Tides' Pitching Struggles Continue
The Norfolk Tides snapped their four-game losing streak Wednesday night with a 9-6 win over the Durham Bulls. The Tides have lost their previous four games by a combined score of 28 to 6, losing to Charlotte 2-4 on Saturday, 4-0 on Sunday, and 5-4 on Monday and 15-0 Tuesday night to Gwinnett. The Tides have yet to win a series this season.
Norfolk won Wednesday night’s game, the first of a two-game road series against Durham, even though their pitching staff gave up six runs. The starter, Eddie Gamboa, gave up four runs on five hits in 5.0 innings. Gamboa also struck out seven and walked one. Relief pitcher Nick Additon let in the other two runs on four hits and 3 walks in 1.1 innings pitched.
Wednesday’s game was truly a “team win.” All nine batters contributed to the Tides’ win by either scoring a run or knocking one in. Collectively, the Tides went 10 for 34 with one home run hit by Chris Marrero and hit .462(6 for 14) with runners in scoring position. The Tides also picked up 12 walks on the night.
The main issue in the early part of the season for the Tides has been the pitching. Before the season began, many people had high hopes for the Tides based mainly off their starting pitchers and relievers with major-league experience.
With the late spring training signings of veterans Luis Ayala and Johan Santana, the Tides had five pitchers with major-league experience to begin the season; three of which contributed to the Orioles last season (Gausman, Johnson, and McFarland). Though Ayala and Santana started the season on the DL, their leadership off the field would likely improve the young but already talented staff. So far, this has not come to fruition. Not many people believed that with Gausman’s potential talents and the other pitchers with major-league experience on the staff that thought thru three weeks of the season the Tides’ record would be better than 4-9. The numbers however are taken from such a sample size so early in the season and the pitching overall will most likely get better throughout the remainder of the season.
The Tides have a chance to improve their numbers tonight when T.J McFarland (0-0 1.00 ERA) takes on Merrill Kelly (2-0 0.75 ERA) and the Bulls in the second game of a two-game series in Durham.
