The two teams begin a three-game weekend series at Oriole Park.
Here come the Angels, a team that I usually expect to be disappointing and underperforming. They’re not bad, though, having clawed back to 33-34 from a season-low eight games below .500 on May 14. At one point this month they had an eight-game win streak, but then lost five straight. Ergo: streaky. Which is better than bad.
These two teams are approximately equally bad in pitching, ranked at the back of the MLB classroom by Fangraphs (25th and 26th in WAR, respectively). The same came be said of today’s two starters, Charlie Morton (6.59 ERA, 5.24 FIP over 56 IP in 15 G/9 GS) and Jack Kochanowicz (5.61 ERA, 5.47 FIP over 67.1 IP in 13 GS).
Is it bad that for a second I thought this was Jacob Misiorowski? The Orioles are NOT, however, facing the Brewers’ 6’7” phenom who hit 102 mph in his debut yesterday. It might not matter if the hitters don’t perform better than they did the last time they faced this guy back in April, when they scored just one run in 5.2 innings. Kochanowicz has given up at least four runs in each of his past four starts. This is a hittable target.
As for Charlie Morton, I am strongly rooting for a redemption story here. After a dreadful 10.80 ERA in April he was well on the way to turning around his season, with a fine 3.98 ERA in May. But his last time out did not inspire confidence: he allowed four runs in 2.1 innings last time out against the Athletics. As Mark Brown warned, if Morton stinks against these guys, perhaps he shouldn’t be making any more starts for this team.
Orioles lineup
- Jackson Holliday 2B
2. Adley Rutschman DH
3. Gunnar Henderson SS
4. Ryan O’Hearn 1B
5. Ramón Laureano RF
6. Cedric Mullins CF
7. Ramón Urías 3B
8. Dylan Carlson LF
9. Maverick Handley C
Angels lineup
- Zach Neto SS
2. Nolan Schanuel 1B
3. Mike Trout DH
4. Jorge Soler RF
5. Logan O’Hoppe C
6. Jo Adell CF
7. LaMonte Wade LF
8. Luis Rengifo 3B
9. Christian Moore 2B