Andrew Stetka: Masking an obvious weakness

The season is only two weeks old, but I've written a lot already in 2016 about the need for the Orioles to mask their weaknesses. There's no real secret what people are talking about when it comes to the O's and weakness - it's their starting pitching. These Birds, like the ones in recent past, are very good offensively. They can play defense with anyone. There are no real qualms about the bullpen. The starting pitching is an entirely different story.

When it comes to Saturday night's game in Arlington, Texas, the Orioles failed drastically at hiding their biggest weakness. We aren't going to dwell on one loss. We're simply using the 8-4 loss to the Rangers as an example of what could be a greater issue.

Twitter erupted Saturday evening when Yovani Gallardo returned to the mound for the start of the seventh inning. He had thrown 96 pitches and was showing signs of fatigue. Yet Gallardo had allowed just two runs and Buck Showalter said after the game that he was carrying good stuff. I was in the camp of questioning the move, and my fears were confirmed when Gallardo walked the leadoff hitter, Brett Nicholas. That turned the lineup over, then Delino DeShields doubled. Things unraveled quickly from there.

>Deep down, I knew why Showalter likely kept his starter in the game. He needs more out of his rotation in order to protect the bullpen. He was trying to avoid using Zach Britton, Darren O'Day and Brad Brach in the game. It's understandable, considering the Orioles are already near the top five for innings pitched by a bullpen. Gallardo was sitting on a two-run lead, despite a barrage of homers earlier in the game. Once things turned, the elements of the team that are built to mask the poor starting pitching also fell by the wayside.

T.J. McFarland and Mychal Givens were called upon out of the bullpen to shut the door, and weren't able to. When the starters are putting so much pressure on the relievers, it's understandable. There were also defensive woes. McFarland failed to cover first base on a grounder to Chris Davis before Mark Trumbo committed a costly error in right field by letting a ball under his glove. Once the toothpaste was out of the tube, it wasn't going back in. The offense wasn't able to cover up the mistakes in the final two innings. It was three up, three down in the eighth and ninth with three total strikeouts. Saturday's game was one of those rare cases where the Orioles hit three home runs and still lost a game. If the starting pitching doesn't get worked out quickly, more of those games could be in the future.

It's fair to question Showalter's decision to leave Gallardo in the game, but again, there has to be something in his mind about saving the bullpen. Showalter has built up a lot of credit in making moves like these, but perhaps he has a hand that won't win with this rotation. Forget a full house; Buck would love to have a pair.

Even though it's still early, the Orioles need to start asking themselves whether or not the starting pitching is going to be able to pull its own weight. If the bullpen, offense and defense have to continue masking a staff that carries an ERA over 5.00, the stay atop the American League East could be short-lived. Again, I'm not taking one game as a greater example of a season, but it's a trend you can imagine playing out time and time again. It's also not news to anyone outside of the clubhouse that these fears about the starting pitching staff were well-known before the start of the season. Whether or not it gets fixed, and how that is done, remain to be seen.

Andrew Stetka blogs about the Orioles for Eutaw Street Report. Follow him on Twitter: @AStetka. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.