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O’s contending, but rotation a concern
- Updated: August 18, 2016
BALTIMORE — The Orioles have been cutting and pasting their starting rotation all season, and now manager Buck Showalter is just going to have to make the best of it as they head toward the stretch run.
Their top starter, Chris Tillman, was a scratch from Wednesday night’s key matchup against the American League East-rival Red Sox at Camden Yards, replaced by right-hander Dylan Bundy, who allowed five runs and didn’t make it out of the fifth inning in the Orioles’ 8-1 loss.
Tillman reported a sore right shoulder, and with a sense of optimism, Showalter pushed him back to start on Saturday night against the Astros.
• Tillman to start Saturday, feeling ‘optimistic’
“He could pitch today,” Showalter said. “If it was Sept. 25, he probably would. But it’s not, and we didn’t like some of the things [about his shoulder] that were described.”
Tillman is 15-4 with a 3.46 ERA, and until Wednesday hadn’t missed a start. No other Orioles starter has more than five wins, and Kevin Gausman at 4.04 has the next-best ERA.
The Orioles can ill afford to lose Tillman for any protracted period of time. Tillman said he was confident that he will be good to go Saturday.
“I mean, you’re always confident. You never know, though,” he said. “I’m not going to do anything stupid by any means. You want to be smart about it. But I feel like Saturday is a good spot to try and shoot for.”
Statistics don’t lie, and if everything begins with the performance of your starters, the Orioles are up against it in their race for the division title with Toronto and Boston.
Entering Wednesday, Blue Jays starters led the AL in both ERA (3.67) and wins (53). The Orioles are at the opposite end of the spectrum, placing 12th of the 15 AL teams in ERA (4.82) and eighth in wins (39). The Red Sox are third in wins (48) and ninth in ERA (4.39).
Even more significantly, Orioles hurlers average just above 5 1/3 innings a …
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