Rays 11 Orioles 3

Say this about the 2009 Baltimore Orioles, at least early on: When they lose, they lose spectacularly. In two losses this season, the O's have been whipped to the tune of 22-5. At least they aren't losing nailbiters.

Here at the Hangar, we don't do a lot of fancy statistical work. Hell, we just shoot from the lip and give our amateur opinions about things. Some may say, what the Hangar does is why mainstream media guys hate bloggers: just some asshole sitting in his mom's basement spewing garbage about things he doesn't understand.

Well, maybe that's true. But I don't need a press pass or a background in sabermetrics to know that Adam Eaton is not going to cut it as the O's 5th starter. He allows too many baserunners and doesn't have overpowering stuff. Eaton got himself into trouble right off the bat. He managed to get out of danger in the first inning but after loading the bases in the 2nd, the potent Rays lineup struck with a 3-run triple by Carl Crawford. All told, Eaton allowed 10 baserunners (8 hits and 2 walks) in 4 innings of work, leaving the game down 4-0. Again, I'm just some dipstick on a blog but I get the sense that's not good.

If Eaton was bad, Brian Bass was worse. Like, "I Know Who Killed Me" bad. Bass was filleted (how you like that Rick Reilly-style pun, eh?) for seven runs on eight hits, including four home runs. The only good thing you could say about Bass's outing was that he went 3 1/3 innings, saving the rest of the bullpen. But surely there has to be somebody in Norfolk or Bowie better than Bass? The guy has been flat-out lit up in two outings this year.

Oh well, the good thing about baseball is that you have another game tomorrow and after a bad outing, you can just do this...

...but it is troubling that the pitching staff looks as bad as advertised, especially in the 4th and 5th starter spots. Despite Mark Hendrickson's strong outing on Friday, it looks like Guthrie and Koji and pray for rain. Are you sure there's no way we can coax Pedro Martinez to pitch here? After all, I'd rather see Pedro get lit up for 5 runs than a guy like Eaton. Even though his fastball has lost some serious juice, you at least know Pedro is a professional who will be around the plate. Or if we can't do him, how about Chris Tillman or Jake Arrieta?

So the O's will now hit the road and travel to that place where ERAs go to blow up: Texas. I get the feeling we're going to see quite a few crooked numbers up on the scoreboard during this three game set with the Rangers. But for now, we'll close the book on a successful homestand with a bad ending. What do you think about it former Chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck?

"Scheisse"