SAN FRANCISCO — Around the Orioles clubhouse recently, there has been a lot of mentioning the dog days of August, that time of the season when bodies ache, travel becomes extra burdensome and good teams find a way to push on to the finish line.
And after spending nearly the entire season viewed as the team's Achilles heel, the Orioles' starting rotation is finding its groove in the second half.
The Orioles rotation went into the All-Star break with the third-worst ERA in the majors (5.15). Since then, Orioles starters have pitched significantly better, entering Friday with a 3.73 ERA collectively in the second half of the season.
They've needed to be that good as the offense has gone into a second-half slump, scoring 3.4 runs per game in their first 27 games following the break after averaging 5.1 before it, which is why the Orioles starters went into Friday with a 9-13 second-half record.
"This game is tough," right-hander Yovani Gallardo said. "Sometimes you go through stretches like that throughout the year. For us as a team in general, we're working hard. We're doing everything we can. Throughout the year, the guys have been doing a great job, our offense just swinging the bats. It's just one of those stretches that we're going through right now but you can't worry about today."
The rotation is doing its part. As the Orioles went into their weekend interleague series against the San Francisco Giants on Friday, right-hander Dylan Bundy was looking to build on a string of seven straight quality starts by the rotation. Over that span, the starters posted an impressive 2.93 ERA.
"The guys are throwing the ball well," said right-hander Chris Tillman, who pitched the Orioles' seventh straight quality start Thursday with a seven-inning, two-run outing in the finale in Oakland. "… We've got to keep it going. We've got a lot of baseball left and some big games ahead of us. We've got to keep throwing the ball well."
The timing of the improvement is reminiscent of 2014, when the Orioles last won the American League East. That season, the team's rotation overcame first-half struggles to help carry the Orioles down the stretch in a runaway division-winning season that ultimately took them within four wins of reaching the World Series.
One big recent change is the starters' collective command. The Orioles rotation averaged just as many strikeouts in its first 11 August starts as it did in July (7.7 strikeouts per nine innings), but its strikeout-to-walk ratio this month has improved dramatically, up to 4.08 from 1.79 in July and elevating a pedestrian season mark to 2.17.
The rotation has a long way to make the same kind of impact as in 2014. The 2014 Orioles starters posted a 2.98 ERA in 68 games after the break, with a 33-16 record over that span. That came after they owned a 4.09 ERA going into the break.
This is a different crew. Tillman and right-hander Kevin Gausman are the only current starters who were in that rotation. Left-hander Wei-Yin Chen, right-hander Bud Norris and right-hander Miguel Gonzalez are all gone after being key contributors down the stretch two years ago.
Back then under new pitching coach Dave Wallace and bullpen coach Dom Chiti, the rotation began a routine of watching each other's bullpen sessions. They could all give each other feedback, and that's something that continued with this year's rotation.
"We've been the same," Tillman said. "I think we've kind of carried that whole mentality over. Yovani hasn't missed a single person's bullpen. No one has. Not a single guy has missed another person's bullpen all year. We have a tight-knit group here now. It's the same. I think it's just a good structure and we're trying to keep it going."
Gausman played a big role in that rotation's revitalization, much like Bundy is beginning to this year. It was the first season the Orioles let Gausman exclusively start, and he found his rhythm in the second half, holding opponents to three runs or fewer in 11 of his last 12 regular-season starts while still being on pitch and innings limits.
Bundy is in a similar situation. He entered his start Friday at AT&T Park with just five major league starts under his belt. But he had posted a 1.90 ERA and held opponents to a .148 batting average over his previous four starts.
Tillman has been steady all season long. Despite some hiccups, Gausman has four quality starts in his past five outings. Gallardo, whose early season struggles were followed by a trip to the disabled list, has three quality starts in his past four games. Trade-deadline acquisition Wade Miley also tossed a quality start in his second outing with his new club.
Tillman, the anchor of the rotation, said he's seeing the starters feed off each other.
"I think with every good team, I think you see that," Tillman said. "There's a lot of teams that do it. We've done it before in the past. It's fun. It's fun to be a part of. You use it as friendly competition. It's fun to be a part of."
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