Calling the Pen: Time to accept that the Orioles will be sellers at the trade deadline

My Video Media Server wasn’t working a couple of Tuesdays ago, so I was unable to watch the Orioles-Rangers game on MASN and instead listened to it on WBAL radio. I was depending on the raised voices of Ben Wagner and Geoff Arnold to let me know when I should pay closer attention.

I didn’t hear anything for a long time. Through six innings, the Orioles didn’t have a hit and trailed 4-0 going into the last of the seventh. Then the voices of Wagner and Arnold made me aware that something special was happening.

They captured the sudden excitement at Camden Yards. The Orioles had turned that 4-0 deficit into a 5-4 lead on back-to-back-to-back home runs by Gary Sánchez, Ramón Urías and Ryan O’Hearn.

Desperate for a comeback story, it had me thinking about what is considered the start of Orioles Magic. The triple home run burst came two days after the anniversary — June 22nd, 1979. The Orioles trailed, 5-3, going into the bottom of the ninth against the Detroit Tigers. A home run by Ken Singleton made it 5-4. A single by Eddie Murray set up Doug DeCinces’ walkoff homer and a wild celebration at Memorial Stadium.

“That night, that game, that home run, it triggered something,” DeCinces said. “It was the game that triggered things. The emotion just multiplied from there. It was such an event, and the chemistry was there already. The radio broadcast had a lot to do with it. I heard the tape later. The announcers, Bill O’Donnell and Charley Eckman, were going wild. Their excitement really came through.”

Wagner and Arnold were going wild, too, but while DeCinces’ blast triggered something, the three-homer seventh on June 24th was just another tease in a season marked by disappointment. Relief pitcher Gregory Soto immediately gave up the lead, and the momentum, in the top of the eighth, and Seranthony Dominguez lost the game in the 10th.

There must be something about Tuesdays, because the Orioles did it again this past Tuesday night against the New York Mets. I was away, so I again turned to WBAL radio and listened to Arnold and Brett Hollander call the game. Their enthusiasm matched the fans’ excitement when the Orioles scored four runs in the sixth and held a 6-2 lead heading into the eighth. That’s when Bryan Baker allowed two two-run homers, and the Mets won in 10, 7-6. Déjà vu all over again.

“I mean, it stings, there’s no doubt,” interim manager Tony Mansolino told reporters after the game. “It feels the same way as the one we lost in Tampa, the eight-run thing. It’s the same feeling, it doesn’t feel good. I think you constantly go back to your preparation, your process. Did we do everything right? Did we get the guys in the right spots? I feel like we did. It just wasn’t our night.”

It’s just not the Orioles’ season, no matter how many times we think they might pull it together. They were coming off three straight wins against the Atlanta Braves to drop to nine games under .500. They had me thinking that with a strong closing kick before the All-Star Game, they still might make this season interesting.

The Mets showed how foolish that thought was.

It’s time to deal with the reality that the Orioles will be sellers at the July 31st trade deadline. They need to figure out who they want on the 2026 team and who will bring value so that 2026 won’t be a repeat of 2025 when a team on the rise showed how quickly, and how often, it could fall.