The Orioles walked into this weekend with a real chance to make a dent in the race and walked out looking like a team running on fumes.
After a decent road trip, Baltimore returned home for a four-game set against the Red Sox and instead found itself buried by another shutout loss, its second straight, and its fifth defeat in a row overall. The result left the Orioles deeper in the American League East cellar and three games back of the surging Toronto Blue Jays in the odd wild card chase.
It got uglier with a ballpark full of Red Sox fans turning Oriole Park into enemy territory. That had to sting even more with the free Zay Flowers baseball jerseys out there to kick off Ravens season next Sunday.
The timing of football season suddenly feels a lot more appealing.
Baltimore’s offense has been so erratic all year that this weekend’s blanking felt like a new low, and manager Craig Albernaz didn’t try to dress it up.
“We’re just falling on our faces right now,’’ he said. “But we’ve been saying all year and I know it’s tough for the fans to hear, but we’ve been in this spot multiple times this year and our guys continue to find a way to keep on going and that’s all we can do. We’ll show up tomorrow and continue to play and play the game that’s in front of us.”
Before Saturday night’s game, Albernaz was also asked when September would become less about chasing the final playoff spot and more about development. He didn’t take the bait directly, but his answer lined up with the comments president of baseball ops Mike Elias made after the trade deadline: Baltimore can still try to do both.
“That’s a good question,’’ Alvarez said, “My mind is always development-focused, and you can do both and win. As a coaching staff, if there’s a change to be made to get the player better, we should already have done that change.
To me, there is no point in waiting, if the player is not playing at his best and there’s a change that our guys see, we’re going to address it right away. I’m not a fan of waiting until the offseason…We’re always trying to get our players better, because ultimately when our players get better, we’re going to win more games and that’s the goal.”
There’s still time left, and the Orioles will win some games before this thing is over. But after this stretch, it’s hard to look at the standings and see anything other than what they are: 69-74, and probably not good enough to outlast the other clubs fighting for that last postseason berth.
Sad but true.
In Other News...
Orioles Late-Season Injury Picture Just Got More Complicated
The Orioles spent part of their series against the Guardians sorting through a late-season injury picture that keeps shifting around the edges. Keegan Akin and Ryan Mountcastle are both with the club, giving Baltimore at least a couple of familiar faces back in the mix, while the team also laid out where several others stand in their recoveries as the calendar keeps moving toward the finish.
Mountcastle will not play again this season because of an oblique injury, a reminder of how much attrition has worn on the roster, and the rehab updates do not bring a simple wave of reinforcements just yet. Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin are working in Sarasota, Flix Bautista is at Triple-A Norfolk on assignment, and Kyle Bradish is being handled carefully after Tommy John surgery, with his workload watched closely as the Orioles keep managing one of the more complicated health charts on the board. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Face Two Big Questions As Wild Card Push Gets Tighter
The Wild Card race has tightened enough that every little update matters, and Craig Albernaz had a familiar opponent in mind when he talked about the Orioles place in it. The Baltimore manager, who spent time on the Guardians coaching staff, knows how closely these two clubs are watching each other as the standings compress and the margin for error shrinks. For the Orioles, the late-season picture is being shaped not just by the schedule, but by the health of a roster that has had to juggle a few key moving parts.
Ryan Helsley, Tyler ONeill, Flix Bautista, Ryan Mountcastle, Keegan Akin, Luis Robert Jr. and Christian Franklin all figure into that evolving injury picture, and Baltimores recent stretch has made each of those updates feel more important. The club has been trying to keep pace while sorting through those absences and tracking its recent results, but with the Guardians right there in the mix, the bigger questions are starting to come into focus. How quickly those players can return, and how much they can help once they do, may decide just how long the Orioles stay in the hunt. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Fans Just Got Another Brutal Reminder About This Rebuild
A rough week for the Orioles in Boston did not end with much comfort for anyone still tracking where this rebuild stands. The Red Sox completed a four-game sweep, and in the same stretch of bad news for Baltimore, former Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman was already making noise in his new home with Boston by leaving the yard against Angels pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, another familiar name to Baltimore fans.
Rodriguez, once a first-round pick the Orioles hoped would help anchor the next wave, is now with the Angels after being dealt last winter for outfielder Taylor Ward. His Baltimore exit followed a frustrating run of injuries and uneven performance, which only adds to the sting when ex-Orioles keep popping up in meaningful moments elsewhere. Baltimore did at least stop the bleeding with a win the same day, ending a six-game skid, but the bigger picture for fans remains hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]