The Orioles could still get a series win if they actually, you know, play good baseball.
What fresh horror awaits in Birdland today? This is a question that must be contemplated in 2025, where it seems every game brings either some horrific outcome on the scoreboard, or an injury to a player who is crucial to the future of this team, either as an actual contributor or as trade fodder next month. Saturday’s game brought both.
This is beyond hoping for postseason purposes at this point. The Orioles could win every series between now and the All-Star Break, with one four-game split in the middle, and they’d only get to four games under .500 by the trade deadline. That’s unless there were sweeps in there. Setting aside whether the team can play that well, I just don’t think that would even convince Mike Elias not to be a seller at the deadline.
And they probably can’t play that well anyway! We’ve all seen it on a daily basis. It’s been plain for months. The firing of Brandon Hyde was not the cure for this ailment. The Orioles just don’t have the “it” this season that lets them overcome challenges. Some of this is talent. Some people cannot stop themselves from speculating that some of it is mental.
“Trying too hard” came up a lot from Hyde and it’s come up from interim manager Tony Mansolino too. Maybe that’s so. But there’s been a lot of stupid stuff too, just like, a whole continuous stream of outfielders who throw to the wrong base or miss the cutoff man, infielders just kind of at times sleepwalking through things happening. It’s all weird and bad and nothing seems to be able to stop it for long, which is quite disheartening. The core of this team is still going to have to do better things next season and this year many of them just aren’t.
Orioles lineup
- Jackson Holliday – 2B
- Ramón Urías – 3B
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Ryan O’Hearn – DH
- Ramón Laureano – RF
- Colton Cowser – LF
- Gary Sánchez – C
- Cedric Mullins – CF
- Coby Mayo – 1B
I’ve seen worse lineups than this win games for the Orioles this year, so who knows? It would be nice if Dean Kremer can put together a good start and help their chances of victory. Kremer is always capable of doing this but quite often, frustratingly, does not demonstrate that capability in a particular game.
Rays lineup
- Josh Lowe – RF
- Brandon Lowe – 2B
- Yandy Díaz – 1B
- Jonathan Aranda – DH
- Jake Mangum – LF
- Curtis Mead – 3B
- Taylor Walls – SS
- Chandler Simpson – CF
- Danny Jansen – C
Rays starting pitcher Taj Bradley has a 4.57 ERA this season.
I would like for the Orioles to stop doing stupid things that allow Chandler Simpson, a speed demon, to reach base, easily steal second base, then arrive at third base when they can’t manage to throw him out at second base. Thank you.