Zach Wilt: Putting faith in the arms while O's lumber slumbers

When your favorite team has lost four of their last seven games, it's easy to be nitpicky. When they're in fourth place in the AL East on May 21, it's even more easy to just be flat out negative. Watching Nelson Cruz blast a three-run homer in his return to Charm City was painful, not only because of the dozens of replies I received on Twitter from angry O's fans, but also because the Birds have lacked a bit of the power they've had over the past few seasons.

As a team, the Orioles have hit 45 home runs this season, tied for seventh in the major leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays. Granted, they've played 37 games which is between two and four less than most clubs, but after leading the league in longballs the past two seasons, the Orioles are on pace to hit their fewest homers as a team since 2011.

Obviously, Cruz would have helped out in that department and we all know how dependent the O's have been on the longball: 47.80 percent of the runs they scored in 2014 came via the homer. That number has dipped to 39.39 percent this season.

But I promised I would be positive, it just took me a couple paragraphs to get there. The reason I'm not overly concerned about this club is because of what I've seen from the starting rotation in May. I've always said the Orioles will go as far as their starters will take them and this month they've been nothing short of dominant.

Though it wasn't a quality start, Wei-Yin Chen pitched seven innings last night and became the sixth consecutive Orioles starter to go at least 7 innings. Three of the O's six rotation arms have ERAs of 3.24 or less on the season. Ubaldo Jimenez is holding hitters to a .207 average, Miguel Gonzalez has limited opponents to a .204 mark. Chen was tagged for four earned runs on Wednesday, but has allowed two or fewer in his previous six starts.

The craziest thing is that the Orioles' No. 1 starter, Chris Tillman, still hasn't found consistency yet this season. A year ago, Tillman posted a 3.34 ERA over 207 1/3 innings pitched, but he didn't really put it all together until after the All-Star break. After pitching a 4.11 ERA in the first half, Tillman cruised in August and September with his 2.33 ERA and showed a huge increase in command with a 4.22 strikeout-to-walk ratio. If he's able to repeat that this season, watch out.

Shockingly, the Orioles are losing games right now because of their offense. As MASNsports.com's Steve Melewski points out, the Birds have scored just eight runs in their last five losses and three runs or less in nine of their last 14. Concerning? Absolutely. But I have a lot more faith in the Orioles turning things around because of their track record record on offense than I would If they were losing games 9-8 or 10-9 every night. I'd be ready to push the panic button, too, if the rotation was getting knocked around, but for now I'm remaining patient with the offense and, shockingly, even a bit optimistic about this club going forward.

To me, this silly game is all about starting pitching. The Giants' staff posted a 2.87 ERA in October last season, and they ended up being the team with a parade when it was all said and done. The Royals were right behind them with a 3.51 ERA, and they were a game away from being world champs. As long as the Orioles continue to pitch at an elite level, they'll be in this thing.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zamwi. 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.