The usual suspects are doing the usual things: preventing runs despite allowing lots of balls in play.
This past offseason, a lot of discussion took place about Miguel Gonzalez’s tendency to overperform his FIP, meaning, to produce an ERA lower than his FIP. Each year a handful of pitchers’ ERAs differ from their FIPs by some degree. Gonzalez did so to an exceptional degree last year, as did the rest of the Orioles rotation. On the whole, the staff outperformed its FIP by nearly six wins, the 8th-highest mark any team has achieved in the past 20 years.