The Orioles continued to fail in every facet of the game and have lost their AL East lead. The All-Star break couldn’t be coming at a better time.
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
OK, I don’t know who fired up their time machine and transported the Orioles back to 2019, but whoever you are…cut it out, please.
The Orioles right now are playing the most incompetent brand of baseball we’ve seen in these parts since their days of actively tanking. But those clubs were devoid of talent and weren’t particularly trying to win. What’s this team’s excuse?
The O’s suffered their fifth straight loss yesterday, 6-1, in yet another game in which they stunk on both sides of the ball. Their pitching got bombed early, with Grayson Rodriguez coughing up four runs in a 33-pitch first inning. And their complete vanishing act on offense continued unabated, with the Birds scoring just one run, only their fourth in the last five games (their worst five-game stretch of offense since 2002, per Andy Kostka). They were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and are an unfathomable 1-for-31 in such situations during the skid. Andrea SK recapped the latest debacle.
The Orioles have now frittered away the three-game AL East lead they held when the homestand began, with the Yankees pulling into a virtual tie with yesterday’s win. Today the Orioles are in danger of being swept for the second straight series and completing an 0-6 homestand to end the first half. Dean Kremer, who started this whole mess with his disastrous outing against the Cubs on Tuesday, will be the Orioles’ last hope to play stopper. I’ll be at the game, watching through my fingers. Wish us all luck.
The good news is that the misery will end soon, at least temporarily. The O’s — other than their five All-Stars — will have four days off to regroup and think about how to get out of this mess. Or four days off to forget about baseball entirely, which honestly might be the better strategy. It’s getting ugly out there, folks.
Links
Orioles can’t snap out of offensive funk and lose fifth in row 6-1 (updated) – School of Roch
For anyone who thought Friday’s benches-clearing incident and Brandon Hyde’s ejection would light a fire under the Orioles, yeah, uh, not so much.
Heston Kjerstad goes on concussion injured list – MLB.com
Just what a slumping offense needed: for its hottest hitter to go on the injured list. Best wishes to Heston in his recovery, and hopefully he’ll be back early in the second half.
Orioles ownership group prepared to expand payroll, GM Mike Elias says – The Baltimore Banner
I feel confident that the Orioles will make more of a splash at this year’s deadline than they did at last year’s, and their new owner has a lot to do with that. No more Jack Flahertys this year, please.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Statistically, you probably played for the Orioles, because a whopping nine people born on July 14 have done so. Among them are Joey Ortiz (26), who got a cup of coffee with the Birds last year before getting traded to the Brewers in the Corbin Burnes trade, where he’s had a breakout season and would get NL Rookie of the Year consideration if Paul Skenes didn’t exist. Also born on this day was the Orioles’ most recent Cy Young winner, Steve Stone (77), who won the award in 1980.
The other ex-Orioles with July 14 birthdays are right-hander Isaac Mattson (29); infielders Andrew Velazquez (30), Bernie Castro (45), Victor Rodríguez (63), and Billy Smith (71); outfielder Derrick May (56); and the late catcher Earl Williams (b. 1948, d. 2013).
On this date in 2012, backup catcher Taylor Teagarden, in his first game as an Oriole, was a walkoff hero for the Birds, crushing an opposite-field two-run homer to right field to beat the Tigers in 13 innings, 8-6. It capped a wild game in which the Orioles blew a 4-1 lead in the ninth, fell behind in the top of the 11th, tied it in the bottom half, fell behind again in the top of the 13th, then tied it again on J.J. Hardy’s solo homer before Teagarden’s heroics. It was the 10th of the Orioles’ 16 consecutive extra-inning wins that year.
Random Orioles game of the day
This date in history often falls during the All-Star break, so it took me six tries with the random number generator to find a year where the Orioles actually played on July 14. Finally we landed on 1963, when the O’s split a doubleheader in Chicago. In game one, every position player in the Birds’ lineup had at least one hit and starter Mike McCormick pitched seven strong innings for a 6-3 victory. Eleven of the Orioles’ 12 hits were singles.
In the nightcap, the Birds suffered a tough walkoff defeat. Trailing 1-0 entering the top of the ninth, they plated two runs on Dick Brown’s single off of Hall of Fame knuckleballer (and former Oriole) Hoyt Wilhelm to take their first lead. But the White Sox rallied against Steve Barber in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with nobody out. Reliever Stu Miller very nearly escaped the jam, retiring the next two hitters, but Hall of Famer Nellie Fox’s two-run single won it for the White Sox.