After the first 12 games of the season the Orioles sit at 6-6. Their record is such after a lackluster performance in the Bronx that was capped off by a disappointing showing on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.
One could make the argument that the Orioles should have taken that series. One could make the argument that they have no business losing to a much weaker version of the Yankees. One could make the argument that the Orioles are sputtering out of the gate and need to find consistency and quickly.
One could make all of those arguments, but please “One” – keep your head about you.
Since the Orioles’ magical 2012 has come to an end the ever present fatalist streak of the Orioles fan is back. Every miscue, every bobble, every loss seems to send a certain segment of the population into the full-on howling fatnods. Kids, I am here to tell you it is way too early to look into anything you are seeing right now.
The Orioles are 6-6, so it goes. They have won some important games, they have lost some bad games. They have lost a game they should have won (game two in TB); they have given away some games on bad defense or poor hitting, and sometimes they just got beat. Chen last night just got out-pitched. Sure, wail on about how he tires too early – maybe, but the problem last night was not a perceived inability to go deeper into a game, no rather it was the offense scoring him zero runs.
Chen has given up five earned runs in his two starts. He is 0-2. That really isn’t his fault. Huroki Kuroda is a good pitcher that had pretty filfthy stuff last night. He was impressive, sometimes in this game you are on the other side of a performance like that. It will happen to your team, they will get shutout.
It was game 12 people.
My suggestion, take a breath and don’t look at every game as being so ridiculously important. We are in the part of the season where the first month could easily mean nothing by October. Still, my advice is to chill out and enjoy the games right now. Let’s re-evaluate the team at the end of the month. Who is hot? Who is struggling? Matt Wieters had a great first week, but an awful road trip. Davis and Jones continue to tear it up. Machado looks to be getting comfy. Flaherty has been abysmal, and no starter has made it to the seventh inning. If all of those things are still happening in a couple weeks, then you may have some more legitimate concerns. Until then Orioles fan, calm the heck down would you?
