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

Unless the Orioles go on a winning streak of Cleveland Indians proportions, their playoff hopes are toast and their season is effectively over. They won’t be mathematically eliminated for another week and a half, but it’s done. They have just lost too many games to be able to pretend otherwise.

The Orioles haven’t gotten the memo that it’s time to play Chance Sisco and Austin Hays quite yet. That’s understandable enough. Giving up isn’t very Buck Showalter-like, nor is it like any of the O’s teams he has helmed. Far more often than not, this quality is a positive.

In a lot of ways, it’s something of a miracle that the Orioles were able to cling to the idea of contention for this long. The AL-worst starting rotation has been a constant all through the season. The offense has always been prone to the bust periods like the one it seems to be in for September.

In the meantime, there are still 17 Orioles games left to try to enjoy this year before the long winter full of inferior sports sets in - and they can still get to at least .500, if they can go 10-7 the rest of the way. So hopefully they can help themselves to that end by getting back in the win column on Wednesday night.