O's game blog: Will the offense break out today?

The Orioles are just 1-5 since winning on opening day and today they face right-hander Ivan Nova (1-0, 3.18 ERA) in New York. Wei-Yin Chen (0-1, 6.35 ERA) starts for the Orioles in the second game of the three-game series. We've talked a lot about the starting pitching here already in the first eight days of the season. Let's take a look at the offense so far. The Orioles have scored just 22 runs in seven games and have scored three runs or less in five of those games. They have hit just three homers and just one over the last five games. Overall in 2013, the Orioles batted .260 with a .313 on-base percentage and a .431 slugging percentage. So far this season, the Orioles are batting .231 team avg. with a .273 OBP and a .342 slugging percentage. Some of the bats are showing signs of life. Matt Wieters has hit safely in every game he's played and is batting .391. Nick Markakis is 4-for-11 over his last three games with a double and triple. Nelson Cruz is 3-for-7 with a double and two RBIs the past two games. Chris Davis, since beginning the year 0-for-6, has hit .350 (7-for-20) during a five-game batting streak with three doubles and three RBIs. Those still struggling include David Lough, who is 0-for-8 the last two games and batting .105. Ryan Flaherty is hitting .048 and Jonathan Schoop is batting .143. Flaherty and Schoop are a combined 4-for-42 with one walk and 16 strikeouts. Here is the surprise stat of the day: Adam Jones, at this early stage, is among the American League leaders in pitches per plate appearance. He is averaging 4.59 to rank eighth in the AL. Last year, Mike Napoli led the league with that exact same 4.59 number. If this trend continues, it will be worth watching if a less aggressive and more selective Jones turns out to be one with less power. Some have contended that Jones' free-swinging approach, while it leads to chasing some pitches, also is a reason for his potent bat. It is something to keep an eye on. Today's MASNSports.com Nationals guest blogger, Stuart Wallace, took a look at this topic today and how it affects the Nats - hitters being selective or aggressive. You can read that here. Will the O's offense break out today? To bunt or not to bunt, that is the question: In the second inning, the Orioles had runners on first and second with no outs and Schoop coming up. He tried to bunt twice there and fouled it off each time to fall behind 0-2 in the count. I would not have bunted there with an early 3-1 lead. Let the kid swing away since you are already off to a good start on offense today. This story has a happy ending as the kid worked the count to 2-2 and then smoked an RBI double down the third base line. The O's lead 4-1 in the second. It was Schoop's second double and RBI of the year. Would you have bunted there? New season highs: The Orioles have set new season highs today for runs and hits in a game, and that's just through four innings. Guess the offense has, in fact, broken out today. The O's lead 7-1 after three and a half innings and have 11 hits. The bottom of the order of Steve Lombardozzi, Flaherty and Schoop has combined to go 6-for-6 with four runs and an RBI so far. The Orioles scored six runs Saturday at Detroit and that was their best in a game before today. They had 10 hits in that same game and have already topped that this afternoon. Minors matters: Triple-A Norfolk hosts Gwinnett tonight and Suk-min Yoon makes his Norfolk debut getting that start. He will be followed the next four days in the rotation by Mike Wright, Kevin Gausman, Steve Johnson and T.J. McFarland. Double-A Bowie hosts Richmond in a doubleheader tonight. The Baysox, during their 4-0 start, have scored a total of 35 runs on 54 hits. Bowie leads the Eastern League in batting average (.353), nearly 70 points ahead of the next closest team, Richmond (.284). The team also leads the league in runs, hits, total bases (75), doubles (16), RBIs (33), slugging (.490) and on-base percentage (.402). Single-A Frederick plays its home opener tonight against Carolina at Harry Grove Stadium with Frederick native Branden Kline making the start. The Keys are 2-2 and their .280 team average is tops in the Carolina League. The Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds play a doubleheader tonight at Hagerstown. For the 2-2 Shorebirds, Austin Urban and Luc Rennie get the starts. Chen's day: Chen may become the first starter other than Chris Tillman to get a win when he pitches this year, but he certainly didn't pitch very well today. He gave up nine hits and four runs over five innings and the Orioles are still looking for their second quality start. Through two starts Chen has allowed 21 hits over 10 2/3 innings and a .412 batting average against.