BALTIMORE — The Orioles continue trying to convince themselves and anyone who will listen that they’re going to be a good team.
But some 24 hours after president of baseball operations Mike Elias stated his intentions to be a buyer at the Aug. 3 trade deadline, a pair of losses told an all-too-familiar story for Baltimore. Yes, only a mediocre American League wild-card picture is keeping this club afloat at this point after a series loss to Washington dropped the Orioles back to seven games under .500, which is roughly where they were 5 1/2 weeks ago.
Remember that promising 10-4 stretch that lifted the Orioles to two games under .500 on June 5 and was meant to serve as the springboard for more consistent baseball moving forward? They’ve gone 8-13 since then, winning only one series — against the Los Angeles Dodgers of all teams — and dropping four different sets in which they won the opener.
As uninspiring and mediocre as it gets.
Despite their two best starting pitchers — Brandon Young and Kyle Bradish — going to the hill in those final two games against the Nationals after Friday night’s 3-1 win, an underperforming offense, poor defense, and Bradish’s struggles throwing strikes contributed to the latest series defeat. It was also another frustrating weekend for struggling shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who went 1-for-14 to drop his season slash line to .221/.291/.410.
We keep waiting, but nothing changes. Fortunately for the Orioles, that includes an AL that consisted of just four teams with a winning record entering Monday.
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But something other than favorable math has to matter at some point when assessing the state of this club. The clock is ticking with the All-Star break right around the corner and the trade deadline only five weeks away. If Elias is actually going to try to add to this roster to any meaningful degree, the Orioles need to make — and then sustain — some kind of run to show it’s truly worth it.
Entering Monday on pace to finish with a worse record than last season definitely isn’t cutting it.
The Orioles are still in the early days of a stretch of 12 of 15 games at Camden Yards leading into the Midsummer Classic. And while this past weekend reflected this team’s play at home being anything but special, a 23-21 record at Camden Yards sure beats Baltimore’s 16-25 mark on the road. Coming out of the break, the Orioles will play nine of their first 12 on the road with that lone home series coming against first-place Atlanta.
In other words, if Craig Albernaz’s club isn’t within a couple games of .500 in two weeks, there’s no reason to believe anything is going to change over the second half of July.
With Adley Rutschman and Dylan Beavers being activated from the injured list Sunday and Dean Kremer expected to be activated this week, the Orioles are also getting as close to full strength as they can hope to be for the rest of the season. With no disrespect meant to the likes of Chris Bassitt and Ryan Mountcastle, there’s nobody else walking through that door in the coming weeks that’s drastically changing this team’s trajectory on paper.
No more excuses.
“We’ve shown flashes of playing our best baseball. We’ve shown flashes of playing some bad baseball,” said Albernaz about the state of the Orioles entering Monday’s series opener with the White Sox. “I think that’s where the inconsistency of our team is. It’s challenging our guys to play our consistent brand of baseball. And when we have the lead, it’s not trying to [play not to] lose the game. It’s still going out and playing baseball until the 27th out happens. We still hold our destiny in our hands.”
Without a meaningful run coming soon, however, that destiny is looking increasingly grim.
