The Orioles keep finding new ways to make a bad stretch look worse.
A few days ago, they were within a half-game of a playoff spot. Now they’ve taken a hard turn in the other direction after dropping two of the first three to the Rangers, the club they’re chasing. Friday’s 5-1 loss was just the latest reminder that the margin for error has all but vanished, and the final score does a pretty neat job of hiding how much wasted pitching went into it.
Kyle Bradish gave Baltimore exactly the kind of start a team in this spot needs: six innings, just a pair of unearned runs. The problem was the same one that’s been hanging over this club all year. The Orioles kept handing out damage on plays that felt almost designed to go wrong.
Two of those messes centered on Gunnar Henderson. First came a drawn-in infield situation, the sort of contact play where the Orioles have already been burned plenty this season.
On a grounder hit right at Henderson, he couldn’t get the throw home in time to prevent the tying Rangers run from scoring. Later in the inning, Henderson failed to handle another ground ball cleanly and then threw wildly while trying to cut down a runner charging home.
The first play wasn’t scored an error. The second one was.
Neither was good.
That would be one thing if Henderson were carrying the bat the way he did two years ago. He isn’t.
Craig Albernaz has bumped him into the leadoff spot in some recent games, apparently in search of a jolt, but the offense hasn’t responded. Henderson posted a .590 OPS in July and is at .496 in August.
He still hasn’t hit an extra-base hit this month, and he has only two hits total. The only thing keeping that number from looking even uglier is seven walks.
For Baltimore, that’s part of the larger problem: nobody with any power over the situation seems to have a fix. Henderson’s slump has the feel of one of those stretches where the mental side takes over, and the Orioles have not been able to stop the slide. Albernaz likely didn’t picture that kind of mess when he took over, but it’s staring him in the face now.
And while it’s almost laughable to talk about the wild card race at this point, the math is still there. The Orioles are three games back with 45 to play, and a win today would cut that to two.
The next team they have to chase is the Twins. From here, the path probably starts with something like 28-17 at minimum, and that already sounds like a heavy lift.
A six-game winning streak would at least make the picture look less hopeless. To get there, the bats have to wake up.
Cade Povich and Kumar Rocker are scheduled to start the 2:35 game as the Orioles try to avoid getting swept almost completely out of the playoff picture.
In Other News...
Pete Alonso Finally Gave Orioles Fans A Reason To Feel Hope
The Orioles have spent much of this season trying to steady themselves through a rough stretch, and the trade deadline only added to the unease when Adley Rutschman was dealt to Boston. Sitting fourth in the American League East at 56-61, Baltimore has not given its fans many reasons to look past the standings, which is why Pete Alonsos latest outburst carried a little extra weight for a club still searching for something to build on.
Against the Rangers, Alonso gave Baltimore exactly the kind of jolt it has been missing, and he did it with a performance that felt like a small glimpse of what the lineup could become. Even with the seasons frustrations still hanging around, Alonso sounded optimistic about where the Orioles can go from here, a note of confidence that landed at the right time for a fan base that badly needed one. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Waste Another Strong Start As Familiar Problems Return
Kyle Bradish gave the Orioles exactly what they needed for most of the night, working through six innings and holding Texas to two runs, but Baltimore still came away with a 5-1 loss in its third straight game against the Rangers. The offense never found much rhythm beyond Jackson Hollidays solo home run, and when the margin stayed tight, the kind of miscues the Orioles have been trying to put behind them surfaced again.
Defensive errors helped open the door for the Rangers scoring, turning another solid starting effort into an uphill climb Baltimore could not reverse. For a club trying to steady itself, the combination of missed chances, shaky defense and too little support for Bradish is becoming an all-too-familiar script, and it leaves the Orioles with more questions than answers as this series winds down. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Offensive Collapse Is Raising Bigger Questions About This Roster
Since June 1, the Orioles offense has slid into a stretch that is hard to ignore, with the club sitting near the bottom of the league in runs scored, batting average, slugging percentage and on-base plus slugging. Injuries have played a role, but the bigger concern is that the problems have lingered even when the lineup has had enough available pieces to produce more than it has.
What makes the slump sting for Baltimore is that it has started to look less like a temporary dry spell and more like a broader roster issue. The conversation has moved beyond who is hurt and into how the team is building lineups and using its players, which is where the questions get sharper for a club that expected more from its core and its depth. [Read more 🡒]