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Patrick Semansky / AP

It was difficult to justify too much criticism of the Orioles offense until Sunday afternoon, unless you want to call out the hitters for not keeping pace with a Cubs attack that struck early and often to build up huge leads in the first two games of the series. The O’s get credit for staying engaged Friday night and erasing an 8-0 lead before losing on a solo homer in the ninth. The O’s also fell far behind Saturday night and managed only three runs, but there isn’t a lot of room for offensive strategy when you’re that far down and a pitcher such as Jake Arrieta isn’t willing to let you up. So, while the offensive performance wasn’t the major problem over the weekend, it was anemic after Friday night’s comeback.

(Patrick Semansky / AP)

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Patrick Semansky / AP

Manager Buck Showalter continues to experiment with different defensive alignments to accommodate Chris Davis’ return from the disabled list. He has moved Trey Mancini back to the outfield, of course, and moved Jonathan Schoop to shortstop for the second time to give Johnny Giavotella another chance to maintain the momentum from his strong season at Norfolk. But here’s the rub: The O’s can catch the ball and are destined to be somewhere close to the top 10 in the most relevant defensive categories. They remained 12th in fielding percentage and moved up to 11th in fewest errors this weekend. They're solid, but they certainly aren’t preventing runs the way they used to.

(Patrick Semansky / AP)

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