Baltimore Orioles Preview: Major Opportunities Await for the O’s in Miami

Coming off a series win in Texas, the Orioles enter this series against Miami with optimism

Although the Orioles didn’t get the sweep last weekend, they did come out of Texas with their heads held high. The Baltimore Orioles pitching staff looked the part all weekend long and were the main reason the O’s took their second series of the year. That momentum leads us all to tonight when the road trip continues in Miami.

The Marlins, like the Orioles, are sitting in 3rd place in their respective division. Both have seven wins overall, and both have seemingly performed better on the road. Although that advantage may favor the O’s, over the last ten games Miami has been the better team, going 6-4 to Baltimore’s 3-7.

After an impressive, momentum-changing outing on Sunday by John Means, Matt Harvey has entered the chat. The former All-Star comes into tonight with an 0-1 record and 12 strikeouts. While certainly not the Harvey of old, momentum in Baseball is a funny thing; when you have it, you have it, and right now, the starting pitchers seem to be rolling.

Baltimore Orioles Preview: Major opportunities await for the O’s in Miami

In-game 1 tonight, Harvey will face the rookie, Nick Neidert. Neidert hasn’t won a game yet this season, holding a 4.00 ERA with 6 K’s. Besides, the apparent advantage of him being a rookie is his home and away splits (2.70 ERA vs. 11.25 ERA, respectively). For a struggling offense, this should be like chum in that water as they look to get back on track for the year.

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This matchup should favor Harvey, but it will need to. The Marlins offense has been noticeably better than the Orioles, and over the last ten games, they have outscored their opponents by six runs. One of the leading culprits to this hot offense is Adam Duvall. Duvall may only post a .224 average, but he has slugged 4 of the Marlins 11 homers and has a team-leading 11 RBIs.

On the flipside, offensively, the Orioles have been struggling beside the hot bat of Cedric Mullins and his 22 hits. In games 1 and 2 of the Texas series, they looked good, but all were stymied that last time out. The Marlins have an ERA that ranks 11th in the league, so expect some more defensive resistance than what we saw over the weekend. But still, the timing is perfect.

As previously mentioned, the O’s have the prime opportunity to tattoo a young pitcher who has never before faced them. They will also meet a team missing their hits leader as Starling Marte will be out with a rib injury he inherited during the 9th inning of Sunday’s matchup against the Giants.

When facing off against a non-division or non-league foe in a two-game series, all bets are off. If Baltimore can use their mojo and take advantage of these opportunities, this can be a nice two-game warmup before facing off against the much hotter Oakland Athletics later on this week.