Orioles continue to slide into oblivion with latest loss to Yankees, 9-3

The Orioles are playing the kind of baseball where it’s a good thing that baseball season is almost over. In two more weeks, we won’t have to watch this brand of baseball for a while - hopefully never again, though it’s hard to be confident in next year when watching this year limp to such a conclusion. They stunk again on Saturday afternoon and lost to the Yankees, 9-3.

As with so many other games this season, the biggest part of the story of the game is that the starting pitching was bad. And not just bad like, one step below average, but bad in a way that really defies characterization. They are a disaster.

Jeremy Hellickson was the latest disaster, as he has been in a number of games since his acquisition. There’s nothing good to be said about an outing in which Hellickson gave up four hits and walked four batters in just three-plus innings. A pair of three-run home runs did him in: Didi Gregorius in the third inning and Greg Bird in the fourth inning. The fourth inning shot prompted Hellickson’s removal from the game.

Six earned runs in three-plus innings! Even for the Orioles rotation this year, that’s bad. They may yet end up being the worst rotation in MLB by season’s end. After all, Ubaldo Jimenez is starting the series finale on Sunday afternoon. More runs would seem to be in the near future for the Yankees offense.

The blowout portions of the Orioles bullpen being what it is, the Yankees eventually ran up a 9-0 lead on the O’s. Chris Tillman relieved Hellickson and was decent enough, giving up just a run on four hits in three innings. An inning of Donnie Hart resulted in Todd Frazier hitting a two-run home run to put the O’s farther in the hole.

While this was going on, the Orioles offense had one of those games where, for most of the time, they were almost completely dormant. Yankees lefty Jordan Montgomery held the O’s to four hits and a walk over six innings, keeping them off the board entirely. Don’t blame Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo, though. They weren’t in the lineup.

One person who was in the lineup was J.J. Hardy, whose venture back into the shortstop spot brought him two hits, including an infield single.

In ninth inning garbage time, Yankees reliever Chasen Shreve had a command-challenged outing that created a little bit of positive news for the O’s in the game. Shreve ended up walking four batters in an outing that was just one-third of an inning.

Shreve allowed just one hit: A two-run home run hit by O’s outfielder Austin Hays, the first homer of his big league career. Hays had already collected his first MLB hit earlier in the game, following in catcher Chance Sisco’s footsteps from earlier in the series. Sisco entered this game late and drew two walks.

The walks gave the O’s a bases loaded situation with two outs following the Hays home run. A third run scored as the Yankees reliever who followed Shreve, Giovanny Gallegos, balked with the bases loaded.

The O’s ended up with just six hits, though they still managed to leave ten men on base and went 0-6 in their chances with runners in scoring position.

The Orioles have now lost three in a row and nine out of ten. The loss puts them five games below .500 for the year, with just a 28-47 record on the road. How are they so bad on the road? It’s almost unbelievable, if only I didn’t have the misfortune to have watched it all.

Sunday’s 1:05 finale will be the O’s chance to salvage a game from this absurd failure of a series. Jimenez starts for the O’s, with Yankees July acquisition Sonny Gray scheduled to pitch for New York.