Baltimore Orioles vs Detroit Tigers: Five players to watch

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BALTIMORE, MD – APRIL 26: Manager Buck Showalter /

The Baltimore Orioles are on a losing streak, but a chance at redemption against the Tigers could be just what they need to stop the bleeding.

The Baltimore Orioles dropped their fifth game in a row on Thursday, but salvation could lie just around the corner. Next on the schedule are the Detroit Tigers, who boast one of the weakest rosters in the American League.

True, the Tigers swept the Orioles when the two teams faced off earlier this month. And true, the Tigers sit at 10-13, a full five games ahead of the Orioles in the AL Wild Card race. But they were also outclassed by Pittsburgh’s Ivan Nova on Thursday, managing zero runs and six hits over eight long innings.

The Orioles, meanwhile, appear to have turned a corner — at least on one side of the ball, that is. While they still rank 27th in MLB in OPS, the Birds have scored nine runs over their last two games. That production won’t be enough to lift them out of the cellar just yet, but it’s certainly enough to do some damage against the Tigers’ probables for this week: Mike Fiers, Francisco Liriano and Daniel Norris. In short, this series looks like a great opportunity for Baltimore to get some revenge for the early-season sweep.

Of course, they’ll need to be more consistent than they’ve been if they want to return to the win column. In the following slides, read up on five players who could decide the series.

BALTIMORE, MD – APRIL 26: Anthony Santander /

Anthony Santander, RF

Some Orioles fans were excited about Santander at the outset of the regular season — and who could blame them? The Birds have found power in some unexpected places over the past few seasons, and with a spring training line of .292/.309/.538 with 4 home runs and 4 doubles, it was easy to imagine the young right fielder as a lineup mainstay.

So far, it’s been rough sailing for the 23-year-old. Heading into Thursday’s game against the Rays, Santander had just 10 hits in 66 plate appearances, good for an adjusted OPS of 30. It was a brutal stat line, but something finally clicked for him, and he finished the night with three singles in four trips to the plate.

Santander’s journey to being a consistent batter is far from complete, but Thursday’s performance was a tantalizing reminder of his potential. Even before the multi-hit effort, Buck Showalter gave him a vote of confidence, per Rich Dubroff of PressBox:

I like him as much as I did the day we drafted him and the day we came out of camp. He’s got a great future ahead of him, but we’ve had to really expose him and I like it has good for him. It may not be statistically pleasing for him or anybody, but there are some positives to gain from it.

With his power, Santander has a chance to create some more positives this week. Fiers and Norris in particular give up a lot of home runs, so this series could hold a lot of opportunities for the right power hitter. If Santander really has found a rhythm in the batter’s box, now would be a good time to prove it.

BALTIMORE, MD – APRIL 23: Starting pitcher Kevin Gausman /

Kevin Gausman, RHP

After surrendering three home runs to the Minnesota Twins in his first start of the year, Gausman has seen increasingly solid results over the past few weeks. That upward trend crested with an eight-inning, two-run gem against the Indians earlier this week, putting him back on the shortlist of the AL’s most intriguing starters.

The Baltimore hitters were flummoxed by Carlos Carrasco, so Gausman didn’t earn a win for his efforts. He did, however, exit the game with one feather in his cap: the first immaculate inning of the 2018 season. In the top of the seventh, the Indians sent Yonder Alonso, Yan Gomes and Bradley Zimmer to the plate, and all three men struck out on three pitches. Gausman became the first player in Baltimore Orioles history to accomplish the feat since 1999, when B.J. Ryan pulled it off against — you guessed it — the Cleveland Indians.

Take a look at Gausman’s immaculate inning below:

The superb effort should give Gausman some momentum as he goes for redemption against Detroit. The 27-year-old righty faced the Tigers in his fourth start of the year, and while he fared well enough — two earned runs in six frames — Darren O’Day and Pedro Araujo combined to throw away the game in the later innings. Gausman will be looking for a strong rebound, especially against Miguel Cabrera and Jeimer Candelario, the two players who took him deep.

Gausman’s first-half performance could determine his future in Baltimore: will he become a lucrative trade chip this July, or does Dan Duquette covet more of his arbitration years? His next few starts could provide clarity.

Brad Brach, RHP

No one on the 2018 Baltimore Orioles has saved more games than Brad Brach — but at this rate, he may not be a part of the closer-by-committee for much longer.

Brach has thrown a shade under 10 innings this year, so it should go without saying that we’re dealing with a minute sample size. And yet, across the board, his numbers suggest a regression from his 2017 form. He’s walking hitters at the highest rate of his career, and he’s striking them out at his lowest rate since 2014. But the most worrying development of all has been his reduced velocity — his fastball is down by over 2 mph from last year, and his slider and changeup have fallen by nearly that much.

In a recent Baltimore Sun article, Eduardo A. Encina reported that both Brach and Showalter attribute the middling results to a lack of rhythm in the bullpen. The Orioles’ rocky start means they haven’t encountered many high-leverage scenarios late in the game, and when they have, the pressure has been all the greater. According to Brach:

“The team struggling as a whole can make it difficult on the bullpen because I feel like the years we’ve been good and made the playoffs it was like, ‘OK, we’ve got the lead and we’ve got the seventh, eighth and ninth.’ You kind of feed off each other, and when things go bad, it’s kind of the same thing.”

So Brach’s numbers, while ugly, haven’t had time to stabilize. Aside from Richard Bleier, the entire bullpen has been struggling. And Buck Showalter has faith in his late-inning arms. Look below the surface, and you’ll see that there’s probably no reason to panic about Brach — but then again, isn’t that a pretty good reason to look out for a bounceback performance against Detroit?

The Orioles have circled the end of May for Zach Britton’s return from Achilles surgery. For Baltimore’s bullpen, reinforcements are on the way, but if he doesn’t get his act together soon, Brach could be on the clock already.

DETROIT, MI – APRIL 21: Nicholas Castellanos /

Nicholas Castellanos, RF

It’s been a good week for Castellanos — including last Saturday’s game against the Royals, he has slashed .545/.565/.864 with 2 home runs and 10 RBIs, leading the Tigers in most offensive categories. One of the few dangerous bats in the Detroit lineup, shutting him down could be key if the Orioles want to win the series.

A former first-round pick and top prospect — he was listed as high as 21st in the Baseball America rankings — Castellanos’ path to Major League success was complicated by poor defense and a free-swinging mentality at the plate. Still, he’s been a lineup mainstay over the past two seasons, slashing .277/.325/.493 in 1,112 plate appearances. The defensive woes have continued, and after four seasons at the hot corner, the Tigers finally decided to stash him in right field, making way for Jeimer Candelario.

As hot as he’s been over the past week, though, Castellanos didn’t fare nearly as well when he took on the Orioles earlier this month. In 13 plate appearance, he came away with only one single and one double, good for a .182 average. That stat includes an 0-for-5 performance in the travel game — on a day when Alex Cobb and Mike Wright gave up five earned runs apiece, Castellanos was the only Detroit starter not to reach base.

With any luck, this weekend’s pitchers will be similarly solid against the Tigers’ inconsistent slugger. Cobb won’t get the ball, but Gausman, Chris Tillman and Andrew Cashner will try to display the same dominance.

Daniel Norris, LHP

The Orioles aren’t yet rebuilding, but at 6-19, they’ll need to start selling some of their assets sooner or later. The Tigers, meanwhile, have no illusions about fielding a competitive team this year, and that means giving their young players a chance to come into their own.

Norris, a soft-tossing lefty with a solid slider, will make his second start of the year on Sunday. At 25, he still has ample time to develop into a quality pitcher, yet his big-league results to this point — he’s made 13 or more starts in every season since 2015, posting a 4.35 ERA — don’t exactly stand out. A contending team might have already lost their patience, but with Francisco Liriano, Jordan Zimmermann and Mike Fiers in the rotation, the Tigers aren’t losing much by letting Norris try to work out the kinks in his approach.

Norris’ last start came against the Royals on April 20, and while he lasted only 4.2 innings, he surrendered just one earned run and fanned 5 batters. His ERA for the season is an unsightly 4.85, but he’s striking out 11 men per 9 innings, good for a FIP of 3.33.

But despite the encouraging peripherals, it’s been a frustrating campaign. Norris would love to use his upcoming start to regain some of his lost velocity — after averaging 93.2 mph with his fastball in 2017, he has fallen to 89.4 mph this year. According to Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press, he’s not concerned, but he’ll be singing a different tune if nothing changes by midseason.

If Norris struggles on Sunday, it will be a great chance for the Birds to pick up a much-needed win. If he’s locked in, it’s an opportunity to observe an intriguing young pitcher. Either way, he’s one to watch.

Which players are you going to keep an eye on this weekend? Let us know on social media, and keep it here at Birds Watcher for more updates on the Baltimore Orioles.

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