Bird’s House: August 11

So apparently the Buck does stop here! After taking over the reins of the Baltimore Orioles, manager Buck Showalter has led his new Orioles team to a 6-1 record, sweeping the Angels and taking three out of four against the Chicago White Sox—on Monday night, yet another cliffhanger ended with an Oriole walkoff homer.

With Buck in charge, the Orioles have been playing some inspired baseball, with many of the Birds possibly on the endangered species list as Buck continues to evaluate the team and their talent level.

An interesting stat under Showalter deals with their starting pitching. So far under Buck, all starters have gone at least six innings and have a combined ERA of 1.94. Looks like Buck Ball is starting to take over in Baltimore.

Jeremy Guthrie has been red hot over his last 5 starts. Over that span which dates back to July 17, Guthrie has lasted at least 6.2 innings and has not allowed more than 3 earned runs posting a record of 3-1 during that stretch. Speaking of red hot, the O’s outfield has been on fire this week. Adam Jones hit .417 this week with a homer and two RBI, Luke Scott hit .381 with two home runs and four RBI, Nick Markakis came in at .360 with a homer and three RBI and Felix Pie got in on the action, hitting .348 with a home run and five RBI. Ty Wigginton finished the week hitting .333 with five RBI as well. As a team, the O’s hit .307 on the week. Not bad—and Brian Roberts, after a hard day at the office in the early innings (two strikeouts against starter Edwin Jackson), adjourned the proceedings with a homer of his own—his first—in the 10th inning Monday night.

I actually don’t have too many people to talk about here!! That might be a first this season!! Matt Albers had a rough week, allowing five runs over two innings pitched, but other than that, let’s just enjoy this nice stretch by the O’s!!