Bob Haynie: Schoop's Return Is A Blast For The Orioles
After missing 72 games, 2B Jonathan Schoop returned to the Baltimore Orioles' lineup on Sunday afternoon in Chicago. In his first game since April 17, Schoop made his presence felt in a big way at U.S. Cellular Field.
Schoop homered in his first at-bat since coming off the DL to help propel the Orioles to a 9-1 victory over the White Sox in the series finale. The 408-foot blast off Chicago lefty Carlos Rodon gave the Birds a 2-0 advantage and a much-needed boost to a struggling offense.
Heading into Sunday's game, the Orioles were mired in an 0-for-16 slump with runners in scoring position and had scored just two runs in their previous three games combined. Rather surprising numbers for a team that leads the majors in team batting average with RISP (.306) and had scored 148 runs in June.
Of course, slumps do happen and the Birds were certainly going through one last week.
The previous week started well enough for the Orioles as they shutout the Cleveland Indians twice in sweeping a doubleheader last Sunday at Camden Yards. The Birds even ascended to the top of the AL East standings before losing five of their next six games.
For the most part, the starting pitching for manager Buck Showalter was good enough to succeed. Unfortunately, the bats went to sleep for a few games. Obviously, the opposing pitchers deserve some credit for keeping the Orioles off the scoreboard.
Heading into Monday night's series opener against the Twins at Target Field, the Orioles rank sixth in MLB in runs scored (370) and are fifth in HR's (99). As we have seen, this team is certainly capable of putting up some crooked numbers.
The return of Jonathan Schoop, who has hit four HR's in his 10 games played, makes the Baltimore lineup even more dangerous. It also gets the Orioles closer than they have been all season to being a complete team when it comes to it's core players.
That's good news for Showalter and maybe bad news for the rest of the AL East.
