Last season, the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners played some great games, with the O’s winning the season series, four games to two.
This year, the same is expected, as the Birds host the Mariners for the first time this season. After barely extending their sweepless series streak on Wednesday against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Orioles need to do a lot of things better during this weekend series.
One thing that doesn’t need to change, however, is Baltimore’s starting pitching. For the series, it will be John Means (1-0, 3.09 ERA) starting game one, with two pitchers to be determined for games two and three.
Offensively, things do need to change for the O’s. When facing a rotation like the one the Mariners have, that is going to be difficult to accomplish. Seattle will send their best in Bryce Miller (3-3, 2.66 ERA), Luis Castillo (4-5, 3.31 ERA) and George Kirby (4-3, 3.58 ERA).
It’s no secret that the O’s offense has been down in May. In 15 days, they have matched their April total of four games with four hits or less. That leads us right into our BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR.
BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR
For this series, it’s simple. The Orioles will live or die by their production with runners in scoring position.
Matching up against pitchers as good as the ones the Mariners will throw out will be a test. Hits will be at a premium, especially hits with runners in scoring position.
In the two games against the Blue Jays, the Birds were 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position, including the 0-for-10 effort in Wednesday’s win. That simply will not do.
How the O’s offense fares with RISP, especially with the assumption there won’t be too many opportunities against this rotation, will directly lead to success or failure in these three games.
GAME 1 STARTING LINEUP
This series kicks off Friday at 7:05 p.m. EST, with Saturday’s game two set for 4:05 p.m. EST and Sunday’s finale scheduled for 1:35 p.m. EST. You can watch each game on MASN2, or you can tune into your local Orioles Radio Network station.
How do you see this series playing out? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, Twitter (X) and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
Like Justin’s content? Follow him on X – @orioles4life96
The Baltimore Battery 
Leave a comment