Baltimore Orioles: Four Things To Pay Attention To Against Texas Rangers

Many pieces of the Baltimore Orioles bullpen find themselves in the midst of a stretch of impressive performances.

Would you believe me if I said the Baltimore Orioles bullpen has been pretty darn good over the last few weeks? Since August 15th, the Orioles bullpen ranks sixth in all of baseball at 0.9 fWAR in the second-fewest number of innings. Overall, the bullpen owns a 1-5 record and a 4.26 ERA, but a more impressive 3.80 FIP.

After struggling to find his footing for much of the season, Mychal Givens has stepped up as the leader of the bullpen recently, throwing seven scoreless innings since August 15th, striking out 11, walking none, and allowing just two hits.

In fact, since August 1st, Givens has made 12 appearances, allowing runs in just one of those outings, three of them against the Houston Astros back on the 11th. He has 15 strikeouts and one walk over that time period, lowering his season ERA from 4.43 to 4.02. In his only appearance against Texas this year, Givens picked up a save and struck out both hitters he faced to close out the game.

The Orioles have also seen a recent stretch of success from another reliever who struggled throughout most of 2019, Miguel Castro. Castro leads the bullpen with 9.1 innings pitched since August 15th, giving up just two runs on three hits with five walks and five strikeouts. Those walks are a problem, but Castro has kept them stranded. He’s always had the stuff, he just needs to put it all together. Is he turning a corner, or are we setting ourselves up for another letdown? Time will tell.

We also have to shoutout the young guys. Hunter Harvey and Dillon Tate have combined for 10.2 innings of work, giving up two runs on six hits with 13 strikeouts. Let’s hope this bullpen can keep it up against Texas and throughout the remaining few weeks of the season.