It is the best of times for area baseball fans. Two months into the baseball season and the O’s and Nationals continue to play on parallel tracks. Nationals lead their division by one game and the O’s are two games back in their division.
Bad news for the Orioles is that their Division competition the Red Sox are also playing well and scoring some runs. The Red Sox total of 302 runs scored leads the league with the Cardinals a distant second at 282 runs scored (click here.) The Orioles are also scoring some runs (216) but their Runs Allowed total (204) is up there too (see chart below.)
The Nationals are a game up in their division and with one third of the season over they are on a pace to win 90+ games. What bodes well for the Nationals is that their pitching has them with the third best “Runs Allowed” total in the league. They have allowed only 169 runs which ranks them behind the Mets (167) and the overall best team in baseball the Cubs who have allowed only 142 runs. (Note – it has been a long time since that phraseology “Best Team in Baseball the Cubs” has been written either in reputable sports publications or low rent places like the Buzzyblog.)
Although their records are close, the biggest difference between the two teams is that the Nationals’ pitching has given up 35 fewer runs than the O’s.
A secret weapon for the Orioles though is their manager, Bucky Showalter who ranks among the best in the league (click here). Bucky reminds me a little of Earl albeit maybe without all the histrionics.