Monday night Orioles game thread: at Blue Jays, 7:07

The death of a baseball season is coming for the Orioles. It lurks ever closer with each loss, and for that matter, with each Twins win. At this moment, the Orioles “tragic number” is 17. That’s still a big number with 19 games to play, but it’s not going to remain a big number for long if the Orioles don’t snap out of this losing streak and go on a winning streak of significant length instead.

The time is ripe to do it. The O’s get to play the last-place Blue Jays for the next three games, starting tonight in Toronto. Even the disappointing Orioles are better than these Jays, although whether they’re better enough than the Jays to win two or three games on the road, right now, is another story.

Did I mention that the Orioles are turning to Ubaldo Jimenez to start this near-must-win game for them? Not that there are many Orioles pitchers who would make you feel confident about the outcome of this game, but Jimenez is certainly not one of them. He ended up saving the O’s down the stretch some last year. Maybe that can happen again over the last three weeks of the season here.

Or so we can dream. Mark Trumbo is the right fielder tonight, while Seth Smith is the designated hitter. I don’t know why.