What's Up with Pedro Strop?

Pedro Strop came into yesterday's game in the 9th inning and turned what was a 9-4 romp into a relatively tense affair with the tying run in the on deck circle when Buck Showlater called in Jim Johnson to get the final out of the game. For Strop, it was 2/3 of an inning, 2 singles, a walk and a run surrendered.

It was the latest in a string of disturbing outings for Strop over the past two weeks ranging from shaky to disastrous. What's going on?

Here is a breakdown of Strop 2012 ERA's and FIP's by month for 2012.

              ERA     FIP
April        2.08    3.43
May          0.66    3.49
June         0.96    3.31
July         1.64    3.29
August       4.09    2.02
September    8.31    8.04

Strop has been outperforming his FIP and xFIP all season long. August was the first month in 2012 where his peripherals were actually better than his overall results.

He's walked 6 is his last 7 appearances while only walking 2 in his previous 7 games. His strikeout rates remain about the same and his ground ball rate is still in the 65% range. It has just been the extra walks and some of those grounders finding holes.

These last 7 games have been the worst stretch of the season for Strop in terms of wildness and walks and he'll have to figure out how to throw it over the plate on a more consistent basis if he is to remain a key member of the Oriole bullpen. But he has only 16 games left to figure that out.

When's Troy Patton coming back again?