2013 has been another successful season (so far) for the Baltimore Orioles, however the thorn in the side of the team appears to be their ability (or lack thereof) to defeat teams with much poorer records.
As all baseball fans would appreciate, you can’t win every game and even the worst teams in baseball each year usually tallies approximately 60-65 wins. However if a team wants to mount a serious challenge for a division championship, then they must win the majority of games against these lower ranked teams.
Despite the Orioles being in contention for the AL East title, a closer look at their performance highlights a cause for concern as they have already dropped 13 games this season to teams which most fans would expect them to beat.
The Orioles are currently 3.5 games behind the 1st place Boston Red Sox and 3.0 games behind the 2nd place Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East standings. Listed in the table below are the combined records of each three teams against the Mariners, White Sox, Astros, Royals, Padres and Twins – All of which are teams with much poorer records in 2013.
| Tampa Bay Rays | 18 wins | 9 loses | 0.666 win % |
| Boston Red Sox | 16 wins | 8 loses | 0.666 win % |
| Baltimore Orioles | 10 wins | 13 loses | 0.435 win % |
With both the Rays and Red Sox continuing to put consistent wins on the board, the Orioles need to end this trend as soon as possible. They will get an opportunity to do so over the coming weeks, with games against the Royals (1), Astros (3), Mariners (3) and Padres (2) in late July through early August. In addition, they have a home series against the White Sox (4 games) in early September.
Of these 13 games, the Orioles must win at least 10. If they don’t capitalize on these opportunities, they will instead be required to win the majority of their remaining games against the Red Sox (12) and Rays (7) if they are to overtake them in the divisional title race.
Guest post by Daniel Clark from Pen & Paper Sports. You can follow Daniel on Twitter @DJC_Sports.
I just do not want the team to look back when all is said and done and have the ghosts of the “games that got away” haunt them. Unfortunately, as you mentioned they have let so many winnable games slip away and with 60 to play in order to contend for a playoff spot they can ill afford too many more. As it is right now they need to go 37-23 to top last years record and the September schedule might make them wish they had won a few more of the winnable games against inferior opponents.
IF you follow me on Twitter, you know that I hate being right, but I think that I told you so. Crush Davis is turning into Glenn Davis. I chalk it up to immaturity or Brady Anderson withholding the clear from him. Hey Crash play the game on the field not behind the microphone. Take your success in stride and when the season is over you can bask in whatever success you had during the off season. Quit talking about chasing Roger and concentrate on catching Frank or Brady for the team record. One thing for sure, the breeze from Crush’s swing and miss has allowed me to turn off my AC. Palmer said last night that Crash Dummy had a loop in his swing, my amateur eye sees it as a hitch where it appears to be winded up to hit and unfortunately missing everything.
I’m not sure but he looks like he is swinging for the HR on every swing instead of just trying to get good wood on the ball,,,,,,,,,