Baltimore Orioles SP Chris Tillman’s AL East woes continue
It was another start versus the Toronto Blue Jays and another loss for Baltimore Orioles ace Chris Tillman on Thursday. Tillman’s second consecutive start against the Blue Jays again failed to produce five innings worth of outs while surrendering exactly seven earned runs.
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Tillman has played his entire MLB career with the Orioles. He was part of the package of players the Seattle Mariners used to acquire Erik Bedard back in February of 2008. Fellow teammate, center fielder Adam Jones, also was used to lure Bedard to the Pacific Northwest. But unlike Tillman, he had played in 73 games with the M’s from 2006-07 before the deal was finalized.
Tillman became a reliable starter for the O’s in 2012 when he started 15 games and went 9-3 with a 2.93 ERA. The following season he became a full-time rotation piece and an All-Star. While the 27-year-old has seen his fair share of positive outings while pitching for the Birds, the blue birds to the north have always given him trouble. Roughing up Tillman and the Orioles completed a three-game series sweep by Toronto and dropped Baltimore to last place in the AL East standings.
Tillman’s career ERA of 4.09 would probably be substantially lower if it weren’t for the pesky bats of the AL East. His career splits against the Blue Jays (5.12), Yankees (4.96) and Rays (3.87) are nothing to write home about. It’s difficult to even utter the word ‘ace’ upon exposing his lack of success against these three regular division foes. But Tillman’s career against the Red Sox partially makes up for things, as he’s 8-3 with a 2.63 ERA in 17 starts.
That trend has proven itself true so far again in 2015 as well. One of Tillman’s more competitive starts this year came at Fenway Park on April 18 when he picked up the win by spinning 5.1 innings of one run ball while striking out five. He has four total starts this season, all coming against AL East competition. With those two starts versus the Blue Jays factored in, his season ERA is 7.58. Without them, Tillman would be sitting at a 1.50 mark.
The Baltimore Orioles begin a three-game weekend set against the Red Sox at home this evening. Unfortunately, Chris Tillman will not get the ball against the one AL East club he historically has the most success pitching to. Tillman will, however, get a break from AL East competition altogether in his next projected start. That will come Tuesday, April 28 at home versus the Chicago White Sox.
Tillman threw a gem in his previous start against the White Sox on August 19 of 2014. He went eight strong, allowing one earned run while striking out nine. If he wants to get things back on track in 2015, Tillman is going to need to find the strike zone more often. His BB/9 of 6.2 is exceptionally higher in 2015 than his career standard of 3.2.