When things have seemed particularly bad with the Birds this week, it has only gotten worse. I could not believe what I saw last night with the Orioles as they lost to the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-0, in a series matchup that is pretty much now a must-win.
They are now out of first place, and the Rays are a game up on them in the divisional hunt. It is now six straight losses and counting for the Orioles.
Wei-Yin Chen suffered on Friday, giving up five runs – all earned – all in the opening inning and took the loss. Overall, he walked four and gave up five hits in a extremely uneven performance.
Aside from Chen’s rough frame, what was even more frustrating watching the Orioles was their lack of an offensive attack. Granted, they were facing Tampa southpaw David Price – who is one of the best pitchers in the business – who threw eight shutout innings and pretty much had his way with the Orioles; however, the approach at the plate by the Birds left nothing to be desired.
Baltimore mustered seven hits on the night, and Adam Jones along with Matt Wieters had two of them.
The Orioles are 29-23 on the season. They have lost nine out of eleven, and at the point, we as fans have to be thinking – is this delightful run over for Baltimore? Now, it is a long season; however, this team is better than they have performed. Let’s hope the last two weeks does not define the Orioles.
Sadly, they picked the wrong time to start tanking. The pitching – mainly, on the starting end – and offense have been awful.
With everyone over .500 in the American League East, the Orioles could find themselves at the bottom of the division by the start of the Phillies series this weekend if things do not turn around.
After the games, Adam Jones said best what the Orioles need to do.
From the Baltimore Sun: “It’s frustrating, but we got a good team here,” center fielder Adam Jones said. “I’m not going to jump on nobody. We win and lose as a group, and right now we are not playing the best baseball, and we need a kick in the pants right now to turn it around, because this division is not going to let up and we have to be the same way.”
They have played phenomenal baseball for the first two months of the season, and now the magic has to be found again.
