Peter Schmuck: For the Orioles, the future looks oblique

The game hadn’t even begun on Tuesday night when the walls started closing in on the Orioles again.

Sometime during pregame warmups for their game against the Yankees manager Craig Albernaz had to scratch outfielder Dylan Beavers from the starting lineup with what the club described as right oblique discomfort. This just minutes after the announcement that reliever Grant Wolfram was placed on the 15-day injured list with a lower back strain.

So the roster hits just keep on coming for a team that has been inordinately plagued by injuries going on two-plus seasons now. Who knows how long Beavers might be lost, but you can be forgiven if just hearing the word “oblique” in this context sends a chill up your spine.

Albernaz said later that the severity of the injury is not yet known.

“Not sure yet,” he said. “All I know is, he was hitting in the cage to get ready for the game and he felt something in the side and … was out of the lineup.”

It would have been nice to let fans savor Monday night’s heartening comeback victory over their hated and well-heeled rivals at least until gametime, especially after having to endure the indignity of the crushing four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium last weekend.

No such luck, because it’s starting to look like good fortune only smiles on the Orioles long enough to create moments of false hope that this season isn’t coming unraveled right before your eyes.

The Yankees were in the midst of a rare losing streak when Coby Mayo delivered that dramatic homer Monday to help the O’s turn the series opener from a near no-hitter into a 3-2 victory. The hope, of course, was that Opening Day starter Trevor Rogers would come off the injured list and double-down on that uplifting moment at Oriole Park Monday night.

Apparently, all it did was awaken the slumbering giant. Rogers looked like a guy who hadn’t pitched in a couple of weeks and the Yankees looked like they just remembered that they were playing the same team they bludgeoned in the Bronx.

It didn’t take long for them to make that obvious. Future Hall of Famer Paul Goldschmidt drove Rogers’ first pitch of the game over the left-field fence and the Yankees erupted for five runs in the third inning – three of them on a two-out homer by centerfielder Trent Grisham.

The Orioles have faced a parade of top-flight pitchers during the first quarter of this season and Yankees right-hander Will Warren already had held them to just an earned run on three hits over 6 1/3 innings on May 1st at Yankee Stadium. He pretty much duplicated that effort, holding them to just one hit through his first five innings before giving up a couple of runs in the sixth.

There was a moment in the bottom of the third inning when it looked as though the O’s might at least deliver a response to the five-run Yankee rally, loading the bases with no one out because of some sketchy Yankees defense, but the offensive frustration that has defined a large chunk of the early season was quickly back on display when they came away empty-handed.

In the midst of all this disappointment, however, was another encouraging performance by rookie Samuel Basallo, who produced much of his team’s offensive production with a ground-rule double in the second inning and an RBI single in the two-run sixth. He raised his batting average to .277, his slugging percentage to .479 and his OPS to .817, all ranking him second on the team.

And, believe it or not, the Orioles can still win this series later today in a rubber game that has been rescheduled as an afternoon affair (1:05 p.m.) to avoid the promise of foul weather in the evening.