Days like Wednesday, when the hits come from up and down the lineup, are going to be the ones when you look at the Orioles offense and simply nod. They will score in bunches and win regularly.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the top of the lineup, though, that will make that a regular occurrence. And, although that hasn\u2019t happened consistently yet, the batting order has been built in a way that feels foolproof over the course of a season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just comes down to what two or three guys you want to get the most plate appearances that game, and that\u2019s how guys hit in the top of the order,\u201d manager Craig Albernaz said.<\/p>\n
That goes a long way to explaining why Taylor Ward, Gunnar Henderson and Pete Alonso occupy those spots in the Orioles lineup, but it goes deeper than that. Over the course of this homestand, we saw, surprisingly, how teams might choose to attack it late in games. <\/p>\n
Even with Ward and Alonso hitting from the right side, the Twins and Rangers brought in left-handed relievers to face the left-handed Henderson. To Albernaz, that has a lot to do with Henderson, who has pummeled righties over the course of his career.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the other dugout, you\u2019re pretty much picking how you want to get beat, right? How do you want to lose? And you want to pick the right person to go in there and navigate that. And right now teams are earmarking Gunnar, and rightfully so. That\u2019s a credit to him, you know? <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something where, right now, Gunnar\u2019s the dude. We\u2019re very blessed to have him on our team, and that\u2019s where teams are deploying lefties \u2014 and rightfully so.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Twins did it twice on opening day, bringing a lefty in to face Henderson and then Alonso \u2014 who has a career .834 OPS against lefties. On Monday, Texas\u2019 bullpen was shorthanded but it still summoned left-hander Jalen Beeks for the top of the order. <\/p>\n
Ward and Alonso singled around a Henderson strikeout, but the rally died with Adley Rutschman and Tyler O\u2019Neill behind them.<\/p>\n
The flip side has also been true; with two on in the sixth inning Saturday, Minnesota called for a righty to face Ward, even with Henderson behind him. Ward\u2019s walk meant Henderson had the bases loaded, but he flied out. <\/p>\n
So much goes into how clubs deploy their bullpens \u2014 availability is always paramount, and then matchups play a large role. But these are extremely uncomfortable decisions the Orioles are forcing opposing managers to make, and over the course of a long season, there\u2019s too much quality at the top of the Orioles lineup to not punish teams.<\/p>\n
Ward, who had a .918 OPS against lefties last year, already seems like the quality hitter the Orioles acquired in the fall. His at-bats were high quality and he rarely chased in the first few games of the season as he was getting his timing back after missing the end of spring training for the birth of his third child. Now, with six hits combined Tuesday and Wednesday, he looks every bit the leadoff hitter this team needs.<\/p>\n
Henderson hasn\u2019t clicked just yet, but that could be the least of the Orioles\u2019 worries. Alonso\u2019s .820 OPS in his first homestand with the team feels like the worst we\u2019ll see from him, which is saying something. <\/p>\n
As a group, though, they\u2019re set up to generate a lot of offense, and that will come. When it does, life will be much easier for the hot-hitting Rutschman behind them, with no respite when you get beyond him to see O\u2019Neill or Samuel Basallo.<\/p>\n
Wednesday showed there are a lot of good options for how the Orioles stack up the bottom of the lineup, too, and any kind of contributions from that constituency is likely going to mean the Orioles have a good night at the plate.<\/p>\n
The guys at the top are the ones they\u2019re counting on, though. On quality alone, it won\u2019t be long before they click. Based on how Albernaz has stacked them, they\u2019re certainly set up to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days like Wednesday, when the hits come from up and down the lineup, are going to be the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,39604,47,2538,5,1404,60,4,12212,23849,125,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-661028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-city","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-camden-yards","14":"tag-minnesota-twins","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-os","17":"tag-opacy","18":"tag-orioles","19":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116341577097654803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}