Baltimore Orioles: Takeaways from Orioles Brutal Series Against the Yankees

The Baltimore Orioles were swept aside by the New York Yankees. Here are a few takeaways the O’s should consider as they head to Colorado.

Four long days are finally over for the Baltimore Orioles. Despite having home field the O’s were swept aside by the red hot New York Yankees in a four-game series in which the O’s at times had their chances but could not produce a victory

In game one the Orioles blew a 6-1 lead after their bullpen collapsed, got out-slugged in games two and three and fought back late but came up just short in game four.

Though the series wasn’t pretty in terms of wins and losses, there were plenty of takeaways both positive and negative that painted a clearer picture of both the strengths and weaknesses of the 2019 Baltimore Orioles

Here are three major takeaways from the O’s series with the Bombers.

Mychal Givens isn’t ready to be the closer: 

Perhaps the most obvious observation from this week is that Mychal Givens isn’t yet closer material. Givens entered the series with a solid 2.75 ERA, but after pitching in two games against the Bombers, his ERA increased to 4.91.

On Monday Givens blew a 7-6 ninth-inning lead. The O’s closer walked a batter, allowed four hits including a three-run go-ahead home run to Gary Sanchez and allowed five earned runs.

Thursday, Givens entered a tied game in the top of the ninth and could not keep the Yanks off the scoreboard. The Orioles closer walked three batters including giving out a free pass to Aaron Hicks with the bases loaded allowing New York to push across the winning run.

With the control issues, Givens showed this weekend it’s hard to trust him in the closer’s role going forward. Thus, Brandon Hyde would be better off going with a closer by committee approach which would allow Givens to close at times but not have to deal with the pressure of knowing the ninth is always his.

The O’s offense has some surprising pop

The Orioles might have got swept, but they did hit their fair share of home runs this week, which was encouraging. With O’s ranking towards the bottom of the league in runs scored it was a welcome sight to see them drive some balls out of the ballpark.

Baltimore cannot afford to pitch to Gleyber Torres or Gary Sanchez

We pointed out last week the Orioles need to stop pitching to Gleyber Torres. Well, the O’s did not listen.

Torres dominated the O’s yet again drilling four home runs thanks to a pair of multi-home run games.

The Orioles also need to stop pitching to Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez. Sanchez crushed the game-winning home run Monday, and went deep Tuesday and Wednesday proving yet again the O’s need to pitch around him.

It wasn’t a great week, but it’s finally over, and the Orioles will now travel to Colorado in search of better results when they take on the Rockies this weekend.