A look at the O's and Nats, another strong Akin outing and more

The Orioles are a better team at home than on the road, and they return to Oriole Park this afternoon to face the Washington Nationals to start a seven-game homestand, that will also see the Yankees come to town beginning Thursday night.

Entering play as of Sunday, the Orioles were tied with the Tampa Bay Rays and Minnesota Twins for the fewest home games played in the American League at 23. The Orioles are 10-13 (.435) at home and 7-23 (.233) on the road. The Orioles are 3-5 in eight home series and 1-7-1 in nine series away from Camden Yards.

The Orioles lost nine of their first 12 home games to being the 2018 season, but they have gone 7-4 over their last 11 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles offense continues to be non-productive and that is putting it nicely. They scored just six runs in three games at Tropicana Field over the weekend. Over the last eight games the Orioles have scored 21 runs and they have 34 over the past 12.

The Orioles have scored three runs or less in eight of their past nine games. They have now done that 31 times this year, going 4-27 when they score three or fewer runs.

While first baseman Chris Davis has been a focal point for criticism, this is more than a one-man problem. However, Davis went just 3-for-34 (.088) with 17 strikeouts on the road trip that ended Sunday. Davis has just one multi-hit game since May 2 and that covers 21 games. Even Manny Machado's bat has cooled a bit. He is 5-for-26 (.192) over his last six games.

Kevin Gausman's performance had to be termed disappointing Sunday, especially in light of how well he had pitched in Chicago, Tuesday. Gausman got swings and misses on 25 of 106 pitches, including 17 of 41 splitters in going 6 1/3 scoreless versus the White Sox. Then he gave up seven runs in 2 2/3 innings on Sunday. It was his shortest outing of 2018, and the most runs he has allowed. His ERA was 2.72 his previous eight starts before his struggles at the Trop.

Now the Orioles face their neighbors to the south, and the Nationals are playing well after a slow start. Washington was 11-16 on April 28, but is 18-6 since and swept three straight from Miami over the weekend. They have won five of six and 12 of their last 17 games. The Nats have a 17-8 road record which is the best in the National League.

Finally, you may have noticed that today is Memorial Day, a day to remember fallen heroes and we should never forget what this day is really about.

But per baseball and something much less important, I guess we could say it's a significant date for the 2018 Orioles. Orioles vice president Dan Duquette mentioned this date as a time to further fully assess where the club is at and make some decisions regarding the future. Decisions such as should the club go into rebuilding mode since the Orioles have played so bady.

About two weeks ago, I wrote this article. It came via an interview I did with Duquette on 105.7 FM the Fan. That day he said this about his club:

"We've got some work to do on our ballclub for this year and the future and we are always doing that," Duquette said. "To me, it is a question: Are you going to put more resources into winning now or put more resources into winning later? These issues are cyclical for ballclubs all over the league. Fortunately in Baltimore, we have a great fan base and if we communicate effectively what it is we're trying to do, I'm sure they'll support the club."

So could we see a youth movement as this season goes on?

"I think you have to look at that," Duquette said. "A lot of that is determined with the timing and the skill development of the players you have."

Again that was from an interview two weeks ago yesterday. Since then, the Orioles are 4-8 and their outlook is no better. We need to keep in mind that other teams may not be ready to make trades yet. They are still assessing their own clubs and the trade deadline is a full two months away.

But the 2018 season is not getting better for the Orioles. A 4-7 road trip is nothing to brag about and neither is scoring so few runs all year. It is conceivable that this team could make a dramatic turnaround, it is just not very likely and it would seem any honest assessment of the club right now would have an answer for Duquette's quote from earlier in this story.

It is time for the Orioles to begin to put more resources into winning later and making moves and decisions geared more toward the future than the present.

Akin and Mullins co-star for Bowie: Double-A Bowie won 7-0 at Binghamton last night. Lefty Keegan Akin pitched his third scoreless start of the year allowing just two hits over seven innings with one walk and 10 strikeouts. Akin is 5-4 with a 2.97 ERA over 10 starts with 63 strikeouts in 57 2/3. Akin is the first Baysox pitcher with multiple double-digit strikeout games in the same season since left-hander Mike Ballard recorded three in 2011.

Outfielder Cedric Mullins had an amazing weekend series, going 9-for-14 in the three games. Last night he went 4-for-5 with a double and triple. The four hits for Mullins tied a career-high, was the sixth four-hit game of his career and first since June 24, 2017 at Erie. Mullins has a 12-game hitting streak and he's batting .427 (32-for-75) over his past 18 games. For the year Mullins is batting .319/.368/.521 with 12 doubles, four triple, six homers and 28 RBIs.