The Saturday afternoon Orioles game thread: at Red Sox, 4:05

Could anything have possibly been more 2015 Orioles than, after clawing their way back to a .500 record, getting complete game shut out by Rich Hill while the pitcher of the Orioles future, Kevin Gausman, turned in another one of those games that makes you wonder if he's just the next Jake Arrieta, who will blossom elsewhere after the Orioles finally give up on him?

They've only got nine games left to top that. One opportunity will stand in front of them today in a game that is going to be pitched entirely by the Boston bullpen, starting with Craig Breslow. What a mess of a team those Red Sox must be - first they've had to turn to Hill (and it's somehow worked!) for three starts this month, and now there's a bullpen game? There's no other scrub you can throw out there who is an actual starting pitcher? Which, by the way, is how you know the Orioles will get shut out again, although at least Breslow won't be throwing a complete game.

There is still no Adam Jones in the Orioles lineup. The Orioles continue to act as if he will be back tomorrow in the words they speak. That's what they say, and maybe they mean it at the time, but for now you've got Nolan Reimold in center field, Ryan Flaherty in left. The hodge-podge outfield didn't work out very well last night, although it's not the only reason the Orioles lost, of course. They lost because there are key deficiencies in this year's team which keep rearing their heads right when we get our hopes up a tiny little bit.

But, for all of that, there are so few games remaining, and like that song Anna Kendrick sings in Pitch Perfect, I'm going to miss them when they're gone.