Any romantic will tell you baseball doesn’t have a clock, but there is a calendar, a reality with which the last-place Orioles are grappling.
A 3-4 road trip against the AL East’s two best teams is hardly embarrassing or devastating under typical circumstances. But losing a game in which they had an 8-0 lead as they did against Tampa Bay last Wednesday and then dropping one they led until the eighth inning Sunday were incredibly disappointing results for a club with no room to be dropping winnable games. The simple math is that another week of the calendar has disappeared with the Orioles being one more game under .500 than they were a week ago.
Baltimore has certainly played better since its horrendous 16-34 start through May 24, going 17-10 and showing some fight under interim manager Tony Mansolino. The problem is even sustaining that .630 winning percentage — way easier said than done, of course — for the remainder of the season would leave the Orioles at 86-76 by season’s end, which may or may not be good enough to grab a wild-card spot. They entered Monday a mediocre 8-8 since their season-best six-game winning streak that many hoped would be the turning point to help this team catch fire.
But even when you want to believe the Orioles are really turning the corner, more bad pops up in this nightmare of a season.
Two-time All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman — who was having his best month at the plate in the last calendar year — is now expected to be out until at least mid-July with a strained oblique while 2024 All-Star infielder Jordan Westburg is banged up again with a jammed left index finger. Adding backup catcher Maverick Handley (concussion) to the infirmary report reinforced that the injuries haven’t relented.
The starting pitching that had begun righting itself in late May and early June has neither Zach Eflin nor Tomoyuki Sugano trending in an encouraging direction the last couple turns through the rotation. Three starts of fewer than four innings in a four-game stretch on the trip resulted in the Orioles optioning former All-Star reliever Yennier Cano — who hasn’t been great this season either — to Triple-A Norfolk on Sunday to add a fresh arm to a taxed bullpen.
At 33-44, the Orioles have six series remaining until the All-Star break with four of those coming at home and the road matchups coming against two disappointing teams in Texas and Atlanta. Anything short of going 12-6 — essentially winning each series — over that stretch would leave Baltimore more than five games under .500 at the break. And with just 14 contests after that until the July 31 trade deadline, even the optimist would have to be urging general manager Mike Elias to sell under that scenario.
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If a stretch of at least 12-6 is too much to ask, it only confirms this season is shot and the Orioles have nobody to blame but themselves for digging a pit too deep to escape. On Monday afternoon, Mansolino noted how it’s feeling more and more like Baltimore is in “must-win” mode every night now, and he’s right.
That’s why nobody wants to hear about the heat or any other excuse for not putting their best foot forward at this point. The Orioles have roughly a month to avoid selling at the deadline and playing out the string in August and September.
The odds are certainly against them when they have to play like a 92-win club the rest of the way just to finish .500, let alone like a 105-win team to go 88-74.
But that’s the harsh reality they’re fighting.
Don’t hold the Mayo
Rookie Coby Mayo had arguably the two best games of his young major league career to conclude the sweep of the Los Angeles Angels last homestand, collecting three hits and a pair of doubles.
He was rewarded with one start in the four-game set against the Rays. And after collecting two more hits and an RBI in the series-opening win in the Bronx, Mayo was on the bench Saturday until Westburg’s early exit and then sat out again Sunday.
8The likes of Ramon Urias — whose Friday homer was his lone hit on the road trip — and Dylan Carlson don’t need to rot on the bench by any means, but we’re talking about the organization’s second-best prospect who has finally started looking more comfortable at this level and now has a runway for regular playing time with Ryan Mountcastle (hamstring) on the 60-day IL. Make it make sense.
At least Mayo was back in Monday’s starting lineup against Texas.
Odds & ends
Mansolino again expressed optimism that Westburg would avoid the 10-day IL while acknowledging he wouldn’t be available for the series opener against the Rangers. … Outfielder Tyler O’Neill (left shoulder) will continue his latest rehab assignment at Double-A Chesapeake while infielder Jorge Mateo (left elbow) will begin his own with Triple-A Norfolk on Tuesday. … While many fans continue to clamor for the Orioles to promote top prospect and 20-year-old catcher Samuel Basallo in the wake of the injuries to Rutschman and Handley, Baltimore called up Chadwick Tromp to back up veteran Gary Sanchez on Monday.
