Patrick Semansky / AP
It's hard to justify anything more than a failing grade for a week in which the Orioles went 1-5, but here goes. The O's played the Red Sox tough Monday night and finally got their offense in gear for the final two games of the Marlins series. The way things have been going, that's worth a letter, but they need to build on the last two game of the homestand and that won't be easy against the Nationals.
Gail Burton / AP
It was an inconsistent week for Orioles starters, who managed just one quality start in six games. That came in the opener of the Red Sox series when Dylan Bundy pitched eight shutout innings and was not involved in the decision. He was the only pitcher to go twice last week and got the victory in Sunday's game against the Marlins. Yefry Ramirez made his major league debut and held things together into the fifth inning on Wednesday. David Hess was so-so in his sixth major league start, but has pitched well overall. Kevin Gausman delivered a scrappy outing Friday night but got no offensive support and Alex Cobb is still struggling for consistency. Overall, the rotation was 1-4 with a 4.98 ERA.
Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun
Perhaps buoyed by the return of Zach Britton, Orioles relievers bounced back from a difficult previous week to pitch well against the Red Sox and Marlins. Mychal Givens had a tough extra-inning outing Monday, but pitched four times last week and pitched very well in three of those appearances. Miguel Castro and Mike Wright Jr. were the only other guys to give up any runs. Britton made three scoreless appearances, as did Britton. Darren O'Day also is back in the regular mix and pitched twice without surrendering a run. The bad news, of course, was the loss of Richard Bleier to a severe lat muscle tear, but not before he made two scoreless appearances and dropped his ERA below 2.00, where it will stay for the third straight season.
Kenneth K. Lam / Baltimore Sun
O's fielders committed three errors in six games, but there some faulty plays that did not show up in the box score as errors. This still isn't your typical Buck Showalter team and probably won't be until for the remainder of the year. Tim Beckham will be back soon, but he is still inexperienced at third base, and Manny Machado still doesn't look totally comfortable at shortstop. As a team, however, the O's continue to edge slowly up the major league rankings in fielding percentage and fewest errors. They're now 20th in FPCT and 21st in fewest errors (43).
It's hard to justify anything more than a failing grade for a week in which the Orioles went 1-5, but here goes. The O's played the Red Sox tough Monday night and finally got their offense in gear for the final two games of the Marlins series. The way things have been going, that's worth a letter, but they need to build on the last two game of the homestand and that won't be easy against the Nationals.
ExpandEvery week of the regular season, columnist Peter Schmuck will grade the performance of the Orioles in five categories. The letter grades are not directly tied to any particular statistic, but are representative of a cumulative evaluation of everything — tangible or intangible — that falls under that particular category.
Click through the gallery above to see the grades in each category.