The shroud of fatalism has settled over the Orioles the past couple of weeks has gotten almost suffocating, but everybody who has spent any time watching baseball knows that momentum can shift at any time. The Orioles have been streaky during the first half of this season, so it's fair to assume that they'll have another good streak before too long.
Will it start in Boston? There's no logical reason to think so, but this team has defied any attempt to figure out why it does anything. The O's pitched pretty well during the early weeks of the season, but didn't score a lot of runs. They got the offense in gear for a while in June, but stopped pitching effectively. Even the individual players have been enigmatic -- most notably Mark Reynolds, who has 20 home runs and 20 errors entering the four-game series that starts tonight at Fenway Park.
The pitching staff has struggled badly over the past nine games. The starting rotation has an 8-plus ERA and manager Buck Showalter has had to plug holes in it with Triple-A callups Chris Jakubauskas and Mitch Atkins. The hitters have been absolutely pitiful with runners in scoring position.
Things look so bad that Rick Dempsey just said on the pregame show that tonight is probably the Orioles' best chance to win one more game before the All-Star break, and Rick's a pretty positive guy.
I'm not quite so certain that the O's are overmatched. I think they'll at least split this series, because the Red Sox are having pitching problems of their own and -- though there is no logical basis for this -- the pendulum has to swing back at some point. It always does.
Once again, I'm looking for Nolan Reimold to continue to make a case for more playing time. This is his opportunity to make some kind of statement with Luke Scott on the disabled list. I think he knows that and isn't going to pass it up.
First pitch awaits.
