When Atlanta Braves All-Star right-hander Bryce Elder faced the Orioles in early May, there were still questions of how valid Baltimore’s hot start was. But that outing showed Elder that the Orioles were legitimate.
“When you look through the lineup, you don’t see a Mike Trout, you don’t see a really, really big name,” Elder said last month. “But man, I’ve never seen a whole team’s approach stay the same, and they never went away from it. Never.
“They’re just a frustrating lineup to face.”
To Elder’s point, the offense that has Baltimore holding the American League’s best record three-fourths into the season isn’t full of hitters having sensational years. Instead, a collection of solid campaigns has created one of baseball’s deepest lineups.
Entering Baltimore’s day off Thursday, only two teams have fewer regulars with an OPS above .800 than the Orioles, but only one has more with an OPS over .750.
“These are the lineups that are really tough to game plan for because all these hitters have so many ways that they can get on base and so many ways they can beat you,” veteran Orioles starter Kyle Gibson said. “It’s not necessarily going to be one guy that beats you. It’s not like you say, ‘Hey, if I can get through this guy in the order, now I have a chance to get out of the jam.’ No no, you get through this guy, and then now you have another.”
Collectively, the Orioles rank 15th of 30 teams with a .736 OPS. But there isn’t a ton of separation up and down their batting order. Baltimore has 10 hitters with at least 130 plate appearances — the number for rookie infielder Jordan Westburg — and an OPS above .700 but below .800, the only team that could fill a lineup with hitters performing capably but not remarkably.
Add in first baseman Ryan O’Hearn’s team-best .847 mark, and eight Orioles have an OPS of at least .750. Only the Braves, with 10, have more such hitters, just as they are the only team that entered Thursday with a better record than Baltimore. Yet only eight clubs have a lower team leader in OPS, with two of those — the Pittsburgh Pirates and the majors-worst Oakland Athletics — not having any batter above .800.
But that’s not necessarily indicative of how good the Orioles’ lineup is, O’Hearn said. Catcher Adley Rutschman, center fielder Cedric Mullins, right fielder Anthony Santander and infielder Gunnar Henderson have all had an .800 OPS at some point this month. Left fielder Austin Hays started the All-Star Game. In 30 games since missing a month with vertigo, first baseman Ryan Mountcastle has a 1.056 OPS — 10th among qualified hitters in that span — to raise his overall mark to .791. None of those players are older than 28.
“You know what, I do think we have superstars,” O’Hearn, 30, said. “I think Adley Rutschman’s a superstar. I think Cedric’s a superstar. I think Gunnar’s a superstar. I think Hays is a superstar. You go up and down our lineup, there’s guys that have potential to be whatever they want to be in this game, and it’s cool to be able to play with them, a lot of these guys, in the early parts of their career because who knows how unbelievable they’re going to be, how their careers will end up. But I think our lineup’s extremely deep and anybody can get the big hit or be the difference-maker on any night, and that’s special.”
The approach does at times expose Baltimore to high-quality pitching. A talented group of opposing starters in Seattle and San Diego posted a 1.86 ERA against the Orioles in the first six games of this three-city road trip, but they still take a 3-3 record into the final stop in Oakland, doing enough to support a pitching staff that likewise is in the middle of the pack, ranking 14th in ERA.
In Sunday’s series-clinching victory in Seattle, Mullins robbed a game-tying home run in the ninth inning before hitting a game-winning home run in the 10th. He said afterward that if he didn’t come through, he knows one of his other teammates would have, a mindset that permeates the clubhouse much to manager Brandon Hyde’s delight.
“For me, that’s been the biggest thing: Our guys have bought into team baseball,” Hyde said. “Our guys have understood the importance of moving runners, of trying to put the ball play with two strikes, trying to put pressure on defense, come out of the box thinking double on a base hit, all those types of things that we’ve learned for a long time and sometimes you don’t see translate up here. But we do that, and I’m really proud of that.”
Orioles at Athletics
Friday, 9:40 p.m.
TV: MASN2, MLB Network (out of market only)
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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