Zach Wilt: Chris Davis' importance to the Orioles

It's been a frustrating couple weeks in Birdland, you can feel the tension on the field. The Orioles have won just two of their last 10 games, went 11-18 in August and are 6 1/2 games back of the wild card, but at least they entered today's off-day on a positive note before heading north to Toronto. The O's avoided their longest losing streak in over four years last night when Chris Davis launched a monstrous walk-off homer in the 11th inning to help the Birds grab one of three from Tampa Bay.

Davis' 38th home run of the season was measured 458.4 feet at a launch speed of 113.4 MPH according to Statcast data. I'm sure the vexation of the past few weeks made the big fella grip the bat a little tighter and maybe even muscle up a little extra on Matt Andriese's 3-0 pitch. Not that he needed to, the ball fell just a few rows shy of the scoreboard in the centerfield bleachers. It was out the Yard by a mile. His bat flip after making contact told me everything I needed to know about how he's felt as the Orioles have slipped further out of playoff contention.

The Birds needed that offense last night because for the eighth consecutive game, their pitching staff allowed four runs or more. Kevin Gausman was chased after just 2 1/3 innings and surrendering a pair of homers in the third. Orioles starters in the second half have pitched to a 5.16 ERA after posting a 2.98 ERA post All-Star break in 2014. Despite the inconsistencies of the offense this season, I think the Orioles' struggles are more a factor of rotation concerns than issues in their lineup. That's doesn't mean that both shouldn't be addressed this offseason though.

Ending this most recent skid was almost entirely Chris Davis' doing as he led the Orioles with a 0.62 win probability added (an offensive statistic that measures the total impact of a batter's plate appearances) last night. Crushing a pair of homers certainly helps. In all likelihood, Davis is going to lead baseball in strikeouts this season and he slashed .196/.301/.464 in 113 plate appearances in May, but he's still on pace to hit 46 homers and drive in 118 this season.

Simply put, those type of numbers just aren't replaceable. Corner outfielders, bullpen help, even starting pitching can be found on the open market for the Orioles. Guys who can hit 40 bombs and drive in 100 are tough to come by these days. Fifty-five qualified starters have an ERA under 4.00 this season, while 12 batters have hit 30 or more home runs.

The most recent era of Orioles success has been because of timely offense and pitching that keeps them in games. The Birds led Major League Baseball in home runs in 2014 and were 12th in starters ERA (3.61). The big bats came through when they needed them and their pitchers held it together. Both have slipped this season and the O's find themselves five games under .500.

The front office is going to have a lot of difficult decisions to make over the winter about how to keep this core group together to compete for a World Series over the next few seasons. Some players will head to other cities and some new faces will make their way to Baltimore, but I think the most important decision the Orioles have to make is re-signing Chris Davis. He won't come cheap, but guys with his type of talent aren't available for the taking every day.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zach_wilt. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. 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.