Adley Rutschman’s oblique injury was the thing that made me think, “Come on, really?”
This is a depressing season to be an Orioles fan. The latest demonstration of this was the oblique injury suffered by Adley Rutschman after Rutschman had finally started having batting performance that matched his expected numbers. People might be less grumpy about him if he continued this over the next month, giving them a chance to notice what was actually happening. Now, he’s on the injured list and won’t be back until at least the All-Star break.
After spending yesterday watching a performance of Les Miserables, a musical which has its share of tragedy and heartbreak, I had to wonder if the 2025 Orioles are in fact more tragic than the tear-jerker of a show. The fact that even a Rutschman backup, Maverick Handley, was injured in a freak way during Sunday’s game only drove this home. We’re not allowed to have nice things, or at least not this year.
Today’s episode begins with me going down a dorky path and riffing on some songs from the musical and how you could tweak the lyrics just a little bit to fit these Orioles. After that, I try to sort out the catching situation, which I’m fairly sure will NOT involve any Samuel Basallo before about September 1. In addition, I check in on the wild card math after a weekend where the O’s got our hopes up by winning the first game even though Max Fried was the starting pitcher, but then they dashed those hopes by losing the next two.
Give it a listen right here:
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Any topic or question you’d like me to tackle in the next episode? Let me know what’s on your mind in the comments below.