I consider the roider a junk ball pitcher. By that I mean he will get you out with pitches out of the zone, rarely will he challenge. So if you see a lot of weakly hit grounders being pulled or weak fly balls early, it will be a long evening.
Because he likes to live on the outside of the zone, with the occasional inside pitch to keep you honest, the key is to take the ball the other way. Once you establish that you will take what he gives you, he will have to change strategy, and at that point there will be more pitches that can be driven, maybe even out of the park.
Working the pitch count is also important. We're talking about a 40 year old which apparently means nothing in today's game, as it seems everyone has found the fountain of youth so why am I even bothering to mention it... The Orioles must get him out of the game by the 5th inning either due to the count, or with runs which have been hard to come by. Why? Because the Orioles are the worst team in the AL in scoring runs off of left handed pitching.
Other than that, when the opportunities present themselves, the offense has got to capitalize. Moving runners, sacrifices and taking the extra base are all going to matter tonight. Assuming Chen holds up his end of things.
Key players:
Chris Davis. Chris Davis? Yep, not sure why Buck had him hitting so far down last night, but he's got power and is willing to take the Android to left, hopefully deeeeep left. I'd bat him 3rd (crazy I know).
The big names for sure, Wieters and Jones who had been our best right handed bats against LHP put up stinkers yesterday.
Lew Ford, he was involved in our only run scoring rally and got a late double, one can only hope because we really are lacking in RH options.
