Wade Miley is already in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His shoes from the first major league regular season game played in Australia can be found in Cooperstown. He is far from a Hall of Fame pitcher, though. He reminded Baltimore Orioles fans of that fact on Monday afternoon during a matinee game against the Milwaukee Brewers. For those fans, the bridge between the first weekend of July and the Fourth Of July was destroyed by a starting pitcher.
Orioles lose as Miley struggles
For Miley, the struggles began almost immediately as command came and went.
He managed to record an out against his first batter before giving up a single, walk, single, walk, and single against the next five batters, respectively, giving up two runs. A fielder's choice and yet another single put Baltimore in a four-run hole after just one inning.
Things did not go any better in the second inning. After striking out the first batter, successive singles, a wild pitch, and a hit by pitch loaded the bases up. A sacrifice fly and a ground rule double plated three more runs for the Brewers, ending Miley's day before he was even able to escape the second frame. The Orioles only gave up one more run on the afternoon, but could only score one themselves in an eventual 8-1 defeat.
Miley losing grip on starter's role
The loss continues a horrendous stretch for Wade Miley. In his past six starts, he has an 11.69 ERA. This one loss boosted his ERA from 4.54 to 5.20. After the game, Miley admitted that he was having command issues throughout the afternoon. He is now 3-7 this season and in danger of having the worst statistical season of his career.
He is now 61-66 in his career with a 4.26 ERA.
Miley's struggles have been indicative of the Orioles' pitching staff as a whole. They are 23-33 with a 5.65 ERA, one of just three teams that are surrendering more than five runs per game with their starter (only the Cincinnati Reds are worse). As a result, a promising start to the season has sunk to a 40-43 mark, which puts the team three games back in the American League Wild Card race.
There isn't really a solution available for the Orioles this season, though. They could try to add a qualified starter before the trade deadline at the end of the month, but the team may be better off building towards the future instead of trying to fix the present. That means enduring more bad starts from Miley and the rest of the horrendous starting rotation.
