The Orioles open a three-game series tonight against the Red Sox in Boston, and I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Fenway Park will be an elixir for the Orioles’ laggard offense.
If you’re not familiar with a vintage adjective “laggard,” go to a dictionary or simply replay in your mind the Orioles’ last four games and you’ll figure it out.
The young hitters clearly are pressing, as manager Brandon Hyde pointed out over the past few days. They also are spending a little too much time worrying about launch angle instead of making consistent contact and depositing baseballs strategically inside the ballpark.
The reason playing the Red Sox on the road will help is a combination of the ballpark and the pitching the Orioles will face. Fenway Park is a great place to hit home runs, but it’s also a great place to play ping-pong with the Green Monster and the funky geometry in center field. The Red Sox are sending three straight right-handed starters to the mound – Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Nick Pivetta — which should encourage the Orioles’ left-handed power guys to use the whole field.
It’s not the most imposing three-game rotation and the Red Sox haven’t been playing particularly well, either, so the Orioles have that going for them if they can finally get back to what they have done to divisional opponents over the past two seasons.
There’s also one other reason: They have to snap out of this funk sooner or later because past history suggests they can’t possibly be this bad.
I hope I’m right and so should you.