Now with an MLB-leading eight starts this season without surrendering an earned run, Albert Suarez has entrenched himself in the Orioles rotation. Luke Jones and Nestor praise the hearty Venezuelan and the Zach Eflin effect but question the rest of what we’re seeing from Birds’ starters in recent days.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
orioles, pitch, pitching, albert, suarez, week, sunday, talking, good, starters, baseball, innings, offense, month, baltimore, consistent, give, burns, corbin, year
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W n s t Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore positive. We are back on the homestead, back in the home studios, promotion city. But you will hear tons of motion city stuff all over, w n s t at Baltimore positive. All week, we sat with lots and lots of electeds, talk to others, set up other things in the future for our oyster tour next month, as well as the crab cake tour, which has been stalled the last couple of weeks with vacations and football training camps. And we get back after it on Friday, we’re going to be at Faith lease with our friends in the Maryland lottery. We have the Gold Rush sevens doublers to give away, as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care and liberty pure solutions. I’ve got some fresh shirts from Liberty pure solutions and Doug workman and the folks there doing a great job keeping your well water clean and fresh, as well as all of your plumbing needs. At Liberty. Pure solutions. This guy has all of your sports needs taken care of. We talk all the time around here about how I’m banned for being a bad guy. This guy’s been doing double duty all month long. We’re into the month of August, Orioles go on the West Coast next week. We’ll give him a maybe a little bit of a break, but they’ve been home for a while. We’ll be Friday together at fade, Lee’s down at Lexington market. We welcome Luke Jones Baltimore, and Luke back on to the program to yeah, we’ll do football. You will do baseball. Let’s do baseball because, like, that’s sort of pending in the football thing’s not fun, although, you know you had to get up do that on Saturday morning as well. Boy, the baseball team, this is as relevant a season as I will ever remember, for a roller coaster ride, for a team that matters a lot, that’s slipping a little bit, that wins half the time now, lately, but, boy, the deficiencies are glaring, and the bats are an issue when they’re not and the bullpen and Craig Kimbrel, you know, we’re talking about everything but the rotation, where they’ve lost three of their starters. This is a fascinating six week run, because as much as you were telling me, convincing me, guaranteeing me they were making the playoffs, I don’t know. Dude, they’re gonna have to play decent baseball to make the playoffs. Now they can’t be just okay or mediocre, three games under 500 the rest of the way make the playoffs.
Luke Jones 02:08
Well, I mean, you say that, but we keep talking about this, and the Orioles wake up Monday morning tied for the best record in the American League. I mean, it just, it’s what it is at this point, Nestor, I mean, and you’re not wrong in saying that they’ve been a 500 ish kind of team for about close to a third of a season now. I mean, it’s just the heavy lifting that they did through the first two and a half months that have kept them in this position. But you look around at the rest of baseball, and we keep we keep saying this about the Orioles, but you have to look around at what else is going on. And same things are being said in New York, Cleveland, after a couple weeks ago, thinking they were the best team in the AL AL, they’ve been very mediocre. I mean, the Astros are kind of the latest flavor of the month to get hot. But we’ve talked about them in those terms three or four different times where they get really hot and then they come back down to earth. You know, talk about the twins. Talk about the mariners, if we go down the list. I mean, the Red Sox had their really impressive run before the all star break, and they’ve been largely treading water ever since then. So there is no dominant team in the Al and we can keep looking at the Orioles and look, I don’t disagree with the fact that they have issues. I mean, if not for Albert Suarez on Sunday, a frustrating weekend turns into a very lost weekend, especially when you consider how well Eflin pitched on Thursday night to win the opener against the Red Sox. But this is just the American League right now. This is Major League Baseball. Collectively, there is no dominant team, and even those teams that we thought were the dominant teams, including the Orioles, earlier in the year, have been not so dominant for quite a long time now, whether you’re talking about Orioles, Yankees, Phillies, so so we’re going to see how this plays out over the final month and a half. To your point, I still feel outstanding about their playoff chances. You know, despite what you just said, I mean, I You’re still talking about a team that have to, would have to play worse than they’ve played even over the last five or six weeks to really be in jeopardy there. But somebody else
Nestor Aparicio 04:15
has to come and get them as your to your point. I mean, in the NFL, when you’re struggling at Thanksgiving, you always assume somebody’s going to go four and one or five and two to sort of end the year in baseball, you think, Well, somebody’s going to play 10 games over 500 the rest of the way, right? Like, maybe not, maybe not. Maybe they’re all just going to trip over each other. Maybe all of their fourth and fifth starters are no good, although our fifth starter looks like our two starter and our one starter looks like our four starter this weekend. I mean, it’s, it’s really been a dogs and cats operation on a daily basis, that if you get together one day it’s the bats, one day it’s the arms, and then it’s Craig Kimball.
Luke Jones 04:53
Yeah. I mean, it’s collectively been an issue, but it’s still been much more of an issue on the pitching side. I think that’s. Evident, and what a strange series from the standpoint of Nestor, if I told you on Thursday morning that the Orioles would get quality starts from Zach Eflin, which that wouldn’t be surprising, because he’s pitched that well since he’s become an Oriole, kadepovich in a spot start and Albert Suarez, they get quality starts from those three, and they would score 10 runs on the night that Corbin burns, you’d be saying, Wow, that’s a great recipe for a four game sweep over the Red Sox, and yet, they struggled to just get the split on Sunday. So frustrating from that standpoint. Obviously, we’ve talked about the bats by and large. They’re still one of the best offenses in baseball, but it’s been a little more high and low than you’d like in recent weeks, and certainly was frustrating on Saturday night, especially when Kate Povich comes up from the minor leagues just to give Suarez and the rest of the rotation an extra day, and he pitches his butt off and they scored one run. So frustrating when that happens. But in the big picture sense, I’ll continue to say this, and even though I have some doubts from time to time about it, I can’t exhaust that much energy worrying about their offense, because I’m not sure. Like, what are you expecting to happen that’s going to change? Other than Jordan westburg coming back and, you know, we could talk about mayo, we could talk about kerstab, whatever point is, the offense is largely intact. Westburg aside the pitching, that’s where you look at it and say, Okay, what’s it going to look like the rest of the year? Scramble, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, right? Yeah. I mean, even Corbin burns in the month of August, suddenly not pitching. Well, now I’m not going to sit here and panic about Corbin burns, because, again, if you’re going to panic about that, then you’re going to give yourself an ulcer the rest of the way. I mean, it’s just, it is what it is. It’s a it’s a dry spell, a tough stretch for him. You know, the velocity was okay on Friday night. I didn’t see anything that was alarming in terms of wondering if there’s a physical concern, but he gives up a career high eight runs in a game where the Orioles scored a lot of runs, so that was frustrating, but Evelyn’s pitch so well. Albert Suarez, who I wrote about at Baltimore positive.com on Sunday night. I mean, this is the guy that we’ve tried to diminish, replace, underestimate, throughout like every other Venezuelan
Nestor Aparicio 07:24
in Baltimore, by the way. Let me point that out.
Luke Jones 07:28
But I mean, he’s just been such a good story. And you know, from the moment that he replaced and injured Tyler wells back in mid April, he’s done a, more often than not, a really commendable job, and he’s done that this latest three weeks where Grayson Rodriguez goes on the IL, you know, flat strain minutes before that, start in Toronto, and you’re at the time, you’re kind of wondering, you know, is this the injury that breaks the camel’s back? Is this where it really goes to, you know, where, as far as the rotation goes. And, I mean, it’s not as though Suarez is the Orioles have won all those starts, but 17 and two thirds scoreless innings. He’s pitched at such a high level, relative to what you know, forget about, relative to where he was. I mean, he’s his era is not far off from Corbin burns at this point. I mean, that’s how good he’s been, so Kyle Gibson,
Nestor Aparicio 08:23
better than than those names that we throw out every offset and
Luke Jones 08:27
forget about that. Just look at the present, the here and now. We spent a lot of time a couple weeks ago talking about who would be the fourth starter in a longer playoff series. Would it be Dean Kramer or Trevor Rogers? At this point, it’s Albert Suarez and Albert Suarez until Grayson Rodriguez comes back. He’s your number three starter, and there’s no disputing it that, because he’s been that good. I mean, the question about whether he’s going to hold up and fatigue and all that, and that’s fair. I mean, that’s the same discussion you have about anyone at this point in time. It’s, it’s 2024 in major league baseball pitchers are fragile. News flash, if you haven’t paid attention, especially to the Orioles this year, but he’s just done a terrific job for them, and he got better as his start went on, went on on on Sunday, and ends up striking out three. And the last pitch of the day that he threw was his hardest pitch of the day to record the strikeout and strand two runners in the sixth inning. So what a story. I mean. And look, we’ve talked about it, you know, all kidding aside, we’ve talked about Albert Suarez being a good story, but it’s always been through the lens of waiting for someone else to come replace him, or to upgrade from him. And we need to stop doing that, because he’s just been that good. And of course, they need grace and Rodriguez to come back and be right. There’s no question about that, and you want the upside. But as things stand now, and just like with anyone else, he’s got to continue doing it. He’s got to stay healthy. He’s got to stay fresh. They gave him the extra day over the weekend. With that in mind, he threw 99 pitches on Sunday. Which was a season high, but if he continues to do anything close to what he’s done, especially these last few weeks, he’s going to be pitching meaningful innings, not just in September, but into October. So, I mean, just a terrific story, and it’s crazy to think, where would they be without Albert Suarez, I’ll say this much. He’s not the MVP of the team or anything like that, but they certainly wouldn’t be tied for first place without him. That much is the obvious with how huge he’s been at a few different points this season. And yeah, he’s had a couple rough stretches, specifically in the month of July, but he’s rebounded, and he’s done it at a time where the Orioles absolutely had a need when, you know, I’ve just mentioned the rotation, let alone talking about Craig Kimbrel, and really the the mess that is the entire bullpen saved for Sir Anthony Dominguez, at the moment, Albert Suarez has just been so huge for them, and he was once again on Sunday, and like I said, turned what was still A frustrating weekend, but that could have been a completely lost weekend had they gone out there and lost on Sunday.
Nestor Aparicio 11:05
That’s amazing, because 33 years, I’ve been doing sports radio here, and we have off seasons every year, right and then those off seasons, and we’re in one right now with the Ravens still an off season. Still have they’re not playing. You say, Who are they going to add? And the Ravens this week. This is a week they could add another clowny, another van Noy, another piece to the offensive line, a savior that comes in last minute that you don’t think about or even trade for roquan Smith on the trading deadline, which is what they’ve done right like a sort of a generational player that they pick up in the middle of the season, and you don’t think about it, certainly not football, where there weren’t a lot of trades, but the baseball side of this of we spend the off season saying, where’s Kyle Gibson? Where’s the pitching? Who are they going to sign? And then you wake up in August, they’re in first place, and it’s some KBO 30 something reject, Venezuelan guy who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues in years. And there’s always on good teams. There’s always a story like that. There’s always some guy that didn’t come up to the system, wasn’t a part of some rosy trade, wasn’t some guy that’s been in your system that blossoms the way maybe some of those Royals guys did at the end, where they stunk for a while and then they got good. We didn’t talk anything about Suarez being a savior or how many innings he was going to suck up. We just knew back in February they were going to need something beyond what they had, sure.
Luke Jones 12:26
And it’s, it’s funny to think about it, because he had the start in the spring against the Phillies where, going up against some of the Philly starters, he, I think he pitched three innings. He struck out seven. So, so it was one of those performances where you say, hey, that’s that’s interesting. So you go through the live arm, is what we say. Sure you go through the spring and you and I even saw out. You may not remember it, because I don’t remember anything about it that it was that particularly memorable. He didn’t pitch all that well on that night, but he started that game at Fenway south that you and I were there at the end of spring training, and Brandon Hyde and Mike Elias said at the time. And you hear these things about different guys, and sometimes it’s lip service, and sometimes it’s sincere, but they made comment of they’re going to need him at some point in time. And I believe that, I believed at that point in time he would start at some point in time, because you need more than five starters, you need more than six or seven starters, you need typically 10 or 11. I mean, even the best teams are going to have some injuries and some things that happen, let alone what happened to the Orioles this year with the number of starters, they’ve lost.
Nestor Aparicio 13:28
Jim Palmer used the stat that the league average was 12,
Luke Jones 13:31
yeah, yeah. That’s, yeah, that’s, that’s very typical. I mean, even, even in the years where your five, your basic five makes it through the year intact with, you know, maybe a tweaked hamstring, il stint here or there. You know, one guy has a sore elbow for a few weeks, but nothing more than that. You’re still going to need some spot starters, right? So
Nestor Aparicio 13:53
the days of five starters, and everybody making 30 ones, three of the guys making 31 star that that’s all over with, that’s, yeah,
Luke Jones 14:00
I mean, it’s, look, there’s still guys who make 30 starts. But I mean, even if they do, they’re going five or six innings per start, not seven
Nestor Aparicio 14:10
or 830 starts, 129 innings on the year. I mean,
Luke Jones 14:14
you’re, you know, and we’ve seen it. I mean, you’re, you’re talking now, where if someone goes 200 to 210 or 15 innings. I mean, that’s, that’s a horse, that’s your workhorse now. I mean, it’s just, it’s where it is. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not saying it’s good for me.
Nestor Aparicio 14:28
It makes relief pitching on a on a to your kind of math, so much more important, because there’s going to be so much more of it. You
Luke Jones 14:37
you need as much pitching as possible. So that’s where, when you hear Mike Elias in the last week of March talking about your starting pitching depth, and at the time, it was all about what, when’s John means coming back, when’s Kyle Bradish coming back. And they did make it back. Problem is they didn’t stay for long because they didn’t stay healthy. But even at that point in time, Mike Elias said that Albert. Torres was someone that they were excited about, because they felt that, hey, you know, this guy was pitching in the KBO last year, and we had him in Florida in September, and they made some adjustments. And, you know, he pitched him winter ball and made some tweaks, and came to spring training and was had made himself into an option for them. And they needed him. They needed him quickly, right? I mean, Tyler wells went on the IL in mid April, and they’ve been kind of, sort of waiting or trying to replace him at every junction since then. But he’s, you know, he, he’s, he’s been terrific. And he’s asked them, or they’ve, they’ve asked him to do whatever, and he does it right? I mean, whether it’s pitching in the pen, whether it’s a spot start, whether it’s going deep in the games, whether it’s shortening them up a little bit, whether it’s moving them back, whether it’s an emergency spot start, I mean, it’s we’re smoking guys on the 99th pitch. Yeah, he’s done it all, and he’s done it at a high level. And that fastball, I mean, on Sunday, that fastball, I mean, the off speed, all you know that that’s gotten better for him against the lineup that was pretty lefty heavy in Boston on Sunday. And, I mean, he’s just, you know, he’s doing a heck of a job. And at a time where they’ve had such a need, he’s stepped up. I mean, we talk about this all the time, whether it’s someone that you’re, you know, a young guy that you’re waiting to take the next step, or whether it’s a journeyman. And look, a decade ago, it was Miguel Gonzalez, right? You know, a decade plus, it was another guy. It’s kind of a journeyman, and, you know, was off the radar, and it pitched elsewhere and all that. So Albert Suarez doing what he’s done, not knowing what’s going to happen from this point forward. I mean, who knows? You don’t know about anyone. But again, it’s time to stop talking in terms of waiting for this guy to step up or this he’s the guy that stepped up. I mean, he’s done that. And again, hasn’t been perfect, but it’s been way more good than bad over the course of 2024 and the numbers don’t lie. And how about the fact that he leads Major League Baseball with eight scoreless starts of five plus innings. I mean, just think about that for a moment. Eight scoreless starts, and I get it five or more. You know when it’s five and it’s not as impressive or as seven or eight, but five is impressive. Five shutout innings in the big leagues is for someone like him, especially. I mean, think about Corbin burns doesn’t have that. And Corbin Burns has been a Cy Young candidate, so it just speaks to worse than he
Nestor Aparicio 17:31
doesn’t give up home run balls because that’s the easy, that’s the easiest way to put a put a spot up.
Luke Jones 17:35
That’s, yeah, that’s fair. I mean, that’s fair. I mean, you look at his numbers, I mean, he’s, you know, he’s just, he’s done the job, and he’s done it at a high level, and it’s been admirable, and he hasn’t, you know, not that he would complain, given that he hadn’t pitched in the major since 2017 but you know, they’ve kind of seesawed him back and forth between the the rotation and the bullpen and a couple points. And he’s just whatever they’ve needed. He’s been able to offer them more often than not. He had the rough stretch in July, you know, where he had, I think, was a three week, or a three stretch, or a three start stretch, where it was rough, right? He had that start at the trop, where it did not go well, you know, at a start in Houston, that didn’t go well. And yet, you’re kind of thinking, okay, is this kind of the beginning of the end for Albert Suarez in terms of really being relevant and a big part of what they’re doing. And from the moment that he got the ball, when Grayson Rodriguez was scratched minutes before that first pitch, and at Rogers Center, he’s just, he’s done terrific. And you know, really the the only, you know, only knock had been that the offense hadn’t done enough for him, but they did just enough on Sunday, what, three hits, as long as it’s an Adley rutman and gunner Henderson home run, and it’s enough. But, I mean, it’s just, it’s been such a good story. And again, we talked about him in passing back in March, and we saw him even make a spring start. And it’s so funny. At the time, you’re thinking, well, this guy’s your sixth or seventh or eighth or ninth starting pitcher. I mean, how much are you going to need them? Well, turns out they needed him a whole lot, and he’s answered the bell. I mean, just a really big for them. And it’s come at this time where burns isn’t pitching well, and Rodriguez isn’t pitching at all, and we’ve talked about Kramer, we’ve talked about Rogers, so it really has been so huge to have him step up, and it’s one of the three best starting pitchers right now. There’s no question about that. We’ll see what the final six weeks or so bring. But there’s not enough positive that you can say about Albert Suarez, and certainly the Orioles needed him. Orioles needed him on Sunday, once again,
Nestor Aparicio 19:44
Luke and I will be here all week. We’re going to be at Faith leaves on Friday, where my faith Lee shirt will have some gold rush seven doublers to give away the Raven scratch offs now made available after the preseason game against the Falcons this week, I was in Ocean City all last week. You’re going to hear a lot of great conversations this week about sports and about a. State and the state of our state, people in our state, people running our state, and all that good stuff. But in the meantime, the Orioles will be in another state. They’ll be in a New York state of mind, taking on the Mets, coming back against the cheatstros this weekend, the bats and the chilliness of the bats, and who’s in and who’s out, we’ll get to effluent, we’ll get to the bullpen, we’ll get to Kimberlin, all that. But the bats, they can’t score 10 runs every night, eight runs every night. But on the nights they do, they need to win. And the burns thing aside, I’ll call that an outlier right now. I don’t know if you’re worried about him or not, but just the bats in a general sense, this is how they got outed. In October last year. They literally stopped hitting the ball. Yeah, and over three games, and it has been worrisome to me that they don’t hit double, double, double and make long innings. They’re more they are relying on long ball, and they don’t walk a lot, and they’re not a station to station team. They run the base as well. I mean, I think they take third and, you know, first to third, do all that type of stuff pretty well, but just in manufacturing runs, in supporting starters. When you’re in the fifth inning and you look up, they have a zero and so do you and pitch selects just all of it. We focus so much on the on the on the pitching, but the hitting. The last 45 to 60 days has been choppy, if not disappointing. And I know you’ll say they lead the league in this, and you’ll give me all that understand what my eyes have seen here over the last six weeks, as they start to scuffle, they’re not consistent, man at all. Yeah. I
Luke Jones 21:37
mean, who is I mean. And I’m not disagreeing with you when I say that, but I just, I don’t know what to really tell you, that’s the solution for it. I mean, they need to be a little more consistent. I just, I don’t disagree with that, but who’s, who’s this great offense, it’s more consistent. I don’t know, right? I mean, the Yankees have like, three guys, two, two, all world, all universe hitters, and they’ve got a couple other decent hitters, and they have lineup woes. So, I mean, they lost the game on Sunday night because they only scored a couple runs and wasted what was an admirable start from from Strowman going up against Tariq schubel. You know, it’s, it’s Major League Baseball in 2024 and yes, I agree. I’d like to see them be more consistent. And certainly, when you look at some individuals, Adley rutschman, you know, Sunday aside, where he finally hits his first home run since what the the first series after the all star break, that was his first home run in almost a month. And Richmond even missed a couple, you know, missed a Friday’s start because of a sore back and came off the bench on Saturday. So they absolutely need Adley rutschman to be Adley rutschman. You know, we’ve seen gunner Henderson start to hit the long ball again over the last four or five games. So that’s been a positive sign. You know, we’ve talked about Ryan mountcast, so even Ryan O’Hearn, who’s been good from an average standpoint, but hasn’t hit the long ball with the same level they’ve missed. Jordan westburg. That’s obvious. You know, I think Jordan westburg Such a consistent force in their lineup. And look, Ramona Reus has done a nice job stepping up, especially after the initial Kobe Mayo stint in the majors did not go well, and you know, we’ve seen that with some other young guys, so not necessarily blaming him or panicked about him moving forward, but it just is what it is. Sometimes a 22 year old isn’t quite ready to contribute in the majors, and we’ve seen that now three or four times over the last few years with some of the Orioles top prospects. But yeah, they need to be more consistent. I agree. I don’t necessarily know who the other offenses in baseball that you prefer over the Orioles. I mean, even some of those teams that have similar numbers go through their stretches where they’re not as consistent. But I said it last week. I wrote it last week at Baltimore positive.com We’ve talked about it on our airwaves, their offense is going to have to do the heavy lifting. There’s no question about that, and that’s why it was even more frustrating on Saturday, where they get this surprising, really quality outing from Kade Povich, who made a spot start and is back in the minors. And sure we’ll see him again, especially on the heels of pitching as well as he did, but you wasted that, you know, and then on Friday night, they get a big offensive output, and Corbin Burns was awful. So, I mean, it’s just it’s kind of where they’ve been. It’s been a frustrating stretch. I mean, you go back to where they were back in late June after that series in the Bronx, where, you know, you and I are at Costas in watching that blow out. And they’re 49 and 25 and looking like they’ve got a chance to challenge the the 69 and 70 Orioles for most wins in franchise history and and all that. And they’ve played, you know, they’ve gone 24 and 27 since then, they’ve been a 500 kind of baseball team for. A third of a season now. So you know, a big part of being better than that down the stretch will be to be more consistent. And I agree with that, but at the same time, I still have to look with the proper context of looking around baseball and say, Okay, if we’re saying all this about the the Orioles, well then who are the offenses that you like so much better than them. And, you know, I’d venture to say that there are other teams that are consistent and kind of all or nothing and and that, I mean, it’s just, it’s kind of where we are, you know, I think a lot of, a lot of the standard we’re comparing them to is a standard that we just have in our mind of what it looks like in the past, and not really sure who the who the teams are that you’d prefer? I mean, I would you prefer to have, okay, I’ll hear you’d rather have Aaron judge and Juan Soto at the top of your lineup. But would you rather have the rest of the Yankees line up behind them? I don’t, I don’t think so. So, you know, they’ve got to be more consistent. I agree. You know, I’m not trying to be dismissive of it being up and down at the same time. I just, I’m not really sure who those teams are, that you know that we hold them to a standard, that we’d rather them be more like that, so they’ve got to score, they’ve got to hit the ball. That’s obvious. We we’ve only touched on the bullpen. The bullpen will continue to be such an issue. Who do you trust Dominguez? I guess that’s about it right now, even he gave up a solo homer on Sunday as he pitched a four out save. But they’ve got to hit the ball and they’ve got to get Jordan Westberg back next month. It feels like the defense has stabilized a little bit. It feels like the defense the last week and a half, two weeks, has been better than it had been for a while. That’s been good to see, at the very least. But yeah, there are times where the offense is pretty, pretty maddening, because you know what they’re capable of. And then you see them go out there against someone like cutter Crawford, who had been pretty, pretty awful over his last, you know, last recent starts that he’s had, and he shut them down for the most part on Sunday. So I hear you. I believe me, I do. I’m not trying to make excuses for them. I just, I look at it and say, I’ll still take their upside over most offenses in baseball, but you’ve got to do it. And you know, you mentioned last October, keep in mind they didn’t pitch either. I mean, they they didn’t hit in game one, they actually hit the ball pretty well in game two, but they didn’t pitch at all. And then game three against the Rangers, they didn’t do either. So, yeah, you got to be more consistent. You got to do more than they did on Sunday, even, which, you know, four runs on three hits, that’s typically not going to be a successful formula. So I hear you loud and clear, but at the same time, it’s also kind of where we are with Major League Baseball at this point in time. And you know, we can keep bemoaning it, but I still look at it and see the Orioles being one of the top scoring offenses in baseball. So yeah, they’ve got to be more consistent, there’s no question. And they’ve got to be better down the stretch, especially given the state of the rotation and especially the bullpen. Sunday was another example, a four nothing lead. And all you’re thinking, even with a relatively rested bullpen, all you’re thinking is, is it going to hold up? And even those final three innings with their best guys, you know what? What qualifies as their best guys out there pitching on Sunday, it still felt way too dicey, way too hairy, compared to what you would hope it would feel like when you’re leading for nothing.
Nestor Aparicio 28:37
He is Luke Jones. He is Baltimore, Luke the Orioles in New York back home against the cheatstros this weekend, beginning on Thursday, we’ll be at fadelies on Fridays with the gold rush, seven doublers, our friends at Liberty, pure solutions as well as Jiffy. We have a whole bunch of new sponsors for football season. We’re going to welcome Coppin State University into the big way. Doctor Anthony Jenkins. Also, we had a big, big week in Ocean City last week, both of our sitting senators, several congressmen, county executives, lots of leaders, lots of conversations about the future of the state. So I hope you check that out. We got lots of future conversations about the future of the Baltimore Orioles as well as the Baltimore Ravens. We’re going to be doing tons and tons and tons of that stuff around here this week, as well as talking about Craig Kimbrel and the bullpen. At some point, he’s Luke. I’m Nestor. Stick with us. Big week. Here we are wnst. Am 1570 it’s house of Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. I.
