It’s been a drag watching the Orioles as of late. They lost their sixth in a row on Saturday in Boston, losing to the Red Sox, 4-0.
The Orioles made the struggling John Lackey look amazing and once again struggled offensively – again. They had four hits on the night, went 0-4for-4 with men in scoring position, and only got seven men on base.
Not good.
Alfredo Simon struggled from the onset, but kept his team in the game until the Red Sox busted it open in the fifth inning, scoring three times. He had obviously tired, as Saturday’s start was his first of the year after working in the bullpen.
The bean-ball played a role in last night’s game as Lackey hit two Orioles – Derek Lee and Nick Markakis.
One would think after the tussle last night between the teams, the umpires would be on high alert.
But, oh no. Only after the second hit batter for the Orioles did the umpires issue a warning to both dugouts.
As Buck Showalter said in his post-game chat (and I’m paraphrasing), if Simon hit two guys, he would have been ejected.
So true.
The pent-up anger and energy the Orioles had on Friday in their dust-up with the Red Sox, didn’t exactly translate on Saturday. Then again, with the talent level on the Birds right now, it would have been hard.
They looked listless out on the field. I’m sure they tried their best to do something against the Red Sox; however, the results weren’t there.
The only thing I can say now is that I hope the Orioles next off-season look at getting some veteran depth on their roster. It’s just not there with Luke Scott on the disabled list with his shoulder, and with the pitching staff.
To make matters worse, Zach Britton was demoted to Double-A Bowie. I know he’s struggled as of late, but I didn’t see a demotion coming at all. Let’s hope that Britton will figure out what’s ailing him as he was so dominant out of the gate this season.
Really, I hoped the team would have signed at least one or two more veteran pitchers in the off-season. The Orioles are looking very thin right now on their pitching staff and some experienced arms could have helped to stop some bleeding.
It’s amazing what has happened to this team after their 6-1 start and hovering around the .500 mark into June.
The Orioles just seemed to have just run into a wall and their weaknesses are being exposed more than ever.
