The Orioles have scored four runs in their last three games.
Hello, friends.
The Orioles. (sigh) No matter how much fans try to will them into a lengthy stretch of quality play, it just keeps on not happening. Regular stinkers are something that we’ve been able to count on for nearly the last three full months, with the Orioles playing at a .500 clip dating back to June 10. They dropped another dumb one on Saturday afternoon, with a variety of things going wrong on the way to a 7-1 loss at the hands of the Rays. Check out my recap of the game for more of the not-so-lovely totals.
The offense has disappeared again. Maybe this will be a short-lived blip or maybe it’s about to be another prolonged outage. The Orioles have scored four runs in their last three games. Fortunately, they won one of these games, so it’s not a complete disaster, but they’re not going to be able to manage even a .500 pace for very long if they don’t break back out into scoring 4+ per game.
Worse than just the loss is that the Yankees were victorious on the same day, bringing New York a half-game ahead of the Orioles instead of the other way around. The Yankees have shut out the Cubs on consecutive days. Thanks for nothing Chicago. The O’s will have their share of chances over their final 20 games to regain that ground. It’s probably going to take better than 10-10 to do it. The series from September 24-26 continues to loom large.
Things are more comfortable than that when considering the wild card picture. The Orioles magic number to qualify for any postseason spot at all sits at 11. If they reach 93 victories, no team that currently is on the outside looking in can pass them. It’s a magic number of 15 to finish with at least WC1, meaning that the Orioles would be guaranteed to host the wild card round at a minimum.
Obviously, the best way to make every one of these numbers to go down is to win and maintain a cushion over the teams beneath them. It would be nice if the Orioles could, you know, win more than half their games over a several month period to close things out. They’ll get a chance to push away the bad feelings from yesterday’s loss today – all they have to do is win to make us feel better. If other teams lose to chip two away from these other numbers in one day, so much the better.
It’s a weird 12:05 start time. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Keep in mind that this game will have a TV broadcast only on The Roku Channel, although it will air on Orioles Radio Network affiliates (and audio streams) as usual. The Orioles send out Corbin Burnes for the series finale, with Zack Littell pitching for the Rays. Burnes was outright bad in August, and his sorta-decent first September start was not enough to chase away that memory.
Around the blogO’sphere
What we know about the recovery timeline of every injured Orioles player (The Baltimore Banner)
The sooner that each injured player can get back, the better it seems that the Orioles will be. Getting a handle on when to expect each guy back is going to be key for setting our expectations.
If the Orioles win the AL East, their in-division record will loom large (Steve Melewski)
The Orioles are a whopping 29-16 against their AL East opponents so far this season. That’s really good! The Yankees have a losing record in the intradivision games, currently at 22-23.
Johnson, set to make MLB debut with Phillies, has enjoyed philosophy change since Orioles trade (NBC Sports Philadelphia)
There’ve been a number of these stories where the Orioles are on the right side of them over the last five years. Not every Mike Elias move is a winner and giving up Seth Johnson (plus Moisés Chace) is, early on, not looking too good. Johnson is debuting against the Marlins today, where he might be facing both Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers.
Orioles sign Terrin Vavra to minor-league deal (MLB Trade Rumors)
Sure, why not?
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 2012, CC Sabathia hit Nick Markakis with a pitch as the Orioles beat the Yankees and pulled into a tie in the AL East. Markakis’s thumb was broken and he missed the remainder of the season and postseason. The O’s could have probably used him in the ALDS against those same Yankees.
There are a number of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2014 catcher Nick Hundley, 1985-86 catcher Al Pardo, 1985-88 reliever Don Aase, 1956 one-game pitcher George Werley, and 1958 pitcher Lou Sleater.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Gettysburg hero Joshua Chamberlain (1828), composer Antonin Dvořák (1841), singer-songwriter Patsy Kline (1932), actor Martin Freeman (1971), singer-songwriter Pink (1979), and rapper Wiz Khalifa (1987).
On this day in history…
In 1504, Michelangelo’s sculpture David was unveiled in a public plaza in Florence, where it remained until moved indoors in 1873. A replica stands on the original site since 1910.
In 1855, during the Crimean War, the French attacked the Russians in the Battle of Malakoff, leading to the capture of Sevastopol – a Black Sea port – within a week.
In 1941, during World War II, the Germans laid siege to Leningrad. In two years and four months, they could never capture the city. It’s believed that 1.5 million people died as a result of the siege.
In 1966, Star Trek premiered on American television. The first episode aired, “The Man Trap,” was actually the fifth episode filmed.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on September 8. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!