This isn’t the first time Oriole fans have been seduced and abandoned during this disappointing season, but it has to be the most painful.
The O’s have made a frustrating habit of doling out a dose of false hope and following it up with an even bigger dose of distress, but there was something about the three straight wins over the first-place Tampa Bay Rays last weekend that made even an aging cynic like myself think that they had finally figured something out.
No such luck. It took just four days to squander all that hope and do it in such a fashion that you – and I – would be a fool to think this team really could transform itself into a legitimate playoff team over the next five weeks.
Following the seventh-inning bullpen meltdown that prevented a sweep of the four-game Rays series on Monday, the Orioles still looked like they were ready to handle a New York Yankees team that came to town without a huge chunk of its offensive attack.
No Aaron Judge? No Cody Bellinger? No Giancarlo Stanton? Apparently, no problem.
The Yankees took full advantage of the Orioles’ undermanned bullpen to win the first two games and ace right-hander Gerrit Cole held the chronically inconsistent O’s lineup to just a run on four hits over six innings to complete the sweep.
And just like that, the team that climbed to within two games of .500 and took over sole possession of the third American League wild-card slot on Sunday stumbled back to six games under with the revenge-seeking Rays in town this weekend.
Though the Orioles remain within a couple of games of the final playoff berth, the situation is bordering on desperate with so many other teams crowded around them in the wild-card standings.
“I think every game we play is not a desperate situation, but we’ve got to win it,’’ manager Craig Albernaz said. “You want to control your own destiny. You don’t want to be scoreboard watching and hoping for other teams to lose. You want to play your brand of baseball and you want to win and let the chips fall where they fall. We still have the opportunity where we’re playing meaningful games. We still control how the season goes, but every game we play from here on out has been like that, especially coming into this final stretch of the season.”
The three-game series against the Rays could also give Oriole fans another chance to wonder why their team traded versatile middle reliever Tyler Wells to the top team in their own division.
It might not have seemed like that big of a deal at the midseason trade deadline, especially coming after president of baseball ops Mike Elias traded popular catcher Adley Rutschman to the Red Sox and outfielder Taylor Ward to the Mariners, but the past four days has made the loss of Wells more impactful than either of the August 3rd headliners.
We’re talking serious hindsight here, but with Wells still in the bullpen this week, the Orioles would have been in a much better position to protect the late innings in three of the four losses.
It’s certainly possible that the O’s could make another assault on sea level during the coming weeks, but there’s just too much that needs to be fixed for that to make much difference.
While the starting rotation has been solid – Kyle Bradish’s rough outing Thursday notwithstanding – the O’s continue to be plagued by an erratic defense that has earned them the dubious distinction of allowing the most unearned runs in all of Major League Baseball.
Gunnar Henderson helped add two more with his 15th error of the year in a three-run, third-inning rally that was all the offense the Yankees really needed to complete the disastrous sweep.