Baltimore Orioles: A productive loss on Tillman Island

With yesterday’s 1-0 loss to Philadelphia, the Baltimore Orioles dropped to 2-6 on the spring. While I’m a bit surprised at the record, I want to reiterate to Orioles fans that wins and losses are not important at this stage. Furthermore, the O’s are a part of a league-wide trend of low-scoring games as we progress through the early part of spring training. As I’ve said before, pitchers such as Chris Tillman are ahead of the hitters, and they will be until about the midpoint of the spring (give or take).

The Orioles however can draw a net positive out of yesterday’s game given that the aforementioned Tillman made his first

Courtesy of Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

start of the spring, and had a decent outing. Tillman’s line: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. For a two inning outing, that’s pretty decent. I felt that Tillman had a couple of struggles in the first, however we should keep in mind that it was his first outing. Furthermore he had to labor in that first inning in terms of pitch count, but the overall takeaway from Tillman’s first outing was largely positive.

After leaving the game, Tillman went down to the Orioles’ bullpen at Ed Smith Stadium and three a couple more innings worth of work. As far as spring games go, this might have been one of the most blasee games of all time. The lone run of the day came in the form of a fifth inning homer off the bat of Andres Blanco in the fifth inning. And that’s all she wrote, folks…seriously!

One thing that’s worth mentioning is that Philadelphia might now be finding themselves in the market for some pitching depth given the fact that Cliff Lee might have an injury concern. So given their depth, could the O’s perhaps be a trade partner if Philadelphia has perhaps a prospect or two they could send the Orioles’ way? That’s not something that’s been discussed publicly, however it’s something I’m throwing out there to the fans as an idea.

The O’s will remain at home in Sarasota when they take on their AL East rival, New York Yankees at 1 PM this afternoon. Wei-Yin Chen will get the start for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by New York’s Chase Whitley.