Down the stretch they come: O's trip moves to Detroit for weekend series

The Orioles will wrap up their next-to-last road trip of the season this weekend when they play three games in Detroit at Comerica Park.

The Orioles have not played the Tigers all year and now they will see them in back-to-back weekends and in six of their next nine games.

While the Orioles have struggled lately going 1-2 at Boston to start this trip and they are now 1-4 the last five games and 2-5 their past seven, Detroit is doing the opposite.

The Tigers had a four-game win streak snapped Thursday when they lost 4-2 at home versus Colorado. The O's will miss ace Tarik Skubal who allowed one run in six innings in that game.

So Detroit is now 75-72 and are 3.5 games behind Minnesota for the last AL wild card spot. Detroit needs a bunch of wins to make a late run and if they get them at the Orioles expense, it could be quite damaging to Baltimore's AL East title hopes.

Since Aug. 11, Detroit’s 18-11 record is the best in the majors. They have averaged 4.9 runs per game with a .735 team OPS. But it is on the pitching side where they have really been outstanding.

In those 29 games they have a team ERA of 2.51 which leads MLB in this span. They have allowed a team batting average of .208 and team OPS of .579 in this stretch. Detroit has a plus-56 run differential in this span.

The Tigers are 37-35 at home, 13-10 against AL East opponents (2-4 versus the Yankees) and 28-22 since the All-Star break.

Of the Orioles 15 games remaining in the regular season nine are versus teams they have yet to play this season. Next week they host San Francisco for three on the final homestand. They also play three at Yankee Stadium and they are 6-4 against New York this year and three at Minnesota and they are 3-0 versus the Twins.

The Yankees played and won the series-opener of a four-game series last night against Boston. They are now 5-5 versus the Red Sox this season and lead the Orioles by two games. After this series they play three each at Seattle and Oakland and New York is 2-2 against both clubs. They then host the Orioles and are 4-6 in the season series and host Pittsburgh, a club they have not played during the 2024 season.

The Westburg effect: This is likely about more than one player, but infielder Jordan Westburg was having a strong season for the Orioles when he was hit by a pitch and fractured his right hand. The O’s still hope he makes it back soon, but his last game was July 31.

Through that date the Orioles were 65-44 and were in first place by a ½ game. At that point they were scoring 5.1 runs per game with a team OPS of .774.

Since Aug. 1, without Westburg, the Orioles are 18-20. They are scoring 4.4 runs per game with a team OPS of .696.

Through 101 games played, Westburg is hitting .269 with an .815 OPS, 18 homers and 58 RBIs.

The O's struggling offense has produced just 15 runs their past seven games in going 2-5. They have a team batting average of .199 with an OPS of .578 in this span and they are 6-for-46 (.130) with runners in scoring position in this time. 

The O’s miss all their injured players, of course, to include Ramón Urías. He has an OPS of .754 for the year, but before his ankle sprain, over his last 15 games, he hit .341 with two doubles, a triple, four homers, 15 RBIs and with an OPS of .1.139.

The Orioles could be getting back some big-time talent and key players in the final weeks. But will they have enough time to get up to speed and will they hit the ground running?

This will be interesting to follow along with how this impacts the 28-man roster and the playoff roster.