Orioles 8th Inning Meltdown In Sweep By Rays Highlights Failures Of Their Perpetual Rebuild

Everything that is deficient and shattered and un-fixable about the Orioles under baseball operations demagogue Mike Elias showed up in the late innings Wednesday afternoon.

The Rays out-smarted and out-hustled and out-ran and out-played and out-managed Baltimore’s janky operation in the 8th inning to fuel a comeback win and sweep the Orioles, who wasted a rare quality outing from a starter. This was low-IQ and low-energy baseball the likes of which Elias has made their very brand and hallmark throughout his time here since 2018, and this embarrassing, 5-3, capitulation to the best team in baseball would result in sweeping changes with a day off Thursday if ownership actually cared.

Newsflash: In two years at the helm there is zero indication this ownership group cares about anything other than stadium upgrades, and seems perfectly content to allow Elias to run their organization into the ground and surround himself with aimless sycophants in every corridor of the franchise.

“It was a big-time gut punch for sure,” rookie skipper Craig Albernaz mustered matter-of-factly, not seeming eto me ntirely shocked by this outcome as he chatted with media after the game. Albernaz also quickly pointed out how passive his players were on the bases with the lead, while the Rays attacked them, not going first to third or putting pressure on Tampa’s defense. It’s just one of the myriad ways these organizations are light years apart.

The Rays are pushing for 20 games over .500, while the O’s sit at 21-29, 7-16 against winning teams and 3-10 vs the AL East. Everything the Rays do right – winning with two strikes and two outs, fielding their position, playing as a collective and not selfish individuals, putting the ball in pay instead of chasing homers – the Orioles are utterly incapable of and have been for years.

This 8th inning was eight years of The Elias Way crystalized distinctly, with a series of blunders featuring many of the over-drafted and over-hyped and over-coddled prospects that have led to this team being among the worst in MLB since June 2024.

The Ultimate Elias Inning

So how’d it all go off the rails late Wednesday afternoon?

Rays open the 8th down 3-1, looking a little sleepy (that’s okay when you have the best mark in the majors and keep exceeding expectations). Then their back-up catcher, who also hit his first MLB homer in the game, beats out a leadoff bunt. Their best hitters – Junior Caminero and Jonathan Aranda - delivered in the clutch against a reliever Elias really wants to pan out after trading for him last year but who shouldn’t be in super high-leverage spots like this (Anthony Nunez).

“We just have to keep pushing forward,” Nunez said after the game in hushed toned.

Aranda’s double tied the game and featured a former top five pick, Colton Cowser, unable to handle a routine ground ball in right field after he couldn’t handle a line drive hit right at him Tuesday (he should be in AAA with a .500 OPS). The overmatched skipper then went back to Rico Garcia, who he is riding exceptionally hard, and scrappy Richie Palacios, who played right under Elias’s nose a few miles from Camden Yards at Towson University, killed the O’s again. Palacios was quickly ahead 3-0 (Garcia can’t keep pitching three out every four days) and smacked a hit to right field for a lead.

“In the dugout we kind of knew he swings 3-0, and he did,” Albernaz noted.

What came next was a direct attack on Elias’s failed rebuild. The Rays have loved to run on Adley Rutschman, the face of the rebuild as Elias’s 1-1 selection, for years and unleashed a double steal with runners on first and third. And of course they executed it perfectly. Gunnar Henderson, Elias’s second pick in that 2019 draft, cut off the throw and delivered a high and late offering back to the plate, and at 5-3 this game was over.

No chance this group would rally, and they did nothing against a struggling Rays reliver thrust into the closer role because their regular closer, whom Elias traded them last year (Bryan Baker), has pitched a ton lately.

Wasted Outing

All of this wasted the best outing of Shane Baz’s O’s career. Elias gave up too much to get him and was far too quick to extend him, and he’s far too prone to serving up meatballs, like the early one he grooved to that back-up catcher (Hunter Feduccia). But he didn’t walk anyone after the first inning, and cruised through the final four innings and went six against his former team despite throwing nearly 30 pitches in the first inning.

“Very promising,” Albernaz said. “He threw the ball well. He did a great job mixing his pitches in the strike zone.”

Kyle Bradish has been the only consistent starter for this team this month and Elias is notorious for horrible rotation construction and Baz managed to lower his season ERA below 5.00. Hooray.

The Orioles are not ones for putting up too many big innings themselves, and this was no different. They were held in check by another lefty starter (Steven Matz) but some big bats did show up.

Pete Alonso had an RBI hit and blasted an opposite field solo homer to give the O’s the lead and Sam Basallo, one of the few things worth watching daily on this roster, also hit a solo shot two batters later to make it 3-1 in the sixth. The rest is on Elias.

BIRD SEED

Jackson Holliday, oddly, began the game on the bench (even against a lefty) after just being activated from the IL after a lengthy stint with a broken hand suffered preparing for spring training. He entered the game at third base – playing it for the first time in his brief MLB career – quickly fielded a grounder (the throw was up the line but in time to record the out) and finished the game at second base. You can’t make this stuff up … Henderson had hits in his first three at bats and didn’t seem to be obsessed with obliterating the baseball, which could serve him well after a brutal start to the season …The Orioles are off Thursday before opening a vital homestand Friday against the Tigers, Rays and Blue Jays. They fail to climb closer to .500 by the end of the month and even Elias, as lost and pathetic a baseball exec as he is, would have to realize it’s going to be time to sell again ahead of the trade deadline.

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