The Orioles’ latest slide has plenty of people pointing to injuries, but the bigger problem was already there. This offense has been sinking for a while, and the numbers since June 1 make that hard to ignore.
Entering play Sunday, the Orioles ranked 24th in MLB in runs scored since June 1. They were also 27th in batting average at .228, 25th in slugging percentage at .385 and 24th with a .702 OPS over that stretch.
Even with plenty of walks, the damage never follows. The club has struck out more than 25% of the time since June 1, ranking 27th, and it sits just 22nd in home runs during that span.
That’s a brutal combination for a team built around power. The Orioles are not winning tight, low-scoring games either, because they have allowed the most unearned runs in baseball and keep undermining their pitchers with poor fielding and bad base running. The result is a team that can’t string together wins, with just one stretch of more than three straight victories all season.
It gets worse when you look back to the winter. Mike Elias talked up the depth and quality of the lineup, saying this was a club that could push the Yankees and anyone else in the AL East.
Instead, the offense started slipping in June, well before Blaze Alexander or Samuel Basallo were injured. The fact that a 21-year old catcher and a utility player could matter that much to what was supposed to be a loaded hitting group says plenty about how fragile the whole thing is.
The Orioles have also spent the season leaning on a lineup structure that hasn’t helped. Elias keeps putting Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson in premium spots despite prolonged funks - Rutschman’s has lasted over two years, Henderson’s over a year now. Henderson is still being used leadoff or in the middle of the order even while he’s struggling at shortstop, and there’s been no real sign the club wants to move him or rest him there.
There was also praise from the dugout after the Orioles drew eight walks in one game and still failed to score any of those runners. That kind of empty production has become part of the story.
The same goes for Tyler O’Neill’s contract, which Elias appears determined to squeeze for value, along with the roster spots occupied by Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Jeremiah Jackson. The problem is that all three are right-handed bats who chase power, offer little in the field and don’t bring much upside beyond fringe bench value.
So the Orioles keep running into the same wall. The front office and the dugout remain unchanged, the talking points about introspection never seem to lead anywhere, and the same ideas keep producing the same results. Meanwhile, a team with a strong pitching staff keeps wasting it, staying below .500 and looking more and more stuck.
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 🡒]