At least the Baltimore Orioles have company at the bottom.
The O’s avoided extending their miserable stretch of terrible pitching Saturday afternoon by beating the Tampa Bay Rays, 8-3.
While giving up three runs on seven hits and five walks isn’t exactly a great day from the mound, Baltimore finally kept an opponent under five runs. When the Rays pummeled the Orioles and starter Ubaldo Jimenez last night for 15 runs on 11 hits and eight walks, it marked the 20th straight game Baltimore pitching surrendered at least five runs.
Only one other team has ever pitched so poorly for such a long, continuous period – the 1924 Philadelphia Phillies.
So rather than breaking a record that has endured 93 years of bad pitching staffs, the Orioles just snugged up to their nearby neighbor to the northeast.
Baltimore’s streak started innocently enough, with a 5-2 home loss June 3 against the Boston Red Sox. Twenty days and seven other teams later, Orioles fans learned a little bit about early 20th century baseball.
Baltimore was actually playing decent ball until its pitching implosion. The Orioles were still four games over .500 (29-25) after the streak-starting loss to Boston. Winning only six of 20 games during their 20 games of five or more surrendered runs dropped the O’s to four games under .500 (35-39).
So just how bad was Baltimore pitching until Dylan Bundy – the loser of streak starter against Boston – finally put a stop to the madness/sadness?
- The Orioles were outscored 160-89 over those 20 games. That works out to an average of 8.0 runs allowed and 4.5 runs scored.
- Of the 160 total runs allowed over 175 innings played, 148 were earned, working out to a 7.61 team earned run average.
- Orioles pitchers gave up 234 hits and 94 walks, giving them a combined walks plus hits per inning pitched percentage of 1.87.
- Bundy went 1-3 during the streak, Chris Tillman went 0-3, Kevin Gausman went 0-3, Wade Miley went 1-2 and Alec Asher went 0-2.
Baltimore now has the second-worst ERA in baseball. At 5.17, Orioles pitchers are “better” than just the Cincinnati Reds (5.27). The staff owns the worst WHIP (1.56) and batting average against (.284) in the majors.
Even with the pitiful performances from the rubber, Baltimore is still hanging tough in the American League East standings. Saturday’s win moves the Orioles to 36-38 and 5 1/2 games back from first-place Boston (41-32).
Eric Horchy is a staff writer with OutsidePitchMLB.com. You can follow and interact with him on Twitter: @EricHorchy
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