Can they keep playing at this pace for another two weeks? That would REALLY make things interesting.
Are the Orioles going to be able to do this thing or not? Watching them over the last three weeks, when they’ve pulled off a 14-6 record over their past 20 games, you could be forgiven for thinking that they might just have the juice to pull it off. The hole is deep, but with so many other American League wild card contenders mired in mediocrity, hope isn’t over yet even with the O’s at ten games below .500.
In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m feeling encouraged about the team’s recent play because the Orioles have been showing some resilience that, for whatever reason, they really didn’t have in April and most of May. This past weekend’s sweep of the Angels was a good example of this, with the Orioles winning the three games in three very different ways, two of which required them to come up big in the kind of moments where they just haven’t been doing it for most of the season.
You could almost be tempted to believe that they might be able to do it. One of the things I go into in this episode of the podcast is that it’s not about what I think, or what you think, or what any Orioles fan thinks. In the end, the opinion of only one guy matters:
They gotta convince Mike Elias! Not to be a broken record, but no one should forget the 2022 season experience, where the Orioles were not too great in April and May, they improved in June, they surged in July, and it didn’t matter that they were surging in July. Elias did not let it ride with those guys. He didn’t see what those guys could do. He didn’t add to the roster. What he did was trade Trey Mancini and Jorge López, and then when people got mad about that, he made the infamous “it’s liftoff from here” comment that has only made people madder ever since, because basically to this day Elias has done nothing to warrant that.
I find it unlikely that Elias will be convinced, given the way that he has behaved with this team over the last three years. But who knows, maybe they really will give him no choice but to be convinced. The next test awaiting them is a series against the Rays, and if the Orioles can somehow pull off winning three of four in their first regular season visit to Tampa’s substitute stadium, that hope will be alive.
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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.