Dillon Atkinson: Righties struggling against opposing southpaws

Before putting up three runs against Boston's bullpen in Tuesday night's 5-3 loss to the Red Sox, the Orioles were being no-hit through four innings by left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez. The young southpaw, who struck out seven batters over his four no-hit frames, was removed from the game in the fifth inning with a left hamstring injury. Tuesday night was another case of the O's not doing too well against lefties.

Yes, the Orioles own a 17-16 record this year when the opposing starting pitcher is a lefty, but that doesn't tell the entire story. This season, the O's are slashing .232/.301/.383 with an 81 wRC+ against left-handers, while they have a .272/.329/.465 slash line with a 109 wRC+ against righties. This is beyond puzzling to me. Most of the right-handed hitters in the Orioles lineup are struggling against lefties, outside of Manny Machado, Steve Pearce and J.J. Hardy. The main culprits who are giving me confusion with these struggles are Mark Trumbo, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters and Nolan Reimold.

*Trumbo has done well against left-handers in his time in the big leagues, slashing .256/.302/.503 with a 118 wRC+. In 2016 against southpaws, he is slashing .186/.226/.458 with a 71 wRC+. Prior to the season starting, I saw many people wondering if Trumbo would platoon at designated hitter with Pedro Alvarez. I thought of the idea as well. Well, looks like that was an idea not worth playing around with, as Trumbo decided to ditch his career splits.

*Jones has a track record of doing better against righties than lefties, having career slash-lines of .265/.314/.417 and .283/.320/.479 against lefties and righties, respectfully. In 2016, Jones is slashing a very low .216/.256/.306 against lefties, while walloping right-handers with a .292/.338/.507 slash line.

*Now, for the switch-hitter. Wieters has been known to hit lefties pretty well, slashing .271/.332/.467 with a 114 wRC+ in his career. This year, he's been as bad as it gets against lefties, slashing .197/.282/.289 with a 51 wRC+.

*Reimold has been used in a platoon with Hyun Soo Kim this season. He hasn't really shown a favorable platoon side in his career, although he did slash .278/.374/.418 against lefties last season, while recording a .220/.317/.374 slash line against right-handers in the same year. This season, although he's been mainly a platoon partner for Kim, Reimold has batted .190/.269/.286 with a 48 wRC+ against southpaws, but has a .256/.330/.453 line with a 107 wRC+ against right-handers. If you've followed me on Twitter, you know that I'm one of the biggest Reimold supporters out there. However, I think it's time to give Kim a crack at everyday opportunities.

Machado has been fine against lefties because, well, he's Machado. Pearce has obliterated lefties this season at a .344/.444/.656 clip, but let's not forget he did start the season with the Rays. Hardy, I can't explain, but that's just because you just never know what you'll get from him offensively. He's been fairly evenly split with success between righties and lefties this season.

I really can't figure out why the O's right-handed batters are doing much worse this season against left-handers than they have in the past. It could've been something they worked on - or didn't work on enough - in spring training. It could have something to do with the backdrop at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but I doubt it since they have to deal with these struggles on the road as well. I really expected Trumbo and Wieters to contribute to some lefty-mashing this season, but they - along with many others on the O's roster - have shown they're going against their career norms this season. It's not a bad thing, since most of the league is filled with right-handed pitchers, but it looks like the Orioles and the fans will have to deal with some frustration anytime a left-hander takes the mound.

Dillon Atkinson blogs about the Orioles for Orioles Uncensored. Follow him on Twitter: @DAtkinsonOU. 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.