This is only the Baltimore Orioles’ second series of the year outside of the AL East and their first against an AL Central foe as they welcome the surprisingly solid Chicago White Sox to Camden Yards for a three-game weekend series. The Birds outscored the Sox by 12 runs in seven games last season, but these two teams ended up very close in head-to-head wins with the O’s winning four of those seven contests.
This series will be contested from Friday, May 5, 2017 through Sunday, May 7, 2017 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Saturday’s contest can be seen nationwide on WGN.
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Pitching Matchups
The pitching matchup for each of the three games in this series all bring a level of intrigue and an interesting storyline.
On Friday, these teams kick off the series with Wade Miley on the bump for the Orioles and the former-Orioles Miguel Gonzales toeing the rubber for the Sox.
Both of these pitchers are averaging 5.2 innings pitched per start with Miley bringing a superior 2.32 ERA to the table compared to Gonzalez’s 3.27 though both have been pleasant surprises for their respective teams.
Save for a rough 2015 which ultimately ended his tenure in Baltimore, Gonzalez has been one to out achieve his stuff and keep his team in the game. He’s done just that in four of his five starts, but his last outing was rough as the Tigers roughed him up for seven runs—six earned—on 14 hits in six innings of work. Heading into that game, he had allowed just six total runs in 27 innings.
Gonzalez has just one career start against his previous team, a loss, giving up four runs and 10 hits in six innings, striking out just one. But, he has a career 3.94 ERA in Oriole Park.
As for Miley, he’s gotten himself in a lot of trouble this season with 19 walks, but has worked out of it. He’s struck out 38 in 31 innings and has limited the opposition to just 20 hits. The walks will hurt in a bit, but for now, he’s keep the hits in check to allow him to sustain a solid 1.258 WHIP.
Moving on to Saturday, the Orioles will turn to their new found ace in Dylan Bundy whose 4-1 record, 1.82 ERA and 1.034 WHIP are the storyline here. He’s thrown a team leading 39.2 innings and has allowed just two home runs. He’s really developed into a pitcher and the return of his cutter/slider has been a huge help to the 24-year old.
Bundy’s strike out total is a bit low, however, with just 5.7 per nine innings, but he’s inducing weak contact early in the count to allow him to go deeper in games.
Opposite Bundy will be the Sox’s own youngster in Dylan Covey, though he’s been much the opposite of Bundy in many ways. In fours tarts, he’s 0-2 with a 7.29 ERA and 1.762 WHIP. He’s already given up five home runs in 21 innings and has allowed 27 hits with just eight strikeouts.
While young aces and homecomings are fun, the best pitching matchup of the series is slated for Sunday when the true aces collide. This game should feature Jose Quintana against Chris Tillman.
Quintana had a rough start to the season, but has gotten back on track. He’s 2-4 on the year with a 4.10 ERA and 1.313 WHIP in 37.1 innings. Those numbers are more in line with a mid-rotation arm than an ace, but he’s coming off an eight-inning shutout against the Royals and has now thrown three straight quality starts.
Tillman, on the other hand, will be making his first start of the season after a PRP injection set him back more than a month.
In his last rehab start the right-hander didn’t fare well, giving up four home runs and five total runs in five innings at Triple-A.
Betting Trends
The Orioles are a team that shakes up the lineup considerably given the handedness of the opposing pitcher. The team usually rides with Hyun-Soo Kim and Seth Smith in the corner outfield spots against righties and then picks from Joey Rickard, Craig Gentry and Trey Mancini against left-handers.
Quintana is the only lefty they’ll face in the series which is good as they’re team OPS is over 50-poitns lower against southpaws than right-handers. Some of that can be attributable to personnel. To this point, both Smith and Kim haven an OPS+ north of 100 while Rickard and Gentry are each batting below the Mendoza line. Mancini, meanwhile has a 117 OPS+, but his hitting just .222 and has been slumping after his five early home runs. His lack of playing time may be getting to him.
The White Sox are the league’s worst hitting team against right-handers, such as Bundy and Tillman, based on OPS at just .621, but Miley could have a rough day as they’ve got a .812 OPS against southpaws.
Injury Breakdown
Over the last week, the Orioles have seen some struggles out of what should be a strong bullpen and some of that was due to role changes with Zach Britton on the disabled list. The closer is now back in action and delivered a scoreless inning on Tuesday, though he did give up a walk and a hit.
With Britton back in the ninth, that slides Brad Brach and Darren O’Day earlier in the game and allows Mychal Givens and Donnie Hart to matchup in the middle innings.
While the return of Britton is huge, the loss of Welington Castillo could be just as big. Castillo was earning praise from his teammates for his work behind the dish and at .314 leads the team in average. His replacements now are Caleb Joseph and Francisco Pena. Pena is a catch and throw guy with little bat and Joseph just recently got his first RBIs since 2015.
Flip the script to the ChiSox, they’re dealing with some bullpen injuries themselves with Zach Putnam and Jake Petricka out, but David Robertson is throwing the ball well as is Anthony Swarzak, Nate Jones and Dan Jennings, giving them plenty of good options still in the late innings.
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