With the manner in which the Orioles have started the season, why would I give a title of Unlucky 13? Are things about to go south? Are the Orioles doomed? What am I trying to say? Folks please...there's always more than meets the eye!
As I watch MASN's O's Xtra pregame show with Jim Hunter and Rick Dempsey prior to this evening's O's/Yankee game, they gave an interesting stat about Brian Roberts being 0 for his last 13. In that span of time, the O's have gone 1-2. So albeit of the miniature variety, is this a trend? Je crois que oui, as they say in French. If you think back to last season, the Orioles lost Brian Roberts in game four and he was gone until the end of July. During that period of time, the Oriole offense struggled to at times score one or two runs a game. This was due in part to the absence of a true leadoff hitter. The way that a baseball lineup is supposed to work is for the one and two hitters to get on, and for the three and four hitters to be the RBI machines. Brian Roberts has never had a problem getting on base. So when he went out last year, the Oriole lineup ceased to be streamlined and the entire team struggled.
The above-mentioned stat is fairly telling in that Roberts hasn't been on base in his last 13 plate appearances. In Roberts' case, not only is he good at getting on base, but once he gets on base he's a major threat to steal. This means that without the two hitter even seeing a pitch, he could be in a position to drive home a run right away in the first inning. If Roberts doesn't get on, he can't make anything happen. Furthermore I believe that Roberts, along with Markakis, Lee, and Guerrero, have made the bottom of the order better as well. Teams don't want those guys coming to the plate with people on base, so the bottom of the order is seeing better pitching as opposed to in years past. I wouldn't call this 0-13 trend a slump as of yet, however the sooner Roberts gets on base in a game the sooner the Orioles will be more threatening again. Tonight's game in NY against the Yankees is a good time to start.
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