Thoughts on a Suprise Winning Streak

The Orioles surprise early season winning streak came to an end earlier today. No shame in starting the season 6-2. In fact, the fast start generated more positive press for the Birds than this writer was expecting to hear over the course of the entire season. A game like today's 3-1 loss is a nice reality check in a couple of ways. Luke Scott is not, let it be know, the second coming of Ted Williams. Nor is Aubrey Huff. Nothing wrong with that. Lest we get carried away to the point that every time either player comes to bat we drop whatever we're doing, assemble our family around the TV, and bask in their offensive prowess. Remember, they're solid major league players, but not future hall-of-famers. Days like today are a nice, if frustrating, reminder.

A quick note. The 6 game streak and the praise piled on the Orioles during the past week brought back some happy childhood memories of the uber-surprise 1989 season. If the 2008 Orioles are, indeed, better than advertised, there is one key indicator worth paying attention to. The 89 Orioles made only 87 errors over the course of the season. During the first half of the season (by a long shot the better of the two that season) the first-place Orioles committed a mere 38 errors. For the first 1/3 of the season (54 games) the surprise 89 club allowed a paltry 6 unearned runs. Thats 6. only 6 more than 0. George Will put that figure in some perspective, "The team had allowed just 6 unearned runs all season. The Yankees had allowed the Orioles 11 unearned runs in the first 3 innings of a game the week the season reached the one-third mark." If this year's Orioles team is to make some sort of improbable, dare i say magical?, run through the season, or even if the team is to provide excitement and cause for future optimism, a look at the stats for allowing unearned runs might be an interesting place to start.

Today's first inning unearned run was just the 2nd unearned run that the Birds have allowed this season. Both of those unearned runs have come in an Orioles loss. There are more things involved in playing winning baseball than limiting unearned runs, but, with a young team, its worth a look.