Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun
The Orioles didn’t exactly open the offensive flood gates during the first week of the season, but they did hit well in clutch situations and delivered an average of exactly four runs a game, which has been an over-under number that has correlated in the past to the club winning or losing.
Overall, O’s hitters batted .227 with five home runs and seven doubles, numbers they figure to improve on as they settle in at the plate.
The two former Seattle Mariners delivered a big chunk of that production, with newcomer Seth Smith (pictured) leading the club with a .385 average and hitting a game-winning home run against the Yankees on Friday night. Mark Trumbo, who was acquired from the M’s a year ago, delivered the game-winning walkoff on Opening Day and a couple other key hits during the four-game winning streak.
Kenneth K. Lam / Baltimore Sun
The song remains the same when it comes to catching the ball, though the improved depth in the outfield took a quick hit when Joey Rickard was forced onto the disabled list with a sprained finger.
The Orioles played error-free baseball through the first three games of the season before making their first error on Saturday and two more in their first loss on Sunday.
Three errors in five games actually is above par for the solid O’s defense, but only one of those errors led to a run and there were several terrific plays that saved kept runs off the scoreboard in four tight-margin victories.
Every week of the regular season, 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.