Seattle @ Baltimore preview
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Last Meeting ( Apr 21, 2010 ) Baltimore 1, Seattle 4
The Baltimore Orioles need to find some offense.
They come into the Tuesday’s opener of a three-game home series with the Seattle Mariners looking for either some players to start hitting or wondering what kind of moves could be made to help their floundering offense.
The numbers tell the story. Baltimore is hitting only .244 as a team this season, a big reason for its poor 9-23 start. The Orioles have not been able to hit with runners in scoring position or get enough power at the right time.
Tuesday's game doesn't look much better for the Orioles as they’ll face Cliff Lee (0-1).
Only four Orioles are hitting over .250 - Nick Markakis, Matt Wieters, Ty Wigginton and Miguel Tejada – and the team doesn’t have a .300 hitter. There was a lot of speculation over the last few days about the Orioles possibly making a move to shake things up.
Team president Andy MacPhail recently told members of the Baltimore media that the hitters need to start improving or they’ll go to Triple-A Norfolk to figure things out. And there are a lot of players who could use some help.
Outfielders like Nolan Reimold (.203), Lou Montanez (.114), Adam Jones (.230) and Luke Scott (.186) have struggled all season despite hitting very well last year. The availability of former Oriole outfielder Corey Patterson, who was re-signed by the team and faring well at Norfolk, just adds to the speculation.
But the Mariners find themselves in a very similar situation.
Seattle is hitting just .229 as a team, next-to-last in the American League. The Mariners just fired hitting coach Alan Cockrell over the weekend and replaced him with Alonzo Powell. Seattle also has dropped to last place in the AL West.
Franklin Gutierrez is the lone Mariner batting above his career average, and Seattle can’t find any power. The Mariners have hit just 12 homers all season – while Wigginton has 10 by himself for Baltimore, which will send David Hernandez (0-4) to the mound in this game.
In addition, there could be a developing controversy involving veteran Ken Griffey, Jr., who may be in danger of losing either playing time or even a roster spot because of his very slow start - not to mention his sleeping habits.
Griffey is hitting only .208 with no homers and five RBIs through his first 77 at-bats.