Orioles embarrass themselves in 13-3 loss to Blue Jays

An Orioles road trip that started with such promise in New York earlier this week came to a close on Sunday with the fourth straight defeat at the hands of division rival Blue Jays. All losses hurt, but today’s matinee affair was worse than usual. The orange birds fell to the blue birds by a score of 13-3 at Rogers Centre. The nightmare 2018 season in Baltimore continues.

It’s kind of amazing how terrible this team can be. Each day, they lose in new and interesting ways. That’s not to say it’s fun to watch. It’s not. In fact, it’s awful. But think about just how bad these guys are. You’re going to remember this team forever because, let’s face it, they are going to lose 100 games, and Chris Davis will have the worst offensive season in baseball history. They are on pace to be the worst Orioles team ever. Worse than the ‘88 club. “If you’re going to suck, might as well be the best at sucking” is what I always say.

Anyway, on today’s episode: the O’s take an early lead only to promptly blow it in extraordinary fashion and completely fall apart there after.

Trey Mancini started things with a two-out solo home run in the bottom of the second inning. That would be the O’s last base runner until the sixth inning. Hope you enjoyed it.

In between the Orioles accomplishing the harrowing task of getting a guy on base, the Blue Jays scored all 13 of their runs. It was Alex Cobb’s worst performance since joining the O’s. And that’s saying something, since he was shellacked in just about every start back in April. Today, he allowed nine runs on 11 hits, one walk and five strikeouts in just 3.2 innings of work.

Following Mancini’s home run in the top of the second, the Blue Jays responded in their half of the inning with a two-run double from Curtis Granderson to give the home team a 2-1 lead. It was not the most powerful extra base hit you’ll ever see. It was more a pop fly that not-really-a-left-fielder Mancini couldn’t get to and, instead, made an ill-advised dive and let the ball get past him. Toronto added to the lead in the third inning with a one-run dong of their own off the bat of Kendrys Morales.

Those three runs, it turns out, were not enough to win this game, but it sure felt like it at the time. This Orioles team seems defeated even when facing the smallest of deficits. On this day, the pitching was bad, and it didn’t really matter that the offense was, again, less than great. But every deficit looks insurmountable when a lineup consistently goes multiple innings without even threatening the opposition. It was more of the same on Sunday with the added “benefit” of a pitching staff that struggled to get outs.

Before we get into all of that bad stuff, there was one nice moment. Manny Machado (of course) made a cool play on a ball deflected by third baseman Jace Peterson in the third inning to get the runner at first base. There were no runners on and it didn’t change much, but we’re grasping at straws right now.

How bad was the rest of the game? On the post-game MASN TV coverage, studio host Tom Davis felt the need to thank the television audience for continuing to watch this team day after day. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in getting an itchy remote finger during the fourth inning where Cobb completely fell apart.

Randal Grichuk led off with a single up the middle. After Cobb, somehow, got an out, Gio Urshela singled on a line drive up the middle that, it seemed, was hit perfectly to second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who was covering the bag on a Grichuk stolen base attempt. Schoop botched it. Granderson made that mistake hurt with a three-run bomb to right center, making it 6-1.

That’s not where it would end, though. Yangervis Solarte and Teoscar Hernandez delivered back-to-back singles to get Cobb right back into trouble. A Kevin Pillar single scored both runners to put an end to Cobb’s day. Unfortunately, Cobb’s relief, Pedro Araujo, wouldn’t be any better. Araujo walked Martin and allowed Cobb’s final run with another Grichulk single, plating Pillar. When the dust settled, the O’s were facing a 9-1 hole.

Araujo returned to the rubber for the fifth, but wouldn’t make it out of the inning. Urshela led off with a walk and came right home on another Granderson double. Two batters later, Hernandez got in on the home run with a two-run round-tripper. Pillar put an exclamation point on the afternoon with his own solo dong to score Toronto’s final run of the day.

The four-bagger also capped Araujo’s day. The right-handed Rule 5 pick lasted just an inning and allowed four runs on four hits, two walks and a strikeout. His season ERA now sits at 7.71, which is actually worse than Cobb’s 7.23 mark.

From there, not much of note happened. The O’s scored twice in the seventh inning. Schoop led off with a home run, and Chris Davis would score (gasp!) later on when Peterson grounded into a fielder’s choice. That was all they could get after loading the bases with one out. Even when the team scores, they disappoint.

Mike Wright Jr. did a nice job to stop the bleeding. He didn’t allow any runs in 2.1 innings, struck out two and gave up four hits. Darren O’Day followed and returned from the DL with a scoreless eighth inning. Zach Britton comes back tomorrow and that will improve the O’s bullpen even further. It’s nice, but it doesn’t really matter.

This team is pretty pitiful and they are still becoming increasingly more difficult to watch. If you dare, the Birds return to Camden Yards tomorrow. Steven Wright (2-0, 1.57 ERA) takes the mound for the Red Sox. Dylan Bundy (4-7, 4.04 ERA) starts for the O’s. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.