Tuesday night Orioles game thread: vs. Mariners, 7:05

The Orioles have a chance to tie their season-high winning streak of six games if they pick up a victory against the Mariners on Tuesday night. A win gives them a chance to move as close as a half game of the second wild card spot, depending on results elsewhere, and gives them a chance to pass the Angels, one of the two teams between them and that playoff spot.

All they have to do is win. It doesn’t sound too hard, does it? Bad baseball teams win games every day of the season, and the Orioles certainly aren’t playing like a bad baseball team lately. They’ve overcome occasionally poor starting pitching, occasionally shaky relief, and occasionally un-clutch hitting to manage to go on a nice stretch of games here.

The problem is that they’ve blown so many opportunities before now that they can’t afford to do much more of that for the remainder of the season. They have to keep their foot on the gas pedal.

It’s Dylan Bundy’s turn on Tuesday night, assuming the rain that’s plagued the area all day doesn’t end up lingering longer than expected to ruin either Bundy’s attempt to pitch tonight or the prospects of playing a baseball game altogether. The O’s hitters will square off against Mariners starter Erasmo Ramirez, a righty.

Mark Trumbo is out of the lineup, an apparent healthy scratch. With a sub-.300 OBP for the year, it’s hard for me to get worked up about that.