If healthy, Ravens will take division
It would defy logic if team had same bad luck with injuries as ’21, so North there for taking
The 2021 Ravens staged TV’s best soap opera last year, sacrificing conventions and normalcy for insanity and drama almost every week. Only Hollywood scriptwriters could have dreamed up a regular-season opener and regular-season finale both ending with overtime losses.
Or an offense losing its top three running backs in a 12-day preseason span.
Or quarterback Lamar Jackson going from NFL Most Valuable Player front-runner to blitzed into submission in a matter of weeks.
Or a team with an historic injury toll and end-of-season free fall nearly making the playoffs.
Those Ravens were nothing if not unpredictable. These Ravens, with their injury uncertainty and Jackson’s unresolved contract situation, could be just as hard to pin down. But we’ll try anyway. Here are 10 guesses — some bold, others not so much — at how 2022 will unfold:
Rashod Bateman will eclipse 1,000 receiving yards
This isn’t the sure thing it might look like. In 2019, Jackson’s first season as a full-time starter, then-rookie Marquise “Hollywood” Brown led all Ravens wide receivers with 584 receiving yards. In 2020, Brown had a team-high 769 yards. Last season, with an expanded 17-game schedule, Brown became the first Ravens wide receiver since 2016 to top 1,000 receiving yards — but just barely (1,008).
With Brown shipped off to the Arizona Cardinals this offseason, Bateman’s production should jump dramatically.
Despite rookie-year struggles, including preseason surgery that limited him to 12 games, the 2021 first-round pick had 46 catches for 515 yards. His biggest barriers to production this year might be structural: Jackson’s reliance on tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely, and more run calls from offensive coordinator Greg
same time, I don’t think we put any pressure on each other, so I think that definitely helps us go out there and play our best.”
The quiet series-finale defeat came against right-hander Adrián Martínez, an Oakland rookie who had never worked as far into a game as he did Sunday, when he completed six innings against Baltimore. Martínez faced his toughest test in the first inning when a single from Adley Rutschman and double from Anthony Santander put runners in scoring position with one out. But a ground ball to shortstop Sheldon Neuse led to an out at the plate as Rutschman ran on contact.
Hyde said the decision to run on contact is situation by situation. “At worst,” he said, the Orioles still had runners on first and third with two outs. But Gunnar Henderson — who made two highlight-reel plays at second base to help starting pitcher Spenser Watkins — lined out to end the inning.
After Ramón Urías’ singled to begin the second, Martínez retired the next 10 batters he faced, leaning on a sinker-changeup mix to generate four strikeouts and soft contact. That streak ended with a Jorge Mateo walk with two outs in the sixth inning, and despite Mateo’s American-League-leading 30th stolen base, Martínez closed his outing by getting catcher Robinson Chirinos to pop out. Martínez allowed three hits and walked two in six scoreless innings.
“The offense was starting out really hot,” Mullins said. “We just couldn’t capitalize on it. After that, he looked like he just kind of settled in and was able to keep us at bay.”
Meanwhile, Watkins struggled for his second straight start. On Tuesday in Cleveland, Watkins gave up five runs — his most since returning from the injured list in June — through 4 ⅔ innings. In those 11 appearances, he allowed two runs or fewer in seven of them.
But Watkins gave up four runs in his six innings Sunday. And while that output wasn’t the sort that should bury an offense, it turned
that way. After Martínez allowed a single from Urías in the second, Baltimore managed five more baserunners the rest of the game. Two came in the ninth, with Anthony Santander singling and Urías walking before left-hander A.J. Puk closed the door.
The Orioles wereshut out for the eighth time this year and first since July 24. When Baltimore needed a roar to finish a series sweep and keep pace in the wild-card race, it produced something more akin to a groan.
“One game doesn’t define a team,” Watkins said. “We’ve been proving that this entire year. Everybody wants to sit on us once we lose a game. I don’t think anybody here’s worried. We’re all still good, and yeah, we played a bad game, but it is what it is. Going into Toronto, everybody’s still hungry and we see that wildcard spot.”
Around the horn
Right-hander Tyler Wells threw a bullpen
at Camden Yards on Sunday to prepare for the next step of his rehab process from a strained oblique suffered in July. When he does return, Wells said he’d be open to a relief role if that’s what is required. “The starting rotation has done an absolutely phenomenal job,” Wells said. “Really proud of those guys. If they ultimately decide to put me in the bullpen, then so be it. I’d love to help those guys out too. They’ve been doing a hell of a job this year. Whatever they want me to do to help for a wild card push, then I’m all for it.”
Right-hander Mike Baumann was added to the taxi squad Sunday in preparation for a spot start Monday in a doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays. Baumann, ranked as the 22nd-best prospect for Baltimore according to Baseball America, has allowed just two earned runs in his last 16 innings for Triple-A Norfolk. Hyde said he will check with right-hander Jordan Lyles whether he wants to start the first or second game.