Back home this week, the Orioles get something of a breather before the Yankees come to town, although the A’s are no slouch, despite the odds.
Can I be honest? I don’t even enjoy playing the Oakland Athletics anymore, because I can’t summon up the necessary fan-goggles hatred for the opposing team. The Athletics have been through so much, from their stone-hearted owner John Fisher actually reenacting the plot of Major League—strip the team for parts, drive away fans, claim the lack of fans necessitates a change of city—to the undignified fact that they’ll have to play the 2025-27 seasons in the home of the Sacramento River Cats while their new Las Vegas digs get put together. The whole thing stinks.
Given all these distractions, the A’s could and reasonably should be worse than they are. They are figured to repeat their 2023 performance as the worst team in baseball, but for now, at 10-16, they’re not even the worst team in the AL West. (That honor belongs to the 2022 World Series champion Astros, instead. Aww. Don’t you hate to see it…)
Oakland’s offense, admittedly, is pretty limp: their .201 team average is worse than every other team but the Chicago White Sox, who appear to have basically packed it in already in April. Former Orioles friend Tyler Nevin is managing a decent .286 average and .730 OPS, though.
What success the team is managing thus far, however, is all to the credit of their pitching staff, which has posted a 4.03 ERA, better than eleven other teams, including the Tampa Bay Rays! This explains why their top three most valuable players in WAR—Paul Blackburn, J.P. Sears, and Mason Miller—are all throwers. Fun thing to note (less fun if you’re an Athletics fan): a pair of rare veteran pitchers on this team, Ross Stripling and Alex Wood, are taking home a combined $17.75 million this season, nearly one-third of the team’s payroll, but neither has performed well to date.
Happily, the Orioles will see Stripling first, but Sears and Blackburn are up next, and will be tougher matchups.
Game 1, Friday, 7:05 ET, MASN
Corbin Burnes (3-0, 2.76 ERA, 29 K) v. Ross Stripling (0-5, 5.34 ERA, 22 K)
A clash of two veteran pitchers. One team is getting what they paid for and the other is not. Stripling has had a very bad year thus far, although it can’t be said the lack of run support is helping. Opponents are hitting .322 against the nine-year veteran, whose strikeout rate of 6.91 is the lowest he’s posted since his rookie season eight years ago. His walk and hit rates are also inflated. He is not, last time I checked, a slow-throwing lefty. This is a matchup the Orioles need to take advantage of.
Which makes it feel all the more unfair that the Orioles are countering with team ace Corbin Burnes. Burnes has made five starts as an Oriole, and hasn’t had a bad one yet, even on his so-called bad days. He’s whiffing almost nine hitters a game, and has more in the tank. In his 2021 Cy Young season, he was striking out more than twelve-and-a-half per nine innings. He can fail to come close to that mark and still look dominant, as he has been so far. Burnes’ last time out, against Kansas City, was one of his worst: he threw 5.2 innings and allowed three runs on four hits, including one home run, while striking out four. The Orioles still won.
Game 2, Saturday, 4:05 ET, MASN
J.P. Sears (1-1, 3.38 ERA, 16 K vs. Cole Irvin (1-1, 4.64 ERA, 13 K)
One-time Yankees prospect J.P. Sears is having a solid third season so far. The left-hander is giving his team better than five innings a start and holding batters to a .194 opposing average. Where Sears looks fallible is in the “true outcomes” department. He’s not getting many swings-and-misses, as a 5.40 K rate attests, and he’s walking more than three batters a game. It’ll pay to be patient against Sears on Saturday. The left-hander actually has average fastball velocity, so maybe he won’t stymie the Orioles the way other soft-throwing lefties have.
Irvin was an Oakland Athletic as recently as 2022 but given all the roster turnover driven by this penny-pinching owner, it’s fair to say Irvin wasn’t teammates with most of this roster. The sixth-year lefty has been up and down this season, and it’s fair to ask whether a healthy John Means and Kyle Bradish bump him to long relief. But for now, Irvin was “up” his last time out, flashing impressive stuff: he tossed 6.2 scoreless against Kansas City, allowing just four hits.
Game 3, Sunday, 1:35 ET, MASN
Paul Blackburn (2-1, 2.03 ERA, 23 K) v. TBD, probably Albert Suárez (1-0, 0.00, 9 K)
The single most valuable player on this Oakland roster is Paul Blackburn, a 30-year-old right hander who’s never pitched for anyone else. Now in his eighth season, he’s holding hitters to a .196 average and owns a 0.97 WHIP. He stumbled a bit in his last start against the fearsome Yankees, allowing four earned runs on five hits and no walks while striking out five over six innings. In his career, he’s never looked quite this good, so regression to the mean is likely. But his peripherals are excellent. This looks to be the toughest matchup for the O’s this weekend.
Meanwhile, whom they’ll send out to the mound for the series finale remains a mystery, but we should get some clarity soon. This would have been 34-year-old journeyman Albert Suárez’s third turn in the rotation, but after John Means’ latest rehab start in Norfolk, a successful 4.1-inning outing that saw him only allow three runs on seven hits (apparently of the “scattered” variety), that status was suddenly switched to “TBD.” I wouldn’t be upset with either option, although it’s kind of crazy to take someone out of the rotation who’s pitched two shutouts in a row. Suárez’s first two MLB starts since 2016 have both been brilliant: he’s pitched 11.1 innings and allowed no runs while striking out nine.
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