Orioles Game #120 Game Thread: at Padres, 9:40
The Orioles are looking for their fourth straight win and second straight win against the Padres on Tuesday night
Do you know something cool? The Orioles have already tied their preseason projected win total from the PECOTA model. This projection thought they would go 74-88 this season. The Orioles are already 74-45. Perhaps it will be a common thread if this becomes the next era of extended good O’s baseball, just like the last, that they always hit what the computers and pundits think.
This is a meaningless milestone at this point. Does not matter! The Orioles have long set their sights on greater heights than beating those meager projections. They rank even higher than “just” a wildcard spot at this point. The O’s have a 10.5-game lead over the Mariners, who are the current top contenders for a wild-card spot. The team is at least tied for first in the AL East since July 19th and has held first place since July 22nd.
Winning the division will almost certainly come with a bye in the best-of-3 wild card round. It’s huge. The Orioles just have to keep winning as many games as possible and hope it eventually keeps them ahead of the Rays. They enter tonight with a three game lead in the division. The Rays are also out west, playing the Giants in San Francisco. The Rays played a much less stressful game yesterday as they also won. That kept the O’s with a three-game lead.
This trip to the west coast will be important for the O’s to do more than just tread water because these last two teams they play are not headed for good spots. The Padres, here, are a team from which better things were expected and are 6.5 away from the wild card race. People have noticed that the team just looks bored and doesn’t care, and I felt like you could see some of that in last night’s game in the effort level as the outfielders went for balls in the gap or the corner. Keep them indifferent!
The Orioles, for all their strengths, are not a team that excels at hitting teams in the teeth early and rolling comfortably from there. The best example of this is certainly Atlanta, which has hit 117 home runs this year after a .332/.389/.615 split. This is absurd! Just comic nonsense there. The Orioles, by comparison, have their second-worst first inning, hitting .220/.301/.383. Still, the Braves are 2.5 games ahead of the Orioles for the best record in MLB. Just win baby. Do it and nobody cares how pretty it looks.
Orioles Draft
- Adleyrutschman-C
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Anthony Santander – RF
- Ryan O’Hearn – 1B
- Ryan Mountcastle – DH
- Cedric Mullins – CF
- Austin Hays – LF
- Adam Fraser – 2B
- Ramon Urias – 3B
There is no sign of Aaron Hicks in this lineup, after MASN pointed out that he may have been tendered after running to second base in last night’s game. But he’s the fourth striker, so that doesn’t mean he’s not in the starting line-up. Hopefully we don’t have to find out if he’s available or not based on game developments.
Padres lineup
- Ha-Seong Kim
- Fernando Tatis Jr. – CF
- Juan Soto – L.F
- Manny Machado – 3B
- Xander Bogaerts – SS
- Jake Cronenworth – 1B
- Gary Sanchez – C
- Garrett Cooper – DH
- Ben Gamel – RF
Michael Wacha returns from the injured list to start for the Padres. He last played at the MLB level on July 1st. Maybe he will be rusty, but before that it was a good season for him. Wacha has a 2.84 ERA with 15 starts under his belt.
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