Orioles get much needed boost to their rotation with the return of their opening day starter

The Baltimore Orioles' rotation has caused a lot of problems this year. Their combined 5.03 ERA ranks 28th in baseball. The starting pitching struggles have made it almost impossible for the Orioles to win low-scoring games for most of this season. Up until the last two games, the Orioles were 3-19 in games where they scored four runs or fewer. Basically, if the offense didn't score five runs or more, the Orioles were going to lose because their starters usually gave up 3-5 runs in the first four innings.

With that being the case, it's naturally been very difficult for this Orioles team to build any sort of momentum, but Trevor Rogers return from the IL gives them an opportunity to flip that script and make a push back into the playoff picture.

The Orioles need the version of Trevor Rogers they got last season

Rogers stats on the year don't look great, but in his six starts, there's a clear point of demarcation where something went wrong. In his first three starts, he put up an ERA of 1.89 with a FIP of 2.59, gave up no home runs, and averaged over six innings per start.

In his last three starts before hitting the IL, he had an ERA of 9.53 with a FIP of 5.59; he gave up three home runs and averaged less than four innings per start. That's a stark departure from the pitcher he had been for almost an entire calendar year.

Whether this sharp decline was the result of him battling through an illness or he was just having some sort of mechanical issue that was affecting his command, assuming he was able to use his IL stint to get feeling better and figure it out, he should look more like the guy from his first three starts than the last three.

Yankees pitching has confounded the Orioles hitters this year. In their five games, the Orioles are hitting just .186 against them and haven't scored more than four runs in any of their games (if you remember, that's the magic number where the Orioles lose most of their games). Today's Yankee starter Will Warren has been excellent this season, and in his last outing against the Orioles, he had his best start of the year, going 6.1 innings, giving up just one earned run, and striking out nine.

Rogers will start today against the Yankees, and the Orioles need him to look like the version of himself that made him their unquestioned opening day starter. If he outduels Warren and holds the Yankees offense in check and allows the Orioles to lock up a series win today, that would go a long way toward getting the Orioles season back on track.

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