It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it still did.
The Orioles fooled us – and probably themselves – with their uplifting final week of the regular season, but the offensive struggles that made their second straight postseason sweep so hard to watch have been simmering for the past 2 ½ months.
It doesn’t seem that long ago when the O’s were a home run machine and one of the highest scoring teams in the major leagues. They were so productive in the first half that they still finished the season with upper-level rankings in those departments, but they haven’t been right since the All-Star break.
Still, it was never like this. They scored one run in two games. They were 3-for-25 (.125) with runners on base and 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. I won’t even bother to post the batting average attached to that, but it starts with a zero.
Even in retrospect it boggles the mound to consider that the Kansas City Royals scored just three runs in the two games and experienced many of the same offensive issues, but superstar Bobby Witt Jr. seemed to come up at just the right time in both games and drove in the key run in each.
Only a couple of Orioles hitters did anything at the plate and big stars Gunnar Henderson, Anthony Santander and Adley Rutschman were nearly invisible.
Tip those useless rally caps to Cedric Mullins and Ramón Urías, who accounted for five of the 11 hits the Orioles’ lineup produced in the two games. Both seemed locked in at the plate. Everybody else seemed locked in a closet.
There were only a couple of promising innings and they went the way of so many others like them during the second half of the season.
Nowhere.
The fifth inning on Wednesday featured an uplifting leadoff home run by Mullins that tied the game and quickly expanded into a bases-loaded, no-out situation with Santander at the plate. If you watched the game, nobody has to tell you how quickly that rally fizzled.
After Santander chased an eye-high fastball on the first pitch and popped out on another one, he was pretty much done and so were the O’s. He had an unbelievable season and the team somehow won 91 games after losing the equivalent of an entire starting rotation to season-ending injuries, but this will certainly dominate the offseason narrative.
No doubt, there will be some social media grousing about 2023 American League Manager of Year Brandon Hyde, but he probably deserves a few votes for that award this year just for keeping this battered group focused long enough to get into the postseason.
Nevertheless, the sweep extended their postseason losing streak to 10 games and that will haunt them until they get back to try again, but the future is promised to no one and executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias will have to work more of his front office magic to put the Orioles in position to maintain their place among the winningest teams in either league.
Corbin Burnes is headed to free agency after another spectacular season and strutted his Cy Young-caliber stuff in front of a national television audience in Tuesday’s playoff opener. He’ll likely command much more on the open market than the middle-market Orioles are willing to spend.
Unless the new ownership group is willing to give Burnes a blank check, the Orioles will go into the winter with a starting rotation of Zach Eflin, Dean Kremer, Grayson Rodriguez, Albert Suárez, Trevor Rogers and Cade Povich. Upgrading it will likely require the expenditure of more of the team’s minor league capital and one or two Suárez-type discoveries.
Santander also picked the right time to maximize his value and likely will price himself out of an Orioles roster that has promising Heston Kjerstad ready to play regularly.
The sad truth is that this may have been the best shot at a deep postseason run until 2026, when the Orioles hope to have back some of their high-value repaired elbows.
The good news is that they still have a stable of terrific young players who hopefully will be better for this discouraging experience. Fans can look forward to the continuing development of Rookie of the Year favorite Colton Cowser, Kjerstad and, of course, boy wonder Jackson Holliday, as well as the healthy return of dominating closer Félix Bautista.
The future is still bright, but this is going to sting for awhile.