking for a nugget, a morsel, a small crumb to hang your hat on with something even remotely positive through this dismal Orioles start it is this - the starting rotation. Kevin Millwood and Jeremy Guthrie easily pitched good enough to win the last two days and it's been that way most days during this season. The starters are throwing a lot of strikes, getting deeper in games and keeping this so far terrible hitting team in games. The starters ERA is only 4.52, still a big improvement from last year. But take away Brad Bergesen's two outings and that number is 3.63. The O's rotation has produced six quality starts. Last year it took 22 games to get to six. At this point last year, the rotation ERA was 6.00. O's starters have gone six or more innings seven times and have allowed zero or one walk eight times. Matusz looks as good as advertised and Millwood and Guthrie are far better than they looked in March. It's hard to imagine they've been that solid but all it has produced is a 1-11 record. You have to be pretty bad in other areas to do that. On the other hand, at Bowie, the Baysox are not getting much offense either, but are winning at a great pace. The Baysox are 9-1, the best start in the franchise's 18-year history, with eight wins in a row. The team is hitting just .239 and has scored only 39 runs, but leads the Eastern League with a team ERA of 1.68. Here are the stats of Bowie's rotation: Steve Johnson: 0-0, 0.00, 0 ER in 10 IP Tim Bascom: 1-0, 0.82, 1 ER in 11 IP Ryohei Tanaka: 1-0, 1.50, 2 ER in 12 IP Zach Britton: 1-0, 2.61, 3 ER in 10 1/3 IP Chorye Spoone: 1-0, 2.70, 3 ER in 10 IP TOTAL: 4-0, 1.52 The Baysox staff has allowed just three homers on the year in 91 innings. Right now, Bowie has the best record in all of Double-A baseball.