Orioles Overcome Disastrous Week From Bullpen to Maintain Great Season

The Baltimore Orioles have impressed this season as a whole, but their bullpen might need some work.

Apr 21, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dillon Tate (55) pitching during / William Purnell-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Orioles are sitting just half a game behind in the New York Yankees for the top spot in the AL East as they come off of a 5-1 week.

Normally when a team has a great week, it's usually because their pitching and hitting is working in tandem. That was not the case last week as Baltimore found success despite themselves.

Between April 14 and April 20, the Orioles bullpen had 7.08 ERA across 20.1 innings pitched. That ranked third-worst in the league in that time frame.

The Orioles went 5-1 in a week in which their bullpen did this:

18.2 innings
22 hits
15 runs
9 walks
21 strikeouts

That's a 7.23 ERA and 1.661 WHIP.

— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) April 21, 2024

Almost to the inverse of that, the Baltimore starting pitchers ranked 10th-best in the league during that timeframe with a 3.31 ERA. It wasn't a perfect week from them but certainly good enough to win.

It hasn't all been bad for the bullpen, though, as closer Craig Kimbrel has carried that staff on his back in save situations.

Kimbrel, 35, has five saves so far this season for the Orioles. He has served as a great supplement for the injured Felix Bautista so far this season.

The high-powered offense of Baltimore has clearly carried them to victory as well as most of the bullpen almost undid the good work that the stellar starting rotation did during the week as well.

The Orioles offense was obviously one of the best last week, ranking third in the league with a .782 OPS.

Cedric Mullins, Ryan O'Hearn and Gunnar Henderson each hit three home runs last week as they also lead the team in OPS.

Henderson had an absurd .667 BABIP last week across 28 plate appearances, which was the best mark in the league.

Baltimore is still clearly a playoff contender, but if they can get the rest of the bullpen playing at a high level they might be untouchable as one of the league's best teams.