Zach Wilt: The longball is the key

It's tough to pinpoint exactly what was going wrong for the Orioles over their season-high six game losing streak. The bats had cooled, but the starting pitchers were averaging nearly a 6.00 ERA during the O's most difficult stretch of the season. Was the offense to blame or the arms? How much of a factor was tough luck? Last night in Kansas City, everything seemed to click once again for the Birds, and they avoided their longest losing streak in more than four years.

On the mound, Wei-Yin Chen picked up his fourth consecutive quality start and eighth win of the season. He's proven to be quite the stopper. Chen is 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA over his last four starts, and the Orioles are 16-9 when he toes the rubber this season.

The offense scored eight runs after average 2.5 per game during the losing streak. Chris Davis snapped his 0-for-16 with a pair of hits and his 35th homer. Manny Machado, who hit .154 during the streak, also went deep and singled. The Birds collected 13 hits, five of them went out of the ballpark, and handed Johnny Cueto a rare loss at Kauffman Stadium as he entered the contest 2-0 with 0.53 ERA in front of the home K.C. fans.

Down 2-0 after the second inning, Machado quickly tied this one with a two-run blast to left field in the third inning. Jonathan Schoop turned some heads when he followed Machado's homer with a two-run shot of his own that was measured an astounding 484 feet according to Statcast. Three more O's would go deep over the next five innings. During the losing streak, the O's homered just twice in six games. When they swept the Athletics in four games and split a two game series against the Mets, the Orioles' offense homered 15 times.

Baltimore's offense has always been dependent on the long ball, but last night's victory may be the perfect example of just how important it really is to them. The Birds scored eight runs despite stranding four men on base and going 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position. To the surprise of many, this season, the O's have actually had quite a bit of success with runners in scoring position. They're hitting .285/.345/.452 in those situations, ranking third in all of baseball in average. The problem is, they rank 29th in at-bats with RISP, which shows how many less opportunities they've had compared to other clubs in the league.

That's why the long ball is so important to Baltimore. Last season, the Orioles proved to be the most homer-dependent ball club in baseball, scoring 47 percent of their total runs from the long ball. This year, they've been just about as dependent, entering last night's contest with 45 percent of their total runs scored from homers. They led baseball with 211 home runs a season ago and have hit 167 this season.

After a five homer game last night, in which 100 percent of their runs were scored from homers, the Birds are on pace to out-homer their 2014 total with 215 this season. The crazy thing is, despite leading MLB by 25 homers in 2014, the Orioles would finish third this season behind the Blue Jays (222 projected home runs) and Astros (220). Perhaps the rest of the league is adjusting to how the O's have been winning games since 2012.

The past week was certainly a difficult one for the Orioles, but the American League has done its best to keep them in contention. They're still just a mere two games back of the second wild card spot and will have the opportunity to leap over the Texas Rangers this weekend in a head-to-head matchup. Wherever they end up in the standings, the long ball will be one of the most important key contributing factors over the next 36 games.

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.