The woes of the O's: Swept at Minnesota, the Birds fall 10 games under .500

Team has not been 10 under since June 15, 2022

When asked how the team is handling all the losing this year, Heston Kjerstad told reporters in Minnesota “it takes a toll on us.”

How can it not?

And how can it not on everyone in Birdland right now?

The players expected more. The fans did too. The Warehouse did for sure.

We know the players care. We know they are working hard. We know they have a lot of support and help. But all they are doing right now is not leading to wins.

With the series in Minnesota, they began a 12-game run versus the Twins, Angels, Twins and Nationals. Clubs with losing records. Given a chance in this series to separate themselves from other losing clubs the O’s did – but by losing to one of those clubs.

That is not what we were looking for, Captain Obvious said.

The O’s keep expressing confidence in their team and I believe that they believe that. But since Mike Elias said last Friday that, “I’m really optimistic and we’re optimistic we’re going to work out of that. And that things are going to get better,” the team is 1-5.

They are now 10 games under .500 for the first time since June 15, 2022.

Can a team this far under .500 in May make the playoffs? Of course it can, but we are seeing no signs of it getting better as it seems to keep getting worse.

The 2019 Nationals were 19-31 at the 50-game mark and won the World Series.

If this team did that, we would have quite the story to tell.

We could talk of how the O’s got swept in Minnesota in early May by a combined 19-5 score and were outscored during a 4-12 stretch by 71 runs. Yep, you read that right. A -71 run differential for the O’s since April 20. Eight losses during this span by four runs or more.

In this 16-game stretch of miserable baseball the club is scoring 2.38 runs per game and batting .220/.281/.339/.620 and is 16-for-123 (.130) with runners in scoring position.

The O’s went 4-for-23 with RISP in this series and 2-for-13 yesterday as players chase pitch after pitch out of the strikezone. It is hard enough to hit the strikes.

The Orioles are 2-20 when they score three or less.

Zach Eflin and Tyler O’Neill should return to the club in Anaheim this weekend and Jordan Westburg could soon follow.

Birdland for now must hold onto the hope that these players can help make this better. And before it’s too late.

Latest podcast: My latest podcast, a solo effort, can be found here. The team was merely seven games under when this was recorded! Hope you take time to listen as part of this details the background of my move to this Substack space and my hopes for this venture.