After losing to the Red Sox last night, the Orioles are 2-15. Adding to the indignity is that they allowed David Ortiz to finally homer and allowed Boston to score the winning run in the last of the eighth on a bases loaded walk to Adrian Beltre.
I want to know how fan down the Orioles record can sink. Today offers them a chance to win their third game of the season as Brian Matusz is on the mound for them. Matusz is one of the top young pitchers in the game and is 2-0 this season. How good a pitcher do you have to be to have a 2-0 record for a team that is 2-15 overall? Of course, the Red Sox counter with John Lackey. So as winnable as this game is because of Matusz, it's just as losable because of Lackey and the overall quality of the Red Sox (in spite of their early 7-10 start). They finish the series at Fenway tomorrow before coming home for three each with the Yankees and Red Sox, then going on the road for three with the Yankees and four with the Twins. Yikes.
Given that 22 of their first 32 games this season were against the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays and Twins (four best teams in the American League if you, like me, believe the Red Sox 7-10 start isn't a true reflection of their team), it should come as no surprise that the Orioles are going to escape April with the worst record in baseball. I'm interested to see how good a record they can have this season given the big hole that schedule already has them in and will ultimately leave them in. Is it implausible that a team with the young talent they have--Matusz, Matt Wieters, Adam Jones, Jeremy Guthrie, Nick Markakis, Nolan Reimard--could lose 100 games? I guess if Jones and Reimold continue to play as poorly as they have in the season's first month they could, especially given their poor infield hurting the pitchers (Cesar Izturis is the only quality glove they have and his range isn't what it was as recently as two years ago).
No comments:
Post a Comment