The losses are mounting and Luke Jones and Nestor discuss another Orioles loss to the Boston Red Sox at Camden Yards as Labor Day weekend heats up and the Birds don’t look up to the challenge of a pennant race.
The discussion examined the Orioles’ loss to Boston and the team’s fading but still mathematically viable wild-card hopes.
Offensive Struggles
- Luke and Nestor emphasized that the Orioles followed two early Adley Rutschman home runs with almost no offense until the ninth inning.
- The lineup’s lack of production, frequent strikeouts, and questionable reliance on platoon splits were identified as recurring problems.
- Carlos Narváez’s continued offensive struggles were cited as a major concern, particularly his at-bat in the seventh inning.
Late-Season Outlook
- The Orioles have lost three straight and must play roughly .667 baseball to reach 83 wins, making the remaining schedule increasingly important.
- Brandon Young nearly completed seven innings, but the bullpen and the loss of Tyler Wells were discussed as broader roster-construction concerns.
- Open question: Can the Orioles sustain the winning pace needed to remain in the wild-card race?
- Open question: Do the lineup and platoon decisions reflect the manager’s choices or the organization’s philosophy?
- Host the Maryland Crab Cake Tour stop at Costas in Dundalk on Friday. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Attend and cover the Boston Red Sox series in Baltimore.
- Host next week’s programming with multiple guest conversations. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Produce the 28 musical experiences anniversary countdown, beginning with Kiss at number 28 and incorporating personal stories, memorabilia, videos, and interview clips. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Give away the Kiss Face Bird during the anniversary weekend programming. (@Nestor Aparicio)
Game Recap
- Adley Rutschman homered twice in his return, but Boston overcame an early Orioles lead.
- The Orioles had no hit between the fourth and ninth innings and ultimately lost 6–3.
Tactical Decisions
- The hosts debated leaving Brandon Young in after 98 pitches and two outs in the seventh inning.
- They criticized allowing Carlos Narváez to bat against a difficult left-handed pitcher instead of using a bench option.
- Boston’s double-play-breaking slide and Nick Sogard’s subsequent home run were also reviewed.
Team Direction
- The Orioles’ inconsistent performance was described as consistent with their season-long identity.
- The team remains close to the final wild-card spot despite falling below .500, but its margin for error is shrinking.
- Adley Rutschman’s strong game for Boston raised questions about his scouting knowledge, though his overall performance with Boston has been limited.
Nestor Aparicio 0:02
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Tasson Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. Happy weekend, everybody out there. Labor Day weekend, long weekend. We’re gonna have some music around here as well as some great conversations. It is our 28th anniversary. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by the Maryland Lottery. Controls with our partners, the Purple Bird we have on this, we’ll be giving these out. Our friends at GBMC as well as Farnum in Dernberger. We will be at Costas in Dundalk on Friday. It is, it’s officially the football season, but we still have baseball to do. The Orioles are still trying to lose games. Luke Jones was at Oriole Park in Camden Yards on Thursday evening. The Boston Red Sox in town for four games, and the Cleveland Guardians will be here on Labor Day on Monday. Felt like we had a season in progress a couple days ago, Luke, but they make fools of us. They’ve been doing that to me for oh, I don’t know, 43 years or so.
Luke Jones 0:56
And they’re still a game and a half out. I mean, I mean, like we we we do this all season, and I assume we’re going to do this into the month of September. Adley Rutschman, right? I mean, Adley Rutschman makes his return and homers twice, and the Orioles hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning, and then don’t have another hit until the ninth inning when it’s too late. But
Speaker 1 1:20
I mean, they don’t hit
8
Nestor Aparicio 1:21
the ball, and you’ve been saying that for two years. And they don’t do a lot of throw that when they lose, they’re going to lose striking out a lot, not hitting the ball much, and probably throwing the ball around too, kicking it around too. That’s been the story of losing for them this year.
Luke Jones 1:35
I mean, they’re just-they’re not very good. They’re not terrible. They’re not bad in the sense of like 95 loss, 100 loss, bad. But they’re not good. And if this weren’t
Nestor Aparicio 1:46
like a fake pennant race, we wouldn’t be watching. And that’s my thing. Like
Luke Jones 1:49
I was trying to, you know, I’ve I’ve called it the race of the undead. I’ve I’ve talked about zombie baseball with all these different wild card teams. All of that. This almost almost reminds me of the kid that you keep trying to give them chances to clean their room, and it’s such a low bar in terms of what you’re asking them to do, and then they just continue to not do it, and you keep doing this song and dance where you know you’re threatening them, hey, you’re gonna get punished this time, and yet you look at it, they’ve lost three in a row, and they’re still only a game and a half out of the final wild card, right? I mean, it’s just and and look, they’re running out of games at this point in time. I I that that’s the no duh kind of statement, but you think about them now after losing three straight, they have to finish 14 and seven just to win 83 games, right? Like that’s what we’re talking about now. We’re talking about you have to play 660 700 ball just to get to 83. And look, 83 might might be good enough. 82 might be good enough the way this is going, right? I mean, Cleveland just lost a dropped a couple to Toronto, right? Although Toronto’s right there, Texas is still right there. So we we can keep looking at this, and we can keep lowering the bar, and that’s all we’ve done, right? I mean, we’ve lowered the bar in this wild card race. That’s why I’m not embracing this. Well, the bar is win
Nestor Aparicio 3:10
tonight. You have to win today, right? That’s that is going to be the bar. It is,
Luke Jones 3:13
but you just look at this in terms of what happened Monday night and how exciting that was! And we talked about it at the conclusion of the Colorado series. You’re the talk of baseball. Colton Kozler’s the talk of baseball. There’s excitement. You’re facing baseball’s doormat for two more games after you finally get the 500, and you’ve lost three in a row. You have the demoralizing loss Wednesday afternoon. You come home. I get it. They haven’t had an off day in a while. They’re not going to have an off day for a while. It’s September. Everyone’s tired, right? Everyone in baseball’s tired at this point in time. So I don’t want to hear that. And you have an opportunity to start the series on a high note. You do get an early lead after Ruchman hits the the home run in the first inning. You know they tie it in the bottom of the first. Luis Robert. There, I almost said deadline acquisition. It was kind of like the old waiver deadline, right? At the end of August, but he hits the home run. Alonso hits a home run, gets a break on it. You know, clearly Boston center fielder doesn’t play that like Colton Kowser would have. So they’ve got a three-one lead, and they didn’t have another hit until the ninth inning, and then you know Rutchman hits another home run, which you know you look at that it’s just like I mean it’s something out of a you know it’s the opposite of a storybook for the Orioles, but a nice moment for him I suppose. But then you look at that seventh inning, and you know the Orioles had another scoring opportunity there. They have a chance to hit for someone hit for Norvayas, but they don’t because this team is completely obsessed with the platoon splits. The platoon advantage. I talked about this a lot going back to when Brandon Hyde was still the manager. It’s the same exact thing. So is it the. Manager, or is it the organizational philosophy? I rest my case, but they let Narvaez hit. He obviously doesn’t get a hit in that spot, and then you know you you look at the you know the top of the eighth inning. That was you saw someone break up a double play. Mickey Gasper breaks up a double play. How often it was funny. I and I’m not not picking on the person, a person sitting nearby in the press box, right away. Like that person reacted in a way like that was a violation of the slide rule. I said, no, it wasn’t. He slid directly towards the bag. Now it was a hard slide into the bag. Blaze Alexander needs to get out of the way, right? I mean, go over top him. Whatever you need to do. That was kind of an old school play there, but breaks up a double play, and that allows Nick Sogard to hit a home run off Yenier Cano. First time Cano’s allowed a home run since April. I can’t blame Craig Albernaz for that, right? And I’m not even blaming Cano and like, oh, like you did something that’s incorrigible, right? We knew the bullpen was a
Nestor Aparicio 6:02
little taxed anyway, coming coming out the West Coast, right?
8Luke Jones 6:05
And again, this kind of goes back to the big picture flaws that we’ve talked about. I mean, they traded Tyler Wells at the deadline, right? I’ve said to you a number of times since the trade deadline that while Ruchman was the one that sparked the out most outcry from the from the fan base, and I understand even if I didn’t necessarily share the sentiment. But Tyler Wells was the one that hurt them the most in the short term because of how valuable he was out of the bullpen. And one thing we’ve talked about with the bullpen as well is they pitched overall relative to perception. They don’t strike out a ton of people, and we’ve kind of seen that play out, right? In Colorado, it’s not as that when they gave gave up the the game on Wednesday. I mean, that game winning hit ball wasn’t hit hard at all, right? It just it found grass. Now you could debate Luis Robert playing closer, you know, playing a little more a little more shallow there than he did. I mean, we can debate that, but point is, when you don’t strike people out, sometimes the ball is just going to find grass, and I think you’re you’re seeing a little bit more of that probably as well. But I keep coming back to the offense. I I know I’m an absolute broken record since early 2025, but this team was built to hit the ball, and when they do hit the ball, and this is kind of a captain obvious statement because this is true of any team really, but when they do hit the ball the way that this was intended to go, they generally have success, right? Their pitching has been good enough. We’ve talked about that. The pitching has absolutely exceeded expectations, but Thursday night was another example where you have a three-one lead, and you’re feeling good. And Brandon Young, Brandon Young was an out away from getting through seven innings. I mean, another really good start from him. I know leaves on a sour note, giving up the game-tying RBI single. Yeah, I
Nestor Aparicio 7:57
don’t. You know, I I wonder about that, and I and I don’t sit here and double question Albernaz all day long like everybody else would. And to your point, if you’re questioning him, you’re probably questioning the operation as much as as you’re questioning Elias. And there
Luke Jones 8:11
are things to question about him, no doubt. Go ahead.
Nestor Aparicio 8:13
Yeah, there are. But this was one of those games where I looked up and like it’s 98 pitches, and you just let him lose the game. You know, you you just let him walk off the hill.
Luke Jones 8:23
Well, tied. It was tied. Tied, right? Well, but not be a winner at that moment. And I thought to myself, you probably let him in too long. Yeah, I mean, I the I don’t have a problem with that. Although I’ll say it’s two outs, nobody on. Eli White doubles. He’s the number eight hitter. It’s the number number nine hitter, you know, and and I get it. Isaiah Connor-Falefa’s, you know, a bona fide major leaguer, right? Even if he’s a role player, he’s batting 273, so it’s not like he’s a 130 number nine hitter, like basically Nervias for the Orioles, right? Well, if you’re gonna go
Nestor Aparicio 8:59
get him after that batter, anyway. Go get him.
Luke Jones 9:02
Yeah, I hear you. I I didn’t have a, I didn’t have a big. I mean, literally, literally, we’re talking about Brandon Young giving up one hit there. Well, letting him
8Nestor Aparicio 9:11
battle through.
Luke Jones 9:12
Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 9:12
and at that point, they never crawled again.
Speaker 2 9:15
Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 9:15
really, they never crawled again. I mean,
Luke Jones 9:17
I suppose I I’ll I’ll be honest, I didn’t have a big problem with that. Okay, I mean, I I kind of I had my tweet fired up, ready to send that Brendan Young had completed seven innings for what I think was going to be the fifth time all season. Like I thought he was going to get out of it, quite frankly. So I didn’t have a big problem with that. My big problem. I’ll go back to what I said about letting Narvaez hit. I get it. Miller was on the hill. He’s lefty who is absolute murder against left-handed hitters. So the thought is, well, you look at your bench. Okay, you’re going to bring in Basayo. Are you going to bring in, you know, I don’t think you’re going to bring in Heston Kerstad in that spot. Jackson Holiday. I get it. None of your options. None of the alternatives. Are optimal, but there is still a difference between a bad option and an absolutely horrible option. And Nervias giving Nervaeus the chance to hit there. And again, he was asked about it after the game, and he kind of alluded to the fact that he thinks Narvias is close offensively. I mean, I mean, God bless. I, I, I think he’s a decent catcher behind the plate, right? But he’s hit like a pitcher. I mean, look at his numbers since he joined the Orioles. Carlos Norvaya is in, I think it’s 63 plate appearances. He’s batting 091. He has a 303 OPS. I mean, those are. I tell you what,
Nestor Aparicio 10:37
seeing Chapman get after Beavers to end the game, he’d strike him out 88 times out of 100. Like Beavers looked like he was afraid to sit in. I mean, it was like
8Luke Jones 10:48
Boston really pitches, right? I mean, that’s and
Nestor Aparicio 10:51
Chapman should be in prison. I just want to say that out loud. I felt that when I stood next to him last month at the All-Star game, I thought I thought I’m
Luke Jones 10:57
not I’m not going to defend him. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 10:59
as a
Luke Jones 10:59
you know as a human, okay. I’m just saying, you know. I know, but we’re talking about baseball here. Eric Miller. I’m
Nestor Aparicio 11:06
talking about what I think when I watch baseball, which is what I think. So when I see him, I think criminal. That’s what I think. So I’m going to say that. That’s what I’m going to say. And he pitched for us. I’d say that too. Noted.
Luke Jones 11:15
I was trying to talk about Eric Miller. I think that when
8Nestor Aparicio 11:17
Zay Flowers catches the ball too. But that’s another story altogether.
Luke Jones 11:21
Okay. Anyone else you want to get in?
Nestor Aparicio 11:22
No, no, I’m just saying. You know, people that beat women, I don’t, I don’t cheer for them.
Luke Jones 11:27
I mean, I’m, I’m trying to talk about baseball strategy here. No,
Nestor Aparicio 11:30
I’m. That’s good. Okay, my strategy was I ran into a role as Chapman last month, and I stood next to him. I looked at him, and I thought, ugh. So last night when he took the mound, I thought, I’m, I’m glad he doesn’t play for us, I guess. But nonetheless, so he’s really good, though. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah, I I wasn’t making any kind of a for one. I was talking about Eric Miller in the seventh inning. I wasn’t talking about Chapman, but yeah, I mean, just not a bad at bats. The Beaver at bats to end the game was like, boy, I’d never want to see that again. That’s all I’m saying. That as I was thinking about bad at bats in the eighth and ninth inning when they got two runs down and three runs down, it didn’t feel like they they got a runner on. I mean, they scored runs. What am I saying? They scored runs at the end, but it was too late at that. Yeah, but they’re down
Luke Jones 12:15
six to three at that point. I mean, it’s you know, it’s I suppose it’s nice to see, you know. It’s nice to see Gunner Henderson get a hit, right? But
Nestor Aparicio 12:24
yeah,
8Luke Jones 12:25
I mean, how many how many times over the last three games has he come up with someone on base with a chance to absolutely to to do something in a meaningful spot, and you know he’s back to not hitting whatsoever again. After and look, they might win three
Nestor Aparicio 12:36
games in a row the rest of the weekend. It’s I don’t know, you know, like
Luke Jones 12:40
no, I joke. I joked with a couple different people before the game on Thursday. You know, during the pregame, as you know, we’re kind of waiting around. Actually, we’re waiting for Adley Ruchman to talk in the Boston Clubhouse. I joked and said, “So, how is this home stand going to go? Are they going to win three out of four against the Red Sox and then be swept by Cleveland, or are they going to lose three out of four to the Red Sox and then sweep Cleveland, right? I mean, like, there’s gonna be bad and there’s gonna be good. That that much we know. Your prediction is
Nestor Aparicio 13:08
we’re gonna come here next Thursday, getting ready for football season, and they’re gonna still be a game out.
Luke Jones 13:16
Yeah, yeah, and you know, after a four and three or a three and four kind of home stand, like you know what I mean. Like seriously, that that’s what I think. Well, it’s zero
Nestor Aparicio 13:24
and one so far. I mean, it is. It’s
Luke Jones 13:27
it’s it’s off to a disappointing start. And you know the the thing that I you know a lot of people noticed when the Orioles went to Cano in the eighth inning, how Adley Rutschman, who was on second base, actually went up to the hitter, you know, went up to Nick Sogard, and I would assume gave him a full scouting report. Now the flip side of this is Narvaez should know all the Red Sox pitchers, and and you know whether he can hit himself is a different story, but should be able to give the same scouting report. But you saw Adley Rutschman kind of give them the a mental edge there, and you know, did the Orioles adjust at all, knowing that Adley Rutschman knows them intimately well? I’d say probably not, because this team isn’t exactly known for its intellect. If if we’re being honest, right? What’s a small spade a spade? I mean, you know, I they I think they pride themselves on being really smart, and at times it can be that way, but there are a lot of times it doesn’t come across that. They were smart enough to
8Nestor Aparicio 14:24
draft Adley Rutschman. So
Luke Jones 14:25
yeah, so I mean, it is what it is. There was so much excitement. I I’ll revert to what I said the other day. I apologize for saying that this team was growing on me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was
Nestor Aparicio 14:39
one in the morning on Monday night when you got excited. It was just it was more sleepy.
Luke Jones 14:42
Well, and we said it at the time though, and this and this bears true, right? When you invest in a long in a 162k baseball season, whether you’re talking about as a fan, reporter, you just you watch a lot of baseball, right? It this is why I’ve always pushed. Back when people talk about oh look at the national TV numbers for baseball or this or that, the thing is to be a fan of a team is a full time commitment in baseball. So the last thing that as an adult especially that’s what I’m saying the last thing that people that have kids or that are involved in other things you actually have some other interests. The last thing you want to do when it’s not your team playing is to watch more baseball. In many cases, now I’m a sicko. I watch plenty of other baseball, but but you you kind of view it through that lens. You know how much baseball you watch over the course of a full season doesn’t mean a whole lot, right? It’s a high variance sport. We talk about this, you know, the old adage, whether it’s Sparky Anderson or Earl Weaver, or different talking about, well, you know, you’re going to win 60, you’re going to lose 60. Everyone, every team in baseball is going to do that. It’s, you know, what do you do with your other games there that that are in between? But you go back to Monday night, and yeah, you want the Colton Kauser catch to be a Doug DeSantis home run in 1979, right? You want it to be some special moment that’s going to spark a crazy run to at least good enough to be the final wild card, and then you can roll the dice. And look, maybe they still will, but I think at the very least, when you lose three in a row, including two to the Rockies, immediately after that, it’s safe to say that you’re not going to view that in the same lens as we were thinking, maybe on on Tuesday, right? It’s not some seminal moment in Oriole history. Exactly, exactly. We’ll still look back at it because it was still an incredible play. I mean, even if you’re just a baseball fan, if you’re awake at one in the
Nestor Aparicio 16:43
morning watching it, you’re incredible.
Luke Jones 16:44
Yeah, it was incredible. But sometimes it’s just an incredible moment in time, right? Sometimes it’s just an incredible moment in a 162 game season, and it doesn’t mean a whole lot other than that, right? So that’s what it’s kind of looking like now. Now, who knows? Maybe they’re as you and I are speaking, they’re hours away from going on a seven-game winning streak and completely changing the complexion of the season. But you know, like I said, you’re down to 21, 20 games. Like you know, like you’re you’re down into a pretty small sample size at this point. And when you look at that sample size now that you fall in three games under 500 again, you’re gonna have to play some really good baseball, right? I mean, just to get to 81 and 81, they’ve got to go 12 and nine, right? Which not saying that that’s anything that’s extraordinary, but
Nestor Aparicio 17:35
well, against this against this particular group schedule, yeah, the schedule’s gonna.
8Luke Jones 17:39
I mean, it’s it’s getting late. Like it’s not getting late early because it’s not early anymore, right? I mean, like you know, I’m trying not to use too many baseball cliches here, but you’re running season over
Nestor Aparicio 17:50
three weeks. Three weeks this weekend, so
Luke Jones 17:52
you’re running out of time at this point. I mean, like there aren’t every time you drop a game, as much as guys like us try not to make it a referendum, like oh the season’s over or oh season’s on. You also realize that’s one, you know, one fewer game on the schedule to do something, right? It’s one, you know, it’s your opportunity set is shrinking every time you lose a game, and that’s why I said, I mean, it it kind of hit me that wow, they’ve got to go 14 and seven just to get to 83 wins. We’ve talked about 8283, wins kind of being kind of sort of what we think the target might be for whoever the third wild card is going to be, and now you’re looking at it in terms of you need to win every you know two out of three the rest of the way against the schedule they have, it’s not impossible by any means, but it might be for this team, right? Because you just keep coming back to this is who they are, right? They have a stretch where it looks really good, and then they fall back. I just hope
Nestor Aparicio 18:56
Ruchman doesn’t beat them up all weekend. You know that? Yeah,
Luke Jones 18:58
I mean that’s what’s funny. I mean, like look, you know, I wrote about it at BaltimorePositive.com. There are a lot of things that I would take Mike Elias to task on. Trading Adley Rutschman’s not really one of them at this point. I just Adley Rutschman was a big part of the reason why they’ve fallen over the last two years in terms of his performance and in terms of more so this year lack of availability. I mean, he’s been hurt already. Something else, you know, not just coming back from the wrist for the Red Sox. He’s he had missed three games in a row with a bad elbow, right? I mean, that that he’s he hasn’t been overly available for them. And even with his two home run night, he’s batting 193 since joining the Red Sox. I mean, he has not been very good for them so far. He was on Thursday night, and yeah, you do kind of wonder whether it’s him at the plate or him just having a lot of intel and and knowing what makes these pitchers tick. Well, Brandon Young,
Nestor Aparicio 19:53
he only had to get after one one pitch. Get after one pitch, right?
Luke Jones 19:55
And that’s the thing. I mean, Brandon Young pitched well otherwise, so I don’t think Adley Rutschman. You know whatever secrets he had, his teammates didn’t necessarily take great advantage against Brandon Young because Adley Rutschman was, you know, other than the very last batter of the game, Adley Rutschman was their offense against Brandon Young. But I mean, it’s just again, you think how excited? Not just us, everybody was excited Tuesday, right? I mean, everyone was so excited. I said it. It led off the talking head shows on ESPN that don’t even talk about baseball, but the Colton Cowser catch led off those shows because I happened to have one of them on that morning, and I was just like, “Oh wow, Get Up is talking about the Orioles. Yeah, and for them to lose three straight immediately after that, it’s so demoralizing. But you know what else I’d say? It’s so on brand. I mean, it’s just it’s who this team has been all year long. You can be disappointed, but if you’re surprised, I’d question if you’ve really paid attention all that close of attention over the course of the season. I mean, this is what they’ve done all year long.
Nestor Aparicio 21:03
Boston Red Sox are in town. Luke will be there. The Ravens are chilling like a villain here this week. They’ll get after it next week. We’ll have the Indianapolis Colts. I’m going to have lots and lots of great guests next week. We’re going to have some music here over the weekend, as well as a Maryland crab cake tour stop at Costas and Dundalk. All brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. I have the Kiss Face Bird to give away our friends at GBMC and Farnham and Dermer, and it’s football season as well. So I’m doing our 28th anniversary with my 28 musical experiences. Tell some stories I probably have never told or only get to tell once or twice. Bring it all together. Bring it to you in color. Show all the backstage passes and tickets and ticket stubs and drumsticks and guitar picks and videos and stuff that I have, as well as a bunch of clips from interviews. Um, number 28 on the list is even one that Luke likes. Kiss will be number 28 on the list here this week as we begin the countdown. I’ll be telling stories about finding Kiss Alive One in the the attic of my cousin’s house in 1975, and it changed my life. I fell in love with Peter Chris. Gotta fall in love with football season. It’s next week. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We are WNSD AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking. Baltimore, positive. Happy Labor Day.
