Orioles Besmirch Themselves Again In 12-1 Loss, One Day After Manager Begged For Sound Baseball

All of the talking the Baltimore Orioles have done about their rapidly sinking season has been about as profound as the insipid brand of baseball they subscribe to.

There was overmatched baseball czar Mike Elias, spinning silly yarns and making excuses for another shoddy roster he’d constructed back in late April (some drivel about the “flow of play” being better). His sad-sack, listless team is 2-7 since then and getting smashed now that it’s finally facing AL East opponents.

Then there was veteran free-agent signing starter Chris Bassitt, speaking between doubleheader games on Thursday, getting animated while sharing the “come to Jesus” meeting the pitchers had and vowing they would get more aggressive and not stay “too cute.” The O’s are 0-5 since that oration, getting out-scored 50-15, while yielding 11 home runs.

On Sunday, it was rookie skipper Craig Albernaz’s turn to step up to the mic, already forced to beg his team to show more care and attention to detail at a “crucial” moment in the season, imploring them to “put the work in” to turn it around. Their response? A mistake-plagued, predictable, 12-1, defeat at Yankee Stadium capping what always felt like an inevitable four-game sweep by the American League’s best team (out-scored 39-10). A position player was summoned by the flummoxed novice manager to close out the game, after he’d tried to cajole them into making a stand.

“We’ve got to bounce back and play clean baseball to give ourselves a chance,” Albernaz told the media after the game “… We just weren’t competitive. We didn’t really give ourselves a chance to win whether it be mistakes or miscues, whatever the case may be.”

This embarrassment is Elias’s true masterpiece, his holy grail in his eighth season on the job (feels like 20). He’s assembled a roster that truly captures his wondrous futility to evaluate talent or ascertain what a winning clubhouse entails. Every day he is employed further shames those who care about Baltimore baseball and willingly watch this slop.

Playing the game clean is just simply beyond these Orioles. There was a double played into a triple in the outfield – again – and cut-off throws the All Star shortstop couldn’t handle to gift New York a run. And the requisite swing and miss at key times, of course. And, somehow, another untimely wild pitch (MLB-high 10th by an O’s starting pitcher) at a critical juncture, allowing the fourth run to score with two outs in the sixth. Albernaz should have pulled starter Shane Baz then, but he didn’t until another run had scored and another game had gotten out of hand.

It’s ugly baseball, night after night. It’s relentlessly shoddy. It’s seemingly hardwired and engrained now 35 games into this marathon (15-20, getting dangerously close to last year’s miserable pace), picking up where the 2024 and 2025 editions of this team left off.

“You watch these games, and we’re not leaving anything to be desired,” Albernaz said when asked about the fans perspective on this season so far. “But for us you have to turn the page and move on.”

After grounding into a double-play in every critical juncture Sunday (three in all), they blew a chance to do rare damage vs a starting pitcher in the third, with Adley Rutschman hitting into a double play with two on and Blaze Alexander (.505 OPS but get used to him with Jordan Westburg now likely out for the season) doing it with two on in the fifth. Yankees starter Cam Schittler kept wavering, but the O’s couldn’t get him to crack.

And in the sixth, after Colton Cowser – having his best plate appearances in quite some time – walked to score a run, Jeremiah Jackson struck out swinging against reliever Jake Bird (entered with a 5.70 ERA). The O’s entered this game tied for the highest K-rate in MLB with RISP (26.2%) and seemed intent on adding to it (0-7 with RISP Monday and 4-for-27 in the series).

Baz Wasn’t The Primary Problem

Baz entered this game getting battered by the Yankees during his time in Tampa (New York batters had a collecting OPS just under 1400 against him), but he was mostly okay after a shaky start. Leadoff guy Trent Grisham hit him hard, including a leadoff double in the first inning; the Orioles failed to challenge what appeared to be a missed strike on Aaron Judge and the Yankee captain promptly crushed a meatball Baz served him for a home run.

The wild pitch marred the outing in the end, and the longball will probably continue to haunt him, but Baz wasn’t the problem Monday. His 4.99 ERA won’t inspire much confidence, and consistency isn’t his thing, but, hey he pitched into the sixth, so someone will probably build him a Lego statue on the team plane to Miami or something.

Bird Seed

The Orioles gave medical updates of sorts on second-baseman Jackson Holliday (broken hand) – soon to be reevaluated in hopes of another minor league rehab assignment. They said closer Ryan Helsley (elbow) could begin throwing this week in what they’ve said should be a short IL stint. Then again, their injury timelines tend to be as dubious as the kind of baseball they play … The Orioles begin a series in Miami Tuesday after a late arrival from New York. Former Oriole OF Kyle Stowers destroyed the Birds in a series in Baltimore last summer, and returned recently from a spring training injury …

The O’s sent rookie starter Trey Gibson back to Norfolk (AAA) after making his MLB debut Sunday to make room for journeyman reliver Lou Trivino, Elias’s latest discovery who walked in a run and allowed 6 earned in 2/3 of an inning before making way for infielder Weston Wilson … Rutschman getting a lot of praise for his work behind the plate, but despite not catching much this season he’s bene back there for cross ups and passed balls and wild pitches that he frankly should have contained.

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