Yet again on Sunday, another young Baltimore pitcher got roughed up, and in the end, the Minnesota Twins soundly defeated the Orioles, 10-4.
Minnesota would take three of four from Baltimore during the weekend series. Jake Arrieta got beaten up a bit as he gave up five runs, seven hits, four walks in four innings for the loss. The Twins, courtesy of the long ball, not only victimized, Arrieta, but the Oriole bullpen. They would score four times in the fourth off a Jason Kubel grand slam, add more throughout the game by solo homers from Delmon Young – who has really turned it on this season, Jim Thome and Jason Repko.
Once again, the Orioles made a pitcher look like Cy Young again as Kevin Slowey – who was struggling before Sunday’s game – got the win. The Orioles had the lead briefly off a Nick Markakis RBI-single in the opening inning, but the Twins brought it on as the game went forth.Baltimore rallied in the ninth and scored three times, but by then, the game was over.
On Saturday, Brian Matusz got hammered in his start and looking at Arrieta on the mound yesterday, do the Oriole pitchers when they get in trouble just not know what to do? Are they are afraid to pitch to contact, get flustered, or do too much?
It seems that every young starting pitcher on the staff has some upside, but it seems to me that they should be more confident in the stuff they have. It’s almost to me that they try too hard to get an out and find a way to dig a deeper hole for the team. Honestly, I don’t know if sending pitchers up and down between the majors and minors works – it might just be working a game plan to get guys out in jams.
Until the young starters pitch with some consistency and work through jams, it will be more of the same. With a bullpen that’s just being taxed and starting to lose a bit of their effectiveness (case study: Berken, Hernandez, Hendrickson to an extent), the pitching has to better – much better.
If there’s a positive to anything that happened this weekend, Guthrie had a solid outing on Friday and Luke Scott is just hot, hitting in ten straight games. I’m curious if Scott’s name will end up on the market, much like we have heard about Wigginton and tejada over the past few days/week.
Finally, it was not a good thing to see Craig Tatum to get optioned to Norfolk. Yes, Tatum is only a backup, but he’s exceeded expectations and filled in nicely while Wieters was hurt. I know that there’s a business and strategy aspect to the game when it comes to roster shuffling, but it is a little troubling to see a player who has merited a roster spot by performance get demoted.
Even moreso when the team has 13 pitchers on staff.
I’m just saying.
