Orioles decide one win in a day is enough, play poorly and lose big to Yankees

On more than one occasion in this horrendous 2018 season, the Orioles have gone whole weeks without winning even one game. The idea that they might have won two games in one day was theoretically possible after they won the first game of a doubleheader. In actuality, it was impossible, because they’re still the Orioles and they’re still very bad. They lost the nightcap to the Yankees, 10-2.

The game was the kind of baseball with which we have become all too familiar this season. A starting pitcher was bad, the defense was bad, the bullpen was bad, and the offense, well, they were bad, too. It all added up to yet another game where the Orioles scored two or fewer runs. This may be their biggest specialty this season.

With the Orioles picking up only five hits over the whole game, there wasn’t even much in the way of excitement. The O’s only scored some runs in garbage time after the outcome was long since decided.

The most interesting thing there was going on about the game was to follow the journey around the stadium of Adam Jones, who had the night off and had fun with it:

Jones later made his way into the grounds crew’s shed, and on his way back into the clubhouse, stopped to wave for the cameras from inside the out-of-town scoreboard:

Whether by trade, free agency, or simply from playing out his career here, I’m going to miss that guy when he’s gone. He helped warm up pitchers between innings, too.

The O’s never had much of a chance. Former Yankees farmhand Yefry Ramirez drew the assignment against his former organization in the second game. He struggled a lot, giving up nine hits and two walks in just four innings. The Yankees put four runs on the board against Ramirez, more than they needed to win on its own.

After Ramirez had a short outing, Maryland’s own Ryan Meisinger was summoned to try to give the team some length and spare the rest of the bullpen. This may have been the only successful thing about the Orioles in the game. Meisinger threw three perfect innings, striking out three batters. You could definitely call that stopping the bleeding. He gave them a chance to mount a comeback, not that the O’s took the chance.

In the eighth inning, the Orioles called on Brad Brach and things started to go awry again. One of the remarkable things about the 2018 team is the way that anyone - except for Manny Machado - who you might have thought had a little trade value before the season has torched that value thoroughly.

They just wanted Brach to get an inning’s work in and he could not even manage that. Brach threw 31 pitches to six batters, giving up four runs (three earned) on four hits, including a two-run shot hit by Yankees catcher Austin Romine. The unearned run was the result in a throwing error made by Jonathan Schoop.

This is the 2018 Orioles, so of course things could get worse from there. Tanner Scott was called on to get the last out that Brach couldn’t get. Scott hurled his very first pitch all the way back to the screen behind home plate. Yeah, it was going to be THAT kind of party. Scott walked the first batter he saw, walked the second one to load the bases again, and then had his inherited runner score on the Schoop error.

Well, at least maybe Scott could finish off the game and spare more of the bullpen, right? Nope. He had problems in the ninth inning too and finished his outing with four hits and three walks allowed in an inning. Two more runs were charged to Scott before Paul Fry at last got the final out. Orioles pitchers were charged with a total of 17 hits.

Here are two stupid things that happened in this game that don’t fit anywhere else. Chance Sisco overthrew Ramirez on a toss back to the mound. Runners did not advance, thankfully, due to Schoop backing up the play. In the seventh inning, when the O’s “only” trailed 4-0, Jace Peterson got thrown out trying to steal second base. Why are you even trying to run when you’re down four runs in the second inning? The world may never know.

Hitting? There was none. Okay, Tim Beckham hit a garbage time two-run home run, which is noteworthy because he had last homered on March 31. He was on the disabled list for two months in the middle there, but still, geez. At least that drought is snapped for now.

The Orioles hitters were helpless against Yankees starter Luis Cessa, because that’s how they roll. Their few rallies were snuffed out by double plays, with Danny Valencia grounding into a couple and Machado grounding into one. Reliever Giovanny Gallegos, called up just for the doubleheader, finished off the final three innings to get that peculiar save in a blowout.

With the loss in the second game of the doubleheader, the O’s are back down to 41 games below .500. That’s just an absurd thing to have to write. Their .275 winning percentage puts them on pace to win 45 games this season, if you round up. The O’s stretches of losing are as follows: Seven of their last eight, 14 of their last 16, and 25 of their last 31. Fire everyone and trade everything.

The Royals lost their lone game on Monday, leaving the O’s a half-game back of Kansas City in the quest to avoid the worst record in MLB. It’s really something. This is a worse baseball team than you can even imagine and there’s somebody else out there as bad or possibly even worse. Baseball ain’t great.

The slog that is this season continues on Tuesday night as the O’s continue this series against the Yankees. Andrew Cashner and Masahiro Tanaka are the scheduled starters in the 7:05 contest.