Matchups: Toronto Blue Jays

I kinda understand that. Now that I think about it, Palmer is the only one I've heard bad mouth them to any extent when they play badly and when you break it down the way you did, he's probably the only one who can get away with it. It really just grates on my nerves when they kiddie it up with their PC rhetoric.

Gary Thorne is such a drunk, though. lol He's the only PBP announcer for the O's that can mistaken a 95mph fastball for a slider. He thinks everything is a slider, I swear. He sure is entertaining at times though, but he sometimes pokes at the team if Palmer is in the booth with him.

 

Baltimore Orioles (10-10, 3rd -1.5) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (11-10, 2nd -1.0)

Trends

Baltimore: +1
Toronto: -1

Game 3 (7:05)

(QS=1)Bud Norris (0-2) 4.42 (1.31/.271), 13/5 (*L2: (0-1) 2.71 (1.13), 11/5)
vs.
(QS=1)Drew Hutchison (1-1) 3.60 (1.45/.269), 24/8

Bud Norris: Despite having only one quality start, his numbers are solid over the last two. Compared to some of our other pitchers, Norris has held up alright so far. Can he hold down the Jays offense though? He has given up two home runs in his three starts.

Drew Hutchison: Hutchison has well over a K an inning, but has only gone six innings once in his four starts and that one time was against us where he threw six scoreless innings, but recieved a ND in that game.

Well, we managed a comeback in yesterday's game despite almost blowing that game as well. Tillman managed to stay in the game longer than I thought he would while giving up seven runs, but he miraculously gets the win even though the bullpen had to be dramatic again. Still don't trust 'em out there, but I guess we'll have to again with Norris out there. I just never know what to expect from him, but a series win would be nice. Maybe too much to hope for, though.

 

lol - I was just thinking this over the weekend. I swear, someone threw a 70 mph change up, and without skipping a beat, Thorne mentions the the "fastball" got the inside corner. I get so cracked up over him. Especially late in the games, when him and/or Palmer crack a joke (something that is borderline inappropriate), they cannot stop laughing.

 

And as far as the game last night - still dont care what the score was. Our starting pitching sucked once again, and I dont want to here about our "offense". Our "offense" has a name.............Nelson Cruz. Its still disappointing, and like Sess said, when do you start looking at the pitching coach. But then again, the pitching coach can only do so much. If you dont have talent, not much you can do.

 

although, I will say this about Tillman - after being rocked in the 2nd, he was able to settle down, and at least get to the 6th. Its not great, but he sure went further in that game than any of us thought.

 

Thanks Sess.

We're never going to have plate discipline. If we did, this offense would be elite. Not gonna happen - such is life.

Our bullpen will be fine. We'll just go through a large amount of relievers. Meek and Stinson won't last the whole season and we'll replace them with someone fresher. A few guys will get "hurt" and put on the DL. I wouldn't be shocked if we go with eight relievers. If we go with a bench of Young(Lough in LF/Cruz in DH), Clevenger and one of Flaherty/Lombo will it really be the end of the world? It's not ideal but it'll work.

 

That's the thing, though. We DO have plate discipline this year, more than I've ever seen out of them... except when we have a big scoring opportunity and the batter isn't Nelson Cruz. That's why it's so frustrating. We take walks and work the count until it really matters, then we swing at three balls and strike out.

I hope so, we do have a bit of a surplus, but at this rate of use, even what we have won't be enough. We need our starters to go deeper on average and if they can't, bring up Gausman and/or Gamboa and whoever else we have down there and see if they can do better.