The Orioles have a chance to win the Dodgers series, if they can play well and win tonight.
It’s been multiple months now that we have been trying to will the Orioles into playing closer to what we believed their potential to be and they just refuse to do it. I feel like a broken record for bringing it up so often but it remains true: The O’s are a .500 team since June 9. They’re four games below .500 since July 7. These are not fun facts, but facts they are all the same.
Last night’s loss to the Dodgers was another one where it just didn’t have to be that way. The Orioles of earlier in the season could count pretty well on ace-like results from Corbin Burnes. The offense was performing more consistently. But Burnes had a dismal August and the offense has had too many somnolent games.
Despite all of this, the Orioles could come out of this ten-game stretch against contending teams with a 5-5 record, if they’re able to beat the Dodgers tonight. It’s a lot to ask. It would have been better if the Orioles had beaten the Mets twice instead of losing by walkoff home run twice. They didn’t, so here they are, looking to beat a better team to try to pull back within a half-game of the Yankees in the AL East.
The Dodgers starting pitcher tonight, Bobby Miller, has been bad this year: A 7.49 ERA in nine starts. This guaranteed them nothing even when they were playing better earlier in the year and certainly it guarantees them nothing now. The Orioles have inexplicably stunk against a variety of guys.
It could happen easily tonight, to the chagrin of anyone back home who chooses to stay up late to watch their favorite baseball team play a game in the Pacific time zone. And also to my chagrin, being as I am contractually obligated to write a recap about it.
Orioles lineup
- Colton Cowser – LF
- Adley Rutschman – C
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Anthony Santander – RF
- Ryan O’Hearn – 1B
- Eloy Jiménez – DH
- Cedric Mullins – CF
- Ramón Urías – 3B
- Jackson Holliday – 2B
The Orioles starting pitcher tonight is Cade Povich. After a recent good start, he told reporters about how that was an appearance from his alterego, “Slim”, who pitches well and doesn’t walk people. It would be nice to see Slim tonight.
Dodgers lineup
- Shohei Ohtani – DH
- Mookie Betts – RF
- Teoscar Hernández – LF
- Tommy Edman – CF
- Miguel Rojas – SS
- Enrique Hernández – 1B
- Chris Taylor – 3B
- Gavin Lux – 2B
- Austin Barnes – C
Barnes is returning from the injured list to start in this game. He had a .602 OPS across 43 games before hitting the IL.