Tony Dejak / AP
The Orioles bounced back from their record whiff-a-thon in Houston to swing the bat more judiciously against the Cleveland Indians, but it’s still hard to get away from the fact that they set a major league record for strikeouts in a three-game series (52). It almost defies science. Manager Buck Showalter had to do something to get his power-packed offense out of the funk, so he moved struggling Adam Jones into the leadoff role and everything changed. The O’s averaged just over five runs per game in Cleveland and ended up winning two of the three series on the nine-game road trip. Still, it’s hard to get away from the fact that they averaged nine hits per game last week and 12 strikeouts.
Tony Dejak / AP
For the second week in a row, it’s necessary to separate Ubaldo Jimenez’s performance from the rest of the rotation. The other Orioles starters didn’t exactly light up the stat sheet, but they kept the O’s in five of the six games last week in spite of combining on a 5.02 ERA. Jimenez had another frustrating outing on Saturday – lasting just 1 1/3 innings in his fourth rocky start in a row -- which has put his place in the rotation in serious jeopardy. Showalter said Sunday that he’s still projected to start on Thursday, but don’t bet on it.
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.