VS

21st Overall (5th NL East) 20-23 Record 19-23 23rd Overall (5th AL East)

25th Overall 157 Runs 166 22nd Overall

30th Overall .246 Batting Average .223 17th Overall

28th Overall .690 On Base + Slugging Percentage .637 19th Overall

23rd Overall 32 Home Runs 40 13th Overall

28th Overall 481 Total Bases 547 21st Overall

7th Overall 37 Stolen Bases 19 26th Overall

12th Overall 3.59 ERA 4.43 26th Overall

12th Overall 26 Quality Starts 24 15th Overall

9th Overall 135 Walks 143 13th Overall

24th Overall 280 Strikeouts 281 23rd Overall

7th Overall 13 Saves 7 29th Overall

24th Overall .257 Batting Average Against .259 26th Overall

		GS	CG	SHO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	BAA	ERA
Friday
Marquis, Jason (5-1)		8	1	1	51.1	58	24	21	3	10	31	1.28	.283	3.54
Arrieta, Jake (5-1)		9	0	0	51.1	42	23	23	7	21	46	1.23	.221	4.03
Saturday
Lannan, John (2-4)		9	0	0	47.2	55	25	24	4	22	26	1.62	.299	4.53
Guthrie, Jeremy (1-6)		8	1	0	53.0	53	23	23	9	9	32	1.17	.262	3.91
Sunday
Zimmermann, Jordan (2-4)		8	0	0	48.0	48	26	22	2	11	35	1.23	.259	4.13
Tillman, Chris (2-3)		8	0	0	38.2	45	23	23	2	15	26	1.55	.287	5.35

Lineups

Suny:
The Orioles have a very potent lineup, boasting the likes of Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Vladimir Guerrero, Derrek Lee, and of course, Mark Reynolds. This team has power almost entirely through it's order when you factor in Luke Scott and J.J. Hardy. After starting April off slow, the Orioles' bats are showing some signs of life in May. Adam Jones is hitting .388 this month and Vladdy isn't far behind at .361. Derrek Lee and Mark Reynolds have found their power swing as they each have 3 homers this month. Strictly based on career numbers, their lineup is still under-performing. Could this be the weekend their bats finally come to life? Brian Roberts and Derrek Lee will not play this series. J.J. Hardy came back from injury earlier this week, but now they've lost Roberts. His career performance against the Nationals wasn't that good, but his presence at the top of the lineup will be missed. The Orioles are going to have the looks below for fielding, not sure for hitting because they've mixed it up quite a bit in the past few days with the injuries.


Career Numbers against the Nationals
C - Matt Wieters               (7 G,   2 Runs,  .273 BA,   .680 OPS,  0 HR,   3 RBIs,   6 TBs)
1B - Luke Scott                (21 G, 13 Runs,  .257 BA,    .807 OPS, 4 HR,   5 RBIs, 35 TBs)
2B - Robert Andino         (15 G,   5 Runs,   .273 BA,    .606 OPS, 1 HR,   4 RBIs, 14 TBs)
3B - Mark Reynolds        (21 G,   16 Runs, .294 BA,  1.025 OPS, 7 HR, 16 RBIs, 42 TBs)
SS - J.J. Hardy                 (22 G,     9 Runs, .215 BA,    .614 OPS, 3 HR,   7 RBIs, 30 TBs)
LF - Felix Pie                   (10 G,     1 Run,  .125 BA,    .347 OPS, 0 HR,   0 RBIs,   1 TB)
CF - Adam Jones             (18 G,   16 Runs, .400 BA,  1.097 OPS, 4 HR, 14 RBIs, 44 TBs)
RF - Nick Markakis         (29 G,   10 Runs, .289 BA,    .723 OPS, 1 HR, 13 RBIs, 78 TBs)
DH - Vladimir Guerrero  (5 G,     3 Runs, .412 BA,  1.121 OPS, 1 HR,   7 RBIs, 11 TBs)


The two guys that lack pop are obviously Pie and Andino, but they're speed guys. Hopefully they can do some damage on the baespaths against the Nats.

Chris:
The Nationals have been hitting pretty poorly all season, but somehow they've been able to scrap up enough hits to float around the .500 marker. Part of the reason for this is they've been focusing a lot more on playing small ball: infield hits, bunting for hits, stolen bases, and being aggressive on fly balls. The Nationals are on pace to increase their number of stolen bases by 25% from last year (110 last year, already close to 40 this season). Despite their numbers, Werth, Desmond, Espinosa and even Morse are all destined to break out of their poor hitting streaks. Adam LaRoche is a guarantee also. Laynce Nix has been the only National hitting pretty consistently, and Roger Bernadina has been a great addition since being called up to play for the injured Rick Ankiel. I don't expect a hit parade out of either of these teams this weekend, but with Baltimore's mediocre pitching, I think the Nats can get a good morale boost from this series.

I also wanted to post this picture of a former Oriole who now plays for the Nats. Any guesses?



Lineups haven't been set yet, but this is about what I expect:

Career Batting Numbers Against the Orioles
CF - Roger Bernadina     (7 G, 3 Runs, .261 BA, 0.857 OPS, 1 HR, 7 RBIs, 13 TBs)
SS - Ian Desmond           (5 G, 3 Runs, .071 BA, 0.259 OPS, 0 HR, 0 RBIs, 1 TBs)
RF - Jayson Werth           (7 G, 3 Runs, .143 BA, 0.515 OPS, 1 HR, 5 RBIs, 7 TBs)
DH - Laynce Nix              (8 G, 2 Runs, .167 BA, 0.481 OPS, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 6 TBs)
1B - Adam LaRoche        (10 G, 9 Runs, .412 BA, 1.180 OPS, 3 HR, 7 RBIs, 24 TBs)
2B - Danny Espinosa       (Has never faced Baltimore)
C - Wilson Ramos           (3 G, 0 Runs, .091 BA, 0.258 OPS, 0 HR, 0 RBIs, 1 TB)
3B - Alex Cora                 (47 G, 12 Runs, .330 BA, 0.773 OPS, 1 HR, 11 RBIs, 42 TBs)
LF - Michael Morse         (12 G, 0 Runs, .259 BA, 0.644 OPS, 0 HR, 3 RBIs, 8 TBs)



Starting Pitching

Suny:
The Orioles have three good pitchers coming out for the series. Arrieta has been having a great season for the Orioles. Guthrie has been of a victim of poor run support and Tillman has been inconsistent, but when he's on, he's very good.
Jake Arrieta is going up against Jason Marquis in what should be a phenomenal duel. Arrieta has 7 quality starts in 9 games started. The only time he lost was when he got shelled by Texas in his second game of the season. In May, he's pitched 3 games, won 2 of them with a 2.37 ERA, averaging 7 K's per outing and at batting average against of .167. Phenomenal numbers folks.
Jeremy Guthrie has been the victim of poor run support, the Orioles have scored more than 3 runs only twice, and both time the Orioles won, although Guthrie only received the win in one of those starts. He's had a couple rough outings, but the Orioles refuse to score when he pitches, and as a result, he has a poor record. Don't underestimate him though, he's very effective if the Orioles can put up some runs.
Chris Tillman started the season with 6 no-hit innings against Tampa. It's been up and down since, he's had good outings, and bad ones... except when he has bad ones, they're really bad...He has also failed to get past the sixth inning, having pitched into the seventh only once. His last start, he gave up no runs in five innings, but the Orioles bullpen failed to hold the lead, although, there were a lot more issues that game than simply the bullpen. Tillman has a chance to win when he goes out on Sunday.

Chris:
The Nationals are the only team in the league to have their starting pitcher go at least 5 complete innings in every game this season. That's an amazing feat, but they don't have the wins to show for it due to the lack of run support. This team has done a complete 180 since last year both in their pitching rotation and in the bullpen, but can't find the offense to support them. Maybe when Strasburg and Harper play together we'll have everything we need? Ok, sorry, getting off topic.

Friday night brings Jason Marquis to the mound. With a 5-1 record, he's easily the best National's starter this season. He's also got 3 wins against caliber teams: Florida, Atlanta, and San Francisco, all of which he had great run support and defense behind him. And at $7.5 million this season, I think it's been worth it so far.

Saturday we see John Lannan, who hasn't been too sharp, but really hasn't been that bad either. He has a decent WHIP (1.62) but it could be better, and with better control, he could bring down his number of walks per game (average about 3 now).

Sunday we get to see Jordan Zimmermann, a young, underhyped pitcher who is also dying for some run support in what has been great outings. I'll give a better preview before Sunday's matchup.


Bullpen

Suny:
The Orioles bullpen can be summed up in one word. Horrendous. They're 29th in the league in ERA at 5.05, a WHIP of 1.53, a BAA of .274. They've blown a ton of saves, they suck in close games, and they've been exhausted thanks to Wednesday night's 15 inning game against the Yanks. I'm just going to concede this to the Nats.

Chris:
Let's see, who've we got in our bullpen? Just, Tyler Clippard, Sean Burnett, and Drew Storen. Oh wait, that's amazing. Storen has been on a tear this season, going 9/9 in save opportunities, as well as 3 wins and 2 holds. With a 0.38 ERA and 0.76 WHIP in 23.2 IP, I think he can be considered a dominant closer in the league. Tyler Clippard has 9 holds with a 1.80 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in 25.0 IP, and Sean Burnett has 4 holds, 4 saves, but hasn't been as good as the way he started the season.