The Orioles say goodbye to the Oakland Coliseum with a three-game weekend series against the fifth-place Athletics.
It’s the end of an era, as the Orioles play their last series in the Oakland Coliseum, thanks to Athletics owner John Fisher’s plain disregard for his team’s fans and history. Since the A’s played their first season in Oakland in 1968, the Orioles are 144-146 in the Coliseum. This weekend—although it doesn’t matter a bit—they could close out this chapter above .500 with a series sweep.
Whether the Coliseum’s roomy dimensions help or hurt them remains to see. As John Beers pointed out in his series preview, the Athletics are just two games below .500 at home this season, largely because the team ERA is nearly a run lower in Oakland than on the road.
Of course, that should go the benefit of Albert Suárez, too, who gets the game ball for Baltimore tonight. The 34-year-old journeyman from Venezuela has been a huge surprise for the Orioles this season, delivering a 2.43 ERA for them in 17 games, ten as a starter, while holding hitters to a .236 average and .341 slugging.
Some feel that Suárez is destined to “go boom” and get blown up on the mound. Is this true? His fielding-independent pitching is 3.29, close to a run higher than his ERA and hitters’ expected average and expected slugging off him are .251 and .412, respectively. That’s not much of a gap in average and it’s an average mark in slugging, so, maybe? He’s importantly kept his barrel percentage way down, ranking in the 90th percentile of pitchers at not getting hit up hard. His last time out, he threw 6.0 shutout innings versus Texas in a 2-1 Orioles win.
Now, nobody panic, but Hogan Harris is the sort of slow-throwing lefty starter who can be a fly in the ointment for Orioles hitters. But again, that’s kind of a myth, actually. The Orioles hit lefties slightly better than righties (.260/.322/.458 versus .252/.312/.460 with .780/.773 OPS splits), and versus what Baseball Reference calls “Finesse” pitchers, they’re averaging a higher percentage of hits (although slugging slightly less). And as John pointed out, they’re tied for the league lead with 36 HRs against southpaws and have a second-best .458 slugging against them, too.
Harris had a rough rookie year, going 3-6 with a 7.14 for Oakland. Thus far he’s looking much better, with a 1-2 record and 3.18 ERA in eight games. Expect to see a lot of fastballs and curveballs, which make up 59.3% and 16.3% of his arsenal, respectively, to go with a changeup and a slider. The 27-year-old will face the O’s for the first time in his career.
Orioles lineup
1. Gunnar Henderson SS (L)
2. Adley Rutschman DH (S)
3. Ryan Mountcastle 1B (R)
4. Anthony Santander RF (S)
5. Jordan Westburg 3B (R)
6. Austin Hays LF (R)
7. Colton Cowser CF (L)
8. Jorge Mateo 2B (R)
9. James McCann (R)
Athletics lineup
1. JJ Bleday CF (L)
2. Miguel Andujar LF (R)
3. Brent Rooker DH (R)
4. Tyler Soderstrom 1B (L)
5. Shea Langeliers C (R)
6. Zack Gelof 2B (R)
7. Lawrence Butler RF (L)
8. Brett Harris 3B (R)
9. Max Scheuemann SS (R)