BOSTON – The Orioles have an odd attachment to Opening Day – their own and their opponent’s.
They get to hop in the middle of more festivities this afternoon against the Red Sox, who began their season with a West Coast swing through Seattle, Oakland and Anaheim.
No other team or fan base is allowed to complain about the schedule. The Red Sox own the rights.
They also won seven of 10 games to move 1 ½ ahead of the Orioles.
Eyes shouldn’t be strained from reading too much into either team’s start. However, the off-day allowed for some reflection on the Orioles.
* Scoring 24 runs in two days didn’t signal that the Orioles were going to average 12 per game throughout the summer. Scoring 23 in the next seven isn’t an indicator that the offense will stay dormant and kill the season.
Collective slumps are part of baseball. It never fails. They happen in clusters and fade away. Panic roster moves aren’t a cure or smart.
Tweaking, however, is always on the table.
Anthony Santander was 4-for-26 before his run-scoring single Sunday. He was retired in his next two at-bats. Austin Hays is 2-for-26 and hitless in his last 19 at-bats. Cedric Mullins is 4-for-28 and 2-for-20 since the second game. Gunnar Henderson is 3-for-26 since going 3-for-4 on March 30. Ramón Urías is 1-for-17. Jordan Westburg hit a walk-off home run March 1 but is 6-for-31.
That’s a heavy load of right-handed bats paired with those left-handed starters the Orioles faced early in the season.
The Red Sox are sending three right-handers to the mound before the Brewers bring former Orioles lefty DL Hall to Camden Yards for a weekend series. Is this the time to tweak?
A reporter in Pittsburgh joked about the Orioles making a hockey line change by subbing out five players. Bring up Jackson Holliday, Heston Kjerstad, Kyle Stowers, Coby Mayo and Connor Norby. Let’s go crazy. Fans would get nuts.
It isn’t happening, of course, but if you want a fun little exercise, come up with ways to fit those prospects on the roster.
* Quick glances at social media, which is the most that I’d recommend, reveal a lot of frustration directed toward Hays. He didn’t hit in spring training and isn’t hitting now. He had a stomach bug in Sarasota and was under the weather in Pittsburgh.
