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Like the pack of occasionally exciting but generally disappointing people they have been for most of the season, the Orioles turned in a clunker of an effort on Tuesday night.
They still have a chance on Wednesday afternoon to close out their west coast road trip with a .500 record - if, that is, they can beat the Mariners in their series finale. That's not great, but it could be good enough if they can come back home and rattle off a winning streak.
It's not a must-win game in an absolute sense, but again, it's a game that if they don't win, the whole rest of the way will be that much harder. The Mariners haven't been playing well lately. If the Orioles are going to be contenders, it's a game they should win. Maybe they're not going to be contenders. They have been telling us for months they're not all that great after all. Yet we keep getting tricked into believing for small amounts of time.
Ubaldo Jimenez is pitching today. Here's hoping that this ends up being one of the days where that's a good thing - and whether it is or not, hopefully the Orioles offense actually scores him some runs.