Sunday afternoon Orioles game thread: at Athletics, 4:05

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about going through the five stages of grief about the 2018 Orioles. At that time, when they had not lost quite so many games, any one of the stages was a reasonable place to be. Now, as we sit on May 6 with the Orioles still having won just eight games, in the middle of an eleven game losing streak, it must be depression or acceptance.

Just look at this lineup, for crying out loud. This is depressing. Not that there's any non-depressing lineup that the Orioles can assemble right now, given how poorly basically everyone except for Manny Machado is hitting. Adam Jones is out of the lineup after being hit by a pitch last night, and Trey Mancini is getting the day off. Mancini has quietly been rather awful since he banged his knee against the brick while sliding to try to catch a foul ball.

There is no certainty that these two things are connected, but it seems like giving him the day off with a scheduled off day tomorrow couldn't hurt. The worst thing that can happen without him is that the Orioles lose, and they already have that covered regardless.