A Disaster In Baltimore

What an entirely lost weekend in Baltimore it was. To lose three to Toronto after a tough start in Florida was not what the doctor ordered. The starters have been outstanding overall, and Hernandez threw a very nice ballgame on Saturday as Millwood did yesterday. The obviously glaring problem is our offense, and maybe that’s because Brian Roberts is hurt. I bet if we looked back at the last 5 years and looked at our offensive numbers (not wins, mind you) they would show a huge disparity in games when BR played and when he didn’t. He’s the table setter and makes the offense go. I’ll confess too that McPhail needs to be actively looking for a lead-off hitter, someone who will be around for years, b/c I just don’t have a great deal of faith that Roberts is going to be the player he has been. Call me crazy, negative, an alarmist, or whatever you’d like, but we just can’t afford to have a void at the leadoff spot. These last two games when Izturis and Lugo bat back to back is just painful. They even got a few hits I think, but what team is going to be scared to pitch to either of these guys. It’s just frustrating. And the complacency of some of our guys at the plate, including Markakis is just disheartening. I know Nick is leading the majors in walks, but he doesn’t have single RBI yet? He has to swing the bat, and he struck out looking with a man on third and nobody out yesterday in the 3rd inning. Tacking another run on there should have been a given, sending the O’s ahead 3-0 with Millwood throwing very well. I know Markakis will have his 20+ HR’s and 100 RBI’s, but at a time when nobody on the team is driving in runs and our leadoff sparkplug is going on the DL, we need him to step up. We are 9-54 w/ RISP, enough said. I’m frustrated as I know they are, but the only thing at this point that would be a bigger nightmare than the one we already have is if there were other injuries and our starting pitchers were imploding. The starters have been the bright spot, much to my surprise and delight.

In yesterday’s game, the ball Miggy was charged an error on did take a bad hop, but he let the ball play him and simply has to make the play. He’s learning and has played very well so far, so no reason to believe that he won’t continue to learn and improve. Plus, he just has a wonderful attitude. He’s really not our problem, and when things are going poorly, other teams, even teams like Toronto, make you pay. At least we have Tampa Bay tonight! They are always bringing up the rear in the AL East. Phew! Go O’s