Regression is coming for the Orioles' bats and arms, and for better or worse, the two might be linked.
Sunday's 7-6 Orioles loss in Anaheim might be the template for the rest of the season after a few low-scoring weeks of close games.
Even if, record-wise, the Orioles are around where they should be through 16 games this season, the expectation coming out of spring training was likely for a lot more games like Sunday’s than many of the tight, relatively low-scoring affairs that preceded them.
An offense that was always going to be top-heavy has been, to an extent, but that top half is only outproducing the bottom half because it’s contributing anything at all. The Orioles’ pitching staff, without John Means now for the rest of the year and already in the process of burning through all of the driftwood they hoped would float them to their top prospects’ arrival, has managed to overperform.
It seems much of the focus is on how the offense is (rightfully) due for a correction in outcomes based on the way the group as a whole is getting on base and driving the ball without much to show of it.
If that’s true, though, then so too is a correction coming for the team’s pitchers – which will mean a lot more games like Sunday the rest of the way.