Mitchell Layton / Getty Images
The Orioles batted .263/.320/.403 and averaged four runs per game over the course of a full seven-game week, but that doesn’t tell the whole story even though it was a so-so combined performance and a so-so week. The distribution of those runs explains why they weren’t enough to make it a winning week in spite of solid pitching. The O’s scored a total of four runs in three games against the Rays – losing two – and then piled up 23 runs over the first three games of the White Sox series, winning two of them before being stifled by Chris Sale in the finale on Sunday. Manny Machado continues to roll, leading the team in hits and RBI, but three part-time players topped the charts. Pedro Alvarez, Nolan Reimold and Hyun Soo Kim combined to bat .500 (16 for 32) with two homers and six RBI.
Matt Hazlett / Getty Images
It would have been another terrific week for the defense if not for the strange game against the Sox on Saturday night in which the Orioles and Sox committed two errors apiece. Manny Machado and J.J. Hardy teamed up to make a crazy-good play on a Todd Frazier screamer that glanced off Machado’s glove was speared by Hardy behind his head on Sunday, but the afternoon went sour when Hardy fouled a ball off his foot and had to leave the game with a possible fracture. Still, the O’s continue to play strong defense and did not commit an error in any of the other six games.
Every week, Orioles columnist Peter Schmuck will grade the performance of the Orioles in five categories. The letter grades are not directly tied to any particular statistic, but are representative of a cumulative evaluation of everything – tangible or intangible – that falls under that particular category.