Orioles Shutout For First Time This Season And Drop Series At Seattle

Had the Orioles managed anything other than losing this series in Seattle it would have qualified as fairly shocking.

And this series was, in fact, totally on brand.

They can’t hit quality starting pitching, especially on the road. They cannot field balls cleanly in general, but particularly, in the outfield, and that showed up in the first inning Thursday afternoon and they wasted a beauty of a start from Shane Baz in falling, 3-0, at T-Mobile Park, losing for the fourth time in five games (11 total runs scored). They managed three total hits.

"The big hit alluded us with runners in scoring position," skipper Craig Albernaz told the media after the game, which could be the team slogan at this point.

This 10-game West Coast swing has their season teetering again, for no matter how pedestrian the American League proves to be, losing more games than you win will get you nowhere. Baltimore (35-41) is now 13-22 away from home and 15-24 against winning teams and outside of a 10-4 run (fueled largely by a 10-game homestand) they are among the dregs of baseball.

Baseball czar Mike Elias pretended he fixed this team’s lineup woes and they do pad their stats against lesser bullpen arms late in games, but have failed to score regularly in the first five innings of games and have been routinely trailing in games, and, in the standings, seemingly all season.

"I feel like jumping out to the lead would help a lot," Bas said after the game when asked why the team can't sync up its hitting and pitching and string together a meaningful winning streak.

It was obvious from the first few pitches Seattle starter Bryan Woo uncorked that this wouldn’t be anything like what transpired when he faced the O’s in Baltimore a week ago. He is much better pitching in this huge ballpark and he got through the first inning with six pitches and struck out five straight early in the game.

"We just couldn’t make the adjustment on the heater," Albernaz said after gushing, as usual, about the other team's starter.

Woo allowed two base runners through seven innings and when he tired in the 8th, allowing a single to Leody Taveras and walking Colton Cowser, the Orioles were mowed down by reliever Eduard Bazardo and they put two on in the 9th as well without doing anything to bring them in.

"I don't think it's necessarily anything to be concerned about," Cowser said of their hitting woes, perhaps conveniently overlooking the fact this team is 22 games below .500 since June 20, 2024.

Situational hitting is one of the many things Elias has failed miserably to address and he’s in the news lately because he’s got minority owner and former Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken now trying to help him reverse years of organization rot being utterly incapable to instill solid fundamental play or fielding acumen through any level of the minors or with him MLB product.

How’s That New Focus On Fundamentals Going?

So of course Taveras, in right, tried to bare hand a ball turning a single into a double and Taylor Ward, in left, bobbled a ball one batter later and Cole Young’s two-out, single plated one run and Colt Emerson’s two-run double scoring two more runners and that was already more than enough for the Mariners on this day.

"I didn't feel super-sharp in the first,' Baz said.

Their big boppers don’t hit much with runners in scoring position, 1-for-13 in the series. Gunnar Henderson has become the face of that, and now carries a paltry .708 OPS on the season, well below league average. Better get him fixed soon.

As for Baz, he continued to look much better the last month and he got more swing-and-miss than usual Thursday. He struck out nine in seven innings of work and only walked two. He wasn’t really in any trouble after the first inning, and much of that was due to his defense. Or lack thereof. His command was strong after a shaky start.

"it looked like he was feeling some things out on the mound (in the first two innings), and then he settled in," Albernaz said.

Baz’s showed off a cutter Thursday, getting a called strike or whiff on nine of the 19 times he threw it, including three for strikeouts. But emblematic of the disjointed roster Elias constructed, they finally got the rotation going again and now they can’t hit and they never really field.

So godspeed this weekend at Dodger Stadium.

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