The Monday late night Orioles game thread: at Mariners, 10:10

The Orioles have yet to either win or lose consecutive games in the month of August. That could be worse, certainly, but it's not good enough for a team that is on the outside looking in from the postseason picture - by three games just to the second wild card. They need to be better, and they aren't better. Every loss makes it feel like the season has slipped that much farther away.

On paper, an easier team than the Angels awaits. The Mariners offense is mostly terrible. Vidal Nuno, the Mariners starting pitcher, is also mostly terrible. Win and their hopes get brighter, or at least they don't get more dim, for a day. Lose and things get closer to when the lights go out on the 2015 season for good.

The good news is that Wei-Yin Chen has performed well against AL West teams in his career, so maybe some of that will carry over into tonight's game. Maybe righty-batting Matt Wieters is just the DH the Orioles need. Maybe Junior Lake getting his first look in the outfield won't be an awful thing. I don't know. I hope I don't stay up late to have to write about a crappy game tonight.