The pen is mightier

The Orioles are 9-8 over the last 17 games. That sure beats 2-16. There are many reasons the team has a winning record in that stretch. But Dave Trembley cited his improved and remodeled bullpen as a big reason today during his pre-game media session. "It's real simple. When you pitch, when you hit, when you catch the ball, you have a chance to win. When you get two out of three, you're in it. "When we've lost, we've not had timely hitting and our pitching has not been very good. I know all the numbers as well as you do, what our record is with men on base, what it is when we score how many runs and so forth. "In the 9-8 stretch, how many of those games that we've lost, we're lost and we didn't kick. In the 2 and whatever it was, how many games were we ahead in the seventh or eighth inning and we kicked them. We blew them, we didn't get the outs. I don't care if we were 2 for 40, whatever, we didn't get three outs to win the game. "We're getting those three outs now to win the game. The bullpen has improved. It's improved. To me, that's what it is." Over the last 11 games, the O's bullpen ERA is 1.71 and the pen's record is 2-0 with 3 saves and no homers allowed in that stretch that covers 26 1/3 innings. O's bullpen, 2010 season: *During 2-16 start: 0-6, 4.62 with two saves and five blown saves. *During 9-8 run: 5-0, 3.00 with six saves and two blown saves. Alfredo Simon has been a big part of that and he is 5 for 5 in save chances. Will Ohman still has an ERA of 0.00 and others are pitching much better like Matt Albers. Cla Meredith has an ERA of 1.80 on the year and Koji Uehara's return has provided a late-inning lift. The Orioles are playing better ball now and the pen is mightier than it was. By the way, thanks to MASN's Jim Hunter for his help compiling some of these bullpen stats.