Monday night Orioles game thread: vs. Rangers, 7:05

As John Cougar Mellencamp once sang, baseball goes on long after the thrill of the season is gone. It’s been several years since we’ve had such dark days as Orioles fans in the month of July, for which we should all be thankful, but it seems that there’s nothing left to be done that can stave off the late summer doldrums.

Chris Tillman, of course, is a big part of the reason that the Orioles are in those doldrums. He has yet to pitch more than six innings in a game this season and has gone fewer than five innings in five of eleven starts. He hasn’t pitched since June 30 due to going on the paternity list and then the All-Star break.

Maybe the time off will be good for Tillman. Continuing to pitch every five games sure wasn’t working out for him. Only in his most recent start did he finally lower his ERA, a two runs in five innings effort that brought him down to a 7.90 ERA for the season, though let’s not forget that the only reason more runs didn’t score was that Miguel Castro pulled a rabbit out of his hat coming out of the bullpen into a hot spot.

There are two weeks left until the trade deadline. Probably nobody is getting traded tonight. If we’re lucky, maybe Tillman and the Orioles won’t play the kind of game that reminds you why a bunch of people are going to get traded.