Orioles Can't Hit The Worst Starter In Baseball, Drop Five Below .500 Again

Momentum and such should have been with the Baltimore Orioles, if one is to believe the proverb about the next day’s starting pitching.

It’s not that Baltimore’s starter, Shane Baz, has been some prize. Anything but.

He’s actually resembled almost every major league acquisition of Mike Ellais’s fruitless run atop the franchise’s baseball operations; a middling starter who Elias yielded too many assets to land who belongs at the back of quality rotation. This is of course, is one of the worst rotations in baseball, and Baz continues to get overhyped by his manager, but still, the odds should have been in the O’s favor Friday night, after taking two-of-three from New York this week.

Because, most importantly they were facing, quite likely, the worst starting in all of MLB, Zach Littell, who has been displaced occasionally for an opener but the Nats knew wouldn’t require such help to open this series. Littell was leading the Majors in homers allowed, he gets no swing and miss, he fools no one and had the highest Fielding Independent Pitching in MLB of anyone with 20 innings logged coming in (a ridiculous 8.25).

So, this being an Elias production, of course his allegedly-potent lineup crapped out, struck out and lost, 3-2, carved up by Littell for five innings in his best start by far since September 2024. The Nats, who were supposed to be the worst team in baseball, are flirting with .500 while Elias’s haphazard roster, that he had the guts to claim would contend - HYPER, fell to 20-25. They mustered two hits against the Nats starter, and the jewels of Elias’s never-ending rebuild - HYPER Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman, struck out in critical junctures; Rutschman with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth.

“It’s tough to come through with two-out hits,” is what Orioles rookie skipper Craig Albernaz mustered after another toothless display, having you believe as such against a starter who went beyond five innings once this season (when he gave up six earned runs

The manager’s usually pablum followed an afternoon in which Elias alleged the organization was surprised that third-baseman Jordan Westburg would require Tommy John surgery despite his prolonged absence with a lingering an serious UCL injury. Their best homegrown hitter with men on base will come back at some point in 2027, while Elias, who is infatuated with tinkering with his prospects and thwarting their development by throwing too many positions at them, said he'll keep experimenting with injured Jackson Holliday at third in the minors. Of course, Holliday has yet to prove he is a decent at second base yet, but madmen love their madness.

Oh what a day in Birdland.

The Orioles created very little traffic for Littell despite him specializing in it with a WHIP of 1.500. They had two on in the fifth when walk-specialist Taylor Ward (who entered the at bat four-for-eight against Littell with two homers) grounded out. They had runners on second and third in the seventh against lefty reliever Andrew Alvarez and he got Henderson (.655 OPS) to chase strike three and Rutschman capped off their pathetic night at the plate with the bases-loaded strikeout.

They did walk five times … but struck out 10, something they have made a habit of, especially against the lowest-wrung of starting pitching in the business.

Another Baz Meatball

As for Baz, he is a plow-horse who carries a perfect frame, capable of throwing 100 pitches every five days. But he doesn’t get as much swing-and-miss as his stuff would suggest, he is in the hands of an organization that has a horrific record of maximizing pitching assets and he continues to serve up home run balls in key junctures,

Daylen Lile owned him Friday, with a double and a two-run homer. Baz sports a 5.28 ERA, and has already allowed six home runs after surrendering an alarming 26 last season. It should surprise no one he is carrying the most inflated ERA of his career, and if the pitching-savvy Rays couldn’t make him a useful arm, only a fool would think Elias could.

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