Tap-In Question: What's your call on this O's start: Bad luck, bad scheduling or simply bad? - BaltimoreBaseball.com
Connolly's Tap Room

Tap-In Question: What’s your call on this O’s start: Bad luck, bad scheduling or simply bad?

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Where else would you rather be right now than a bar?

So, welcome to Connolly’s Tap Room. If the Orioles keep playing like this, I might have to keep this fake joint open 24-7.

The Orioles scored five runs in Detroit on Wednesday – the best offensive output since their most recent win, last Wednesday at Camden Yards – and received a strong pitching performance from Kevin Gausman.

They made two comebacks and actually used a good bunt from Craig Gentry – small ball? — to help set-up a three-run inning in the eighth.

And yet they still lost, 6-5, in the bottom of the ninth on a walkoff homer by Detroit’s Dixon Machado against Rule 5 rookie Pedro Araujo, who threw two pitches and picked up the loss.

The Orioles (5-13) have dropped five straight and seven of eight since winning three of four at Yankee Stadium.

Finally, the Orioles scored more than three runs, getting RBIs from five different players, including a game-tying homer by recently recalled Luis Sardinas in the top of the ninth (pictured above).

The starting rotation kept them in the game – two earned runs in six innings from Gausman – and there were a few solid defensive plays, including an over-the-shoulder catch by second baseman Engelb Vielma.

But the bullpen collapsed – Darren O’Day surrendered a three-run homer on a hanging slider in the eighth before Araujo served up the gamer-winning gopher ball.

Now, I know some of you are going to say blow up this team – and that might happen in 2018, but it won’t in April. Not until other clubs have fully assessed their chances and rosters; that’s why in-season blockbuster deals rarely occur before July. You need to know who you are before you know what you must add.

In the meantime, you, oh bar patron, are stuck watching this roster, and manager Buck Showalter is stuck putting it out on the field every day. The hope is that it can quickly turn things around. Yes, it still is only April.

MASN commentator Rick Dempsey said Wednesday that this club is too talented to be this bad. Maybe he’s right.

Maybe it’s been a combination of bad weather, bad scheduling and bad luck, and this team will go on a run to get back to being at least the average-but-flawed club many of us expected.

Right now, though, these Orioles are terrible, losing any way they can.

I guess I’ll give you a chance to take a silver lining from today’s question. I want to know if this is what you think we’re going to see for the remainder of 2018, or if it is just an awful — and awfully long — blip.

Tap-In Question: What’s your take on the Orioles’ 2018 start – bad luck, bad weather, bad scheduling, or simply a bad team?

RAVENS NEWS from BaltimoreSports.com

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