The Saturday night Orioles game thread: at Rangers, 8:05

In darker days of the franchise that really weren't so long ago, I once remarked that sticking around and watching some of these bleak, late August games is surely the sign of an addict. This is not the place to get help for your problem. This is the place where you will find the other people who will take a sip and pass the bottle. There will probably be a lot of that tonight.

But and still, the Orioles are "only" 3.5 games out of the wild card chase, and there are enough games remaining in the season that all they have to do is make up a game for every ten games left. Is that in the realm of possibility? Well, sure. Yet the hopes of it are dimmer every day, as with each passing loss, the absurd winning streak on which the Orioles must embark grows longer and longer. We simply haven't seen a team that's capable of pulling off that kind of streak.

The starting pitching and hitting have not been able to put it all together at the same time. What have they done to make us believe that they could potentially do so in the last five weeks of baseball? Nothing, is what. Only the blind hope of a foolish fan could ever convince you otherwise. Yet here is the refuge of the other fools, so you are in good company - or at least you're in company.