If I had a dollar for every time someone has brought up the Earl Weaver quote that momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher, I could probably take a nice vacation. It comes up so often it is kind of a joking cliche. Yet the reason it is deployed so often is there is an obvious truth to it. If your starting pitcher gets his butt kicked, then it probably doesn’t matter what you did the last three games. That winning streak is over. If your starting pitcher goes out and throws a gem, you’ve got a pretty good chance to keep the good times rolling.
The Orioles open up a series against the Blue Jays here on Thursday night with Chris Bassitt on the mound. Amazingly, he is kind of a defiance of the Weaver cliche. Bassitt has been pretty much terrible so far, with about three of his ten outings being anything like good. He has thoroughly earned the 5.51 ERA that he currently possesses. He is not on the path to looking like the $18.5 million contract that Mike Elias handed him for 2026 will pay off for the Orioles. He is neither pitching well nor eating innings.
Somehow, the Orioles are 7-3 in games that Bassitt pitches. Bassitt himself has come away with a 4-3 win-loss record, grabbing wins in games where he gave up five runs in 5.1 innings and three runs in 4.1 innings (relief outing). Always remember that pitcher win-loss records are not indicative of all that much.
Maybe Bassitt will surprise me and pitch well. The Blue Jays are not hitting very well over the last two weeks, with a .231/.298/.374 team batting line. Annoyingly, they are 9-5 in this time, because their pitchers are doing even better. In the same time, the Jays have allowed a .599 OPS and 2.65 ERA. Tonight’s Jays pitcher, Patrick Corbin, who has netted -3.4 bWAR since the start of the 2021 season, is worth more than any Orioles starting pitcher! No one would have been happy at the time if Elias had signed this guy. Two months into the season, though, those are the results.
Obligatory Orioles roster move of the day: The team optioned yesterday’s starter, Trey Gibson, back to Norfolk. They selected the contract of Cameron Weston from Norfolk. He has not been pitching well down there, or at least not getting good results. Good luck to him if he debuts. Also today, the Orioles activated Heston Kjerstad from the injured list and optioned him to Norfolk.
Orioles lineup
If the question is “Why is Tyler O’Neill playing?” the answer is probably that the team has zero confidence in Colton Cowser against lefty pitchers, but also I have zero confidence in O’Neill against any pitcher so, you know. Sunk cost time is approaching, if it has not already arrived.
Blue Jays lineup
The Jays signed the Japanese infielder Okamoto as a free agent this offseason to hit home runs and he already has 11 home runs. Must be nice.
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