Not even a rainout can stop these red-hot Orioles! Perhaps I exaggerate just a bit. But after a convincing 7-4 win on Friday night, one can almost glimpse what this team could be. Maybe a series against last-place Detroit was just what these Birds need to kickstart their herky-jerky season.
Don’t discount the importance of Jackson Holliday’s return, either. On Friday, just his third game since coming off the IL, Holliday went 2-for-3 with a home run and a walk. Welcome back, kid! Gunnar Henderson also feasted, going 3-for-5, and Adley Rutschman and Leody Taveras contributed two hits apiece.
So despite a Saturday rainout, the Orioles will get a chance to get a win streak going with a scheduled doubleheader today. First pitch is at 12:35 ET, with Saturday’s original matchup going in Game 1 instead. It’s a battle of right handers, with Brandon Young (3-1, 4.25 ERA and 22 SO in 29.2 IP) taking on Framer Valdez (2-3, 4.58 ERA and 45 SO in 55 IP).
You may recall Framber Valdez as one of a handful of starters the Orioles were linked to during the offseason. Well, he didn’t sign with the Orioles. That hurt a bit back in April, when Valdez has a 3.67 ERA in six starts, but he’s had a terrible month of May, going 0-2 with a 7.98 earned run average. There’s some evidence that the velocity on his heaters is down. Could he be hurt? I don’t know, but the Orioles can’t worry about such things: there’s a season to save!
As for Brandon Young, he was, like, Plan C for this rotation back in spring training. But what with injuries to Zach Eflin (out for the season with Tommy John), Dean Kremer (still recovering from a quad strain) and Trevor Rogers (we’re not sure what’s going on with him), the big Texan-that-could has been thrust back into the rotation. He’s done OK, actually, with just one clunker in six starts (a 10-run, only 4 earned, effort against his childhood team, the Astros). On the other hand, as Mark Brown pointed out in his series preview, Young’s sizeable ERA-FIP gap (4.25/5.22) suggests things could go sideways. With the Tigers considered a bottom-10 offense by Fangraphs, maybe Young will continue to walk the tightrope.
Left-hander Trevor Rogers, originally slated for Sunday’s finale, takes Game 2. Rogers is 1-5 with an 8.42 ERA in his last seven starts. Oh, dear. Could it be pitch tipping? I hope so, because the alternatives seem worse.
In an act of procrastination so extreme even I am shocked by it (and I have a bad habit of procrastination), Detroit still hasn’t announced their Game 2 starter as of 12:05 today. The best guess we have is that they’ll reinstate second-year righty Troy Melton off the 60-day injured list (elbow inflammation) for his first start of the year. Last year, in primarily a relief capacity, Melton posted a 3-2 W-L record with a 2.76 ERA in sixteen games (four starts). The 25-year-old righty has excellent velocity on his fastball, which he pairs his heater with a slider that was effective last year, and a cutter that was less so.
Let’s play two! Let’s go O’s!
