The Orioles’ infield committed multiple errors and the offense again failed to show up as the O’s sleepwalked to another defeat.
It was the top of the seventh inning, when Manny Machado’s three-run homer sailed into the Oriole Park bleachers to give the Padres a 7-0 lead, that Camden Chat’s esteemed Stacey remarked, “I don’t think I’m a baseball fan anymore.”
Who can blame her? If today’s effort — and the Orioles’ performance for the past month — is what passes for “baseball” in Baltimore, then we’re all better off finding another hobby.
A 2024 season that was once shaping up to be a great one is now threatening to become memorable in all the wrong ways, as the Orioles’ extended death spiral continued with their 10th loss in their last 14 games. And this afternoon’s 9-4 defeat to the Padres was the Birds’ absolute low point…so far. Brutally embarrassing defensive miscues. Another atrocious offensive showing. Team-wide body language that seemed to scream, “We don’t know how to make this stop.”
No single play better encapsulated the Orioles’ ineptitude than in the top of the second. With two outs and two runners aboard, Dean Kremer got exactly what he needed to quash the threat, a routine pop-up from Kyle Higashioka behind third base. Except…the O’s defense turned it into anything but routine. Despite shortstop Gunnar Henderson waving his arms and loudly calling for the ball, third baseman Ramón Urías inexplicably wandered into the play, attempting to make the catch himself and instead crashing into Henderson to let the ball drop.
Are you kidding me? Both Padres runners raced around to score, gleeful about their good fortune, while an eruption of boos cascaded from the Camden Yards crowd of 30,008. That’s a rough look, a first-place team getting booed by its home fans, but I suppose it’s a natural reaction to a play that ugly. The error was initially charged to Henderson but later (rightly) changed to Urías. What should’ve been a 0-0 game was now a 2-0 deficit, and it only got worse from there for the Orioles.
Urías’s very bad day continued an inning later. With a runner at first, Xander Bogaerts lashed a sharp grounder to third that went under Ramón’s glove for an RBI double into the corner. Oof. The ball was hit hard, but had Urías gotten his glove down quicker, he could’ve turned it into a double play. As MASN announcer Kevin Brown pointed out, Urías is mainly only in the lineup for his defense, so these are plays that he needs to make. Otherwise there’s little reason for him to be on the team at all instead of, say, Coby Mayo (Brown didn’t say that part, but we’re all thinking it, right?).
Oh wait, there’s more. Just one inning later, more defensive shenanigans cost Kremer another run, as Henderson overthrew first base on a potential 4-6-3 double play to plate a runner from second. That was Henderson’s third consecutive game with an error. This kid is having a rough go of it lately, and as Gunnar goes, so go the Orioles.
Ironically, the only O’s infielder who looked good was the one with the worst defensive reputation, second baseman Connor Norby, who made a diving stop behind second base to rob one hit and later threw out a runner at the plate with the infield drawn in. I’m glad he’s getting playing time and am wondering whether he’ll continue to do so with the Orioles or whether he’ll be traded in the next three days.
Credit is also due to Kremer, who battled through six innings despite getting no help from his fielders. Of the four runs he allowed, only one was earned. Poor Dean deserved a better fate. The game really turned into a rout once Cole Irvin came in, giving up four runs in the seventh that included the aforementioned Machado dinger, and Bryan Baker allowed one in the ninth.
Do I even need to tell you whether the Orioles’ offense put up even the slightest bit of a fight today? No, dear readers, I do not. An already struggling lineup faced a tough cookie in Padres right-hander Michael King, who entered the game with a 2.52 ERA and just four home runs allowed in 14 starts since the beginning of May. And King did exactly what you would expect a quality pitcher to do to a team that has no particular plate approach at the moment.
King, despite taking a 109-mph liner off his body from the leadoff man Henderson, shook off the injury and mowed through six dominant innings, with a third-inning Urías single the only hit he allowed in that span. The Orioles, as has become their habit, simply had no clue what to do with him, with batter after batter chasing pitches out of the strike zone or making weak contact. And yes, they continued to strike out a lot. King fanned nine batters in all.
Only after King left the game did the O’s manage any runs. The tiring right-hander put a pair of runners aboard in the seventh, both of whom scored on Cedric Mullins’s double off reliever Stephen Kolek. Mullins struck again in the ninth inning, bashing a two-run homer off former Oriole Logan Gillaspie. Nice game for Cedric, but unfortunately it was far too late to matter. Gillaspie finished the inning to complete a 9-4 Padres win and another uncompetitive O’s loss.
Good lord, what is going on with this team? Nobody expected the Orioles to go 162-0 or to avoid any losing streaks, but what we’re witnessing right now is the type of nonsense we suffered through during the darkest days of the rebuild. It’s a wonder that the Birds are still in first place after all of this, thanks to the Yankees playing even worse of late. But if the O’s don’t get their act in gear posthaste, it’s hard to imagine them holding onto the division lead much longer.