Greetings, everyone. I’ve been away for much of the weekend and greatly affected by the power outage in the area. Hope everyone is healthy and safe out there.
Anyhow, I didn’t catch much of the Orioles this weekend aside from being at the game Friday night – which was a win; however, the Orioles have struggled both on the pitching and offensive front for the better part of two weeks.
Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen could not serve as stoppers during the series with Cleveland, and they depended on southpaw Brian Matusz to do his part to help salvage it.
He could not, and the Orioles lost again on Sunday, 6-2, and his reward: a demotion. Matusz will be heading back to Triple-A to see if he can get himself straight on the mound.
It was ugly on Sunday for the southpaw. He only lasted four innings, gave up five runs – four earned – and was booed off the mound when his outing ended. I have always thought – good or bad, that Matusz is still part of the Orioles future; however, that is now in question.
He can’t get anyone out and the Indians teed off on him on Sunday. Matusz has been one of worst pitchers in baseball over the last year and half, and at this point, he may not be back with the big league team for a good, long while.
However, Matusz’s failures on Sunday are symptomatic of a problem with the Baltimore squad right now. The pitching has been horrible, and they have lost nine out of their last ten games. Now, we all have to be worried about this: are the Orioles just playing some bad baseball? Or is the team that we’ve grown to love – and hate at times – starting to head into their annual swoon?
The Orioles are now 42-36 and sinking in the American League East standings. They are now six games behind the New York Yankees in the division. Only 2.5 games separate them from last place.
