Orioles Start to See a Problem

BALTIMORE —  As the Ben McDonald watch continues, let’s get one thing straight: They’re still the Miracul-O’s. Thursday night doesn’t change that.

Thursday night was one game, an 11-1 semi-disaster. But these games happen, even to a team that is leading its division by 6 1/2 games.

So, Thursday night wasn’t the problem. It’s the last series of nights, say 10 of them.

In 10 games, you can spot a trend, and, for the first time this season, the Miracul-O’s trend-O-meter has a downward cast.

Try sprinkling these numbers over your breakfast: In the last 10 games, the starting pitchers have gone 52 innings, allowing 85 hits and 38 earned runs. For those of you who don’t bring calculators to the breakfast table, that’s a 6.58 ERA.

In the last five games, the starters have allowed 48 hits in 23 innings, with an 8.61 ERA. Opposition hitters in that time are batting .436 against these guys.

Is Ben McDonald’s dad a happy camper, or what?

Suddenly, the Miracul-O’s, who were supposed to have nothing but problems this season, actually have one. And it may be a big one.

To make matters worse, Mark Williamson, who has been only great out of the bullpen, was placed on the 15-day disabled list after straining his left hip while, of all things, slipsliding off the bullpen mound. “Texas” Mike Smith is being called up. Apparently, it came down to the Midwestern Mike Smith, who has never pitched in the big leagues, or Dave “I Never Heard of Him Either” Johnson.

Problems?

The winning formula this year is still a fairly fragile thing, which demands a lot of components working simultaneously. For most of the season, Manager Frank Robinson has been able to massage his starting staff with strong work from the bullpen, especially from Williamson and Gregg Olson. With Williamson out and the starters needing more massaging than ever, the winning gets tougher.

Of course, the pitching question is framed a little differently these days. At the beginning of the season, we were asking whether the O’s could escape last place with their starting rotation. Now, we’re asking whether the Miracul-O’s can win a division title with it.

Let’s begin with Dave Schmidt, the unfortunate starter Thursday night, who gave up 12 hits in three-plus innings. Schmidt is, by all accounts, a nice man. He has been, for this season and much of last, a nice pitcher. He is, in fact, arguably the best pitcher in the Orioles’ starting rotation. But that may not be as nice as it sounds.

The problem is, Schmidt is a career middle reliever who has started more games this season than he previously had in his entire career.

In other words, he is in uncharted territory, as are many of the Miracul-O’s.

After a slow start this season, Schmidt had pitched extremely well until Thursday night. But can Schmidt, who has never pitched more than 130 innings in a season, anchor a pitching staff? And if he can’t, who can?

Brian Holton, who pitched very well Tuesday, is also a career middle reliever, with four major-league starts before this season.

Jeff Ballard was a phenomenon for a couple of months and has been battered in his last four starts (12 2-3 innings, 28 hits, 14 earned runs).

Rookie Bob Milacki, whom some expect to be a star, hasn’t been blowing anybody away of late either. In his last four starts, he has allowed 35 hits (and 13 earned runs) in 24 2-3 innings.

The most effective starter has been Jay Tibbs, who is unbeaten. Yeah, call him Mr. Tibbs. A year ago, he was 4-15 with a 5.39 ERA, and, for the two seasons before that, he was in the minor leagues.

Now, he’s 5-0 with a 2.46 ERA, and he personifies the Miracul-O’s turnaround. Is he the anchor? Maybe he is. Maybe Schmidt is. Maybe Ballard is just running through a bad patch.

All the starters have already won more games, as starters, this season than they did, as starters, last season. And there was a stretch of 31 games--and this really is miraculous--where the Miracul-O’s allowed two or fewer runs 22 times. That couldn’t last forever.

In any case, there are not a great many options for the Miracul-O’s, who could call up Pete Harnisch and-or Curt Schilling from Rochester, N.Y. They could go back to Jose Bautista (who did not develop a blister, except to his ERA, in six innings of relief Thursday night).

And, of course, there’s McDonald, the No. 1 draft pick who, if he’s as hard to hit as he is to sign, could be the next Cy Young. His father, Larry, who is handling the negotiations, says he has been promised that young Ben, if signed, would be pitching in the big leagues by September.

Whether he’s pitching for a contender will depend, in large part, on whether the Miracul-O’s starters get them there.