5 Orioles players that need to play better for Baltimore to have any chance in ALDS

While the Baltimore Orioles were the American League's best team in the regular season, they have looked like anything but that through the first two games of the ALDS. The Orioles' offense has been inconsistent while the Rangers' offense has found little resistance (especially in Game Two) from Baltimore's pitching staff.

Some may want to blame the week long downtime between the end of the regular season and the start of the ALDS, but the fundamental reality here is that Texas is just playing with more urgency and getting contributions from throughout their roster while the Orioles have not. Here is a look at some of the Orioles players that need to get going here very soon if Baltimore wants any chance of coming back in this series.

Cedric Mullins

It has been a couple of seasons since Cedric Mullins looked primed to be a break out star in the league, but he still posted a reasonable season in 2023 with a .721 OPS with 15 homers and 19 steals. Certainly not anywhere close to what he did in 2021, but he still had moments where he was dynamic and could change games with his power and his legs.

Unfortunately, those moments have not happened so far in the ALDS against the Rangers. Through the series first two games, Mullins is 0-8 with three strikeouts. Baltimore is going to need a lot more than that out of Cedric if they want to stand any chance of making this series closer.

Jacob Webb

Bullpen guys are easy scapegoats in the postseason because each individual inning and play has added importance. While that isn't entirely fair, it is hard to argue that the work done by Jacob Webb so far in the postseason has been optimal.

Webb has appeared in both games against the Rangers and gave up earned runs in both of them courtesy of home runs including Mitch Garver's game breaking grand slam in Game Two. Webb was very decent in the regular season with a 3.69 ERA including giving up six homers in 53.2 innings of work. The last thing the Orioles need is for him to become homer prone against a Rangers team that likes to hit a lot of them.

Adley Rutschman

One thing that the Orioles had going for them was the perceived advantage they had at catcher in Adley Rutschman. In just two short seasons in the big leagues, Adley has turned into one of the best catchers in all of baseball and posted a line of .277/.374/.435 with 20 homers this season.

Sadly, Adley's performance so far in the ALDS has left a lot to be desired as he has gone 1-8 with a walk. Is there some small sample size weirdness happening here? Perhaps, but that is the playoffs for ya and when you combine that with Grayson Rodriguez getting absolutely shelled in Game Two with Adley calling the game behind the plate and you have a pretty disappointing series from him so far.