This Orioles team is just not fun to watch right now. They lost again on Tuesday night, a 4-1 defeat to the AL-leading Tampa Bay Rays. At 21-28, the O\u2019s are back in the division cellar, among the absolute worst teams in the entire sport.<\/p>\n
Once again, the offense was basically a no-show. Taylor Ward opened the game with a homer, and then the team went 3-for-28 with two walks and nine strikeouts for the remainder of the evening. The 4-8 spots in the order went completely hitless. Yuck.<\/p>\n
There was better news on the pitching side of things. Kyle Bradish continues to look much better. He allowed two runs over 5.1 innings, mostly taken out by his own pitch count. The bullpen was then solid (one run over the next 2.2 innings). That did include a run charged to Rico Garcia, only the second such occurrence this season. He\u2019s still pretty good though!<\/p>\n
The thing that I find the most frustrating about this team is their inability to maintain momentum of any sort. If they score a run in the top half of an inning, you can almost guarantee they will be allowing a run (or more) in the bottom half of that inning. That\u2019s what happened in the first inning on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
That lack of a shutdown inning has to sap any sort of positive vibes that might poke their head out of the Orioles dugout. Why get excited? You know that lead is going to disappear anyway?<\/p>\n
There is still time for this team to figure it out, especially in such a poor American League. They are only 2.5 games back of the the final wild card spot with 113 games left on the schedule. The math is doable. But even that avenue will disappear if they don\u2019t start scoring more runs. Right now, there is nothing to indicate that will happen.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s gonna be another hot one in the Baltimore area today. Hopefully you can stay inside and catch the conclusion to this series, either on TV or the radio. 1:05 is the scheduled first pitch from St. Pete.<\/p>\n
Ward\u2019s leadoff homer all O\u2019s bats can muster as offensive issues continue | MLB.com<\/a>
This article includes a sentence that starts with \u201cThe Orioles generally played well enough to win on Tuesday\u2026\u201d I\u2019m sorry, what? They scored one run. The defense didn\u2019t make the key play of the game. This is a major league game. Those are the moments where you need to come through, and far too often this team fails.<\/p>\n