O's offense still looks to get going, plus talking OBP with Chris Davis

Well, is it too soon to worry? That is an easy one. Yes, it is way, way too early or to have any concerns about the 2014 Orioles. The Yankees have started 0-2 and Tampa Bay is 1-2. The Orioles can win another series against Boston with a victory tonight. If they win this game, they will have won 12 of their last 15 series against the Red Sox and they'll get their season off to a good start as they head for Detroit. Ubaldo Jimenez gave up a pair of homers to the middle of the Boston order last night. Last season, Jimenez gave up just one homer total over his last 12 starts. Last night, he topped that giving up two in six innings. Is it fair to wonder how well Jimenez will do against some of the top lineups in the American League East? His career ERA against Boston is now 10.47. His ERA over 18 career starts against the AL East is now 5.87. We certainly can't make any judgments on Jimenez after one O's outing. He didn't get much offensive support last night. He is going to get plenty of chances coming up to show he can improve those numbers against AL East teams. Through two games, the Orioles have a team batting average of .194 and on-base percentage of .219. Yeah, that's not very good, and again, nothing to see here really. Can't make any judgments after two games. This offense is going to score some runs. But last season, while the Orioles led the big leagues in homers, they ranked only 10th in the AL in OBP at .313. Boston led the AL in 2013 at .349 and the AL team average was .320. Chris Davis is aware of some of those numbers, but he does not believe the OBP stat is a big negative for the O's offense. "I think, as long as you are having quality at-bats," he said. "If you have a solid at-bat and not get on base, I think there are a lot of times when there is too much weight put into statistics. "There are a lot of things that happen in the course of a game that you can't categorize into statistics. Obviously, if we are having three- and four-pitch at-bats, we need to make an adjustment. But we're a team that likes to swing the bat. We're a team that has a lot of power, so we'll see where that takes us." As they are about to embark on the season's first road trip, the O's will try to take the series finale tonight and get the 2014 season off to a winning start. Wei-Yin Chen faces Felix Doubront tonight as the O's and Sox wrap up this three-game series at 7:05.