Baltimore Orioles vs Oakland Athletics: 3 takeaways from the Birds’ rough weekend

The Baltimore Orioles pitched well against the Oakland Athletics, but it wasn’t enough to stymie their brutal losing stretch.

The Baltimore Orioles‘ recent tour of California was a road trip to forget. There were some undeniably positive moments over the course of the six games, but after suffering back-to-back sweeps, the Birds will return to Maryland with little to show for it.

The always tenacious Oakland Athletics proved to be particularly frustrating opponents. All three games of the series were decided by two runs or fewer, but the men in green managed to come out on top in each one, outscoring the O’s 10-5.

It might be comforting to say that the Orioles have reached rock bottom, but it seems that they find a new way to disappoint with every game. At this rate, Memorial Day — GM Dan Duquette’s set date for reevaluating the team and presumably kicking off a rebuild — can’t come soon enough.

Still, with strong starts from Kevin Gausman and Alex Cobb, the Birds did provide a few reasons to smile. Baltimore posted a 2.30 team ERA for the series, well below their season mark of 4.95. They still lead all MLB teams in runs allowed per game, but with the light-hitting Kansas City Royals next on the schedule, they may not own that ignominious distinction for much longer.

Even with those causes for optimism, though, the 8-26 Orioles are a long way from salvaging their season. With a 3-16 record outside of Camden Yards, their road struggles are only getting worse. In the following slides, check out our top three takeaways from the deflating weekend.

The pitching staff is starting to pull its weight

One of the more frustrating things about the Birds’ slow start to the season has been their utter incompetence on both sides of the ball. Through Saturday, their hitters ranked last in the American League in adjusted OPS, while their pitchers were a lousy 14th in ERA+.

But while the Orioles have had a rough year on the mound, they experienced no such struggles in Oakland. All told, they posted a 2.30 ERA for the series, a more than respectable mark.

Andrew Cashner got off to a rough start in the first game, surrendering four runs in the first inning, but he settled down nicely from there, allowing just three hits over the rest of his night. On Saturday, Kevin Gausman delivered the start of the weekend, becoming the first Oriole to pitch nine scoreless innings and not get the win since 1988. Finally, on Sunday, Alex Cobb showed continued improvement, giving up one earned run over six solid frames.

All three of those starts were good enough for a win, but the lineup failed to keep its end of the bargain. The Orioles collected 19 hits but only five runs, a frustrating ratio for a frustrating series. With Gausman’s terrific outing, Saturday should have been a slam dunk, but after failing to plate even one batter in 12 innings, it was a well-deserved loss.

The Birds simply haven’t been producing at the plate, but they should pick it up eventually — over the course of a long baseball season, things tend to regress toward the mean. For now, at least the pitching staff is finally pulling its weight.

The O’s payroll is one of the ugliest in baseball

The Orioles have been all too happy to spend their money over the past few seasons, but they haven’t always been smart about it. The weekend series was a sobering reminder of just how bad things have gotten.

The Orioles payroll for 2018 is around $152 million, more than twice as much as the Athletics’ relatively paltry sum of $68 million. But at 18-16, the A’s have more than twice as many wins as the O’s, underscoring the perils of spending on premium free agents.

Case in point: when fan favorite Chris Davis became a free agent after the 2015 season, the Orioles let him sit on the market until late January — and then signed him to a seven-year, $161 million deal, putting him at $23 million a season. Since then, the first baseman has slashed .214/.318/.425, including a nightmarish .171/.264/.243 line this season.

The stingy A’s have a discount version, right down to the name: designated hitter Khris Davis. But while he’s not even half as expensive, making $10.5 million this year, the slugger has vastly outproduced his Baltimore counterpart. His .244/.320/.522 line since the start of 2016 includes a pair of home runs against the Birds this past weekend.

It’s the same story up and down the payroll. Mark Trumbo and Darren O’Day haven’t come close to justifying their bloated contracts, and while Adam Jones is a franchise icon, he’s not worth his $17 million salary anymore. Meanwhile, Davis is the only Athletic making more than $10 million this year.

With a rebuild imminent, Baltimore’s payroll will shrink soon. But if the O’s looking for a bit of inspiration for constructing their next contender, it might not be a bad idea to look at the roster that just beat them so soundly.