Wednesday afternoon Orioles game thread: at Yankees, 1:05

The Orioles have 55 games left to play and they will do this without everyone who got traded in July. There is no getting around the fact that although the Orioles have launched into a rebuild, which could eventually be exciting, for now there are just the guys left behind. No interesting prospects have made their way to Baltimore yet.

This fact is driven home by the lone roster move made by the Orioles today. They called up reliever Donnie Hart to fill the roster spot of the traded Kevin Gausman. If you are like me, you were probably hoping for Cedric Mullins. Maybe he will be here soon, I don’t know, but he’s not here today and the ones who are here line up like this...

1. Tim Beckham - SS
2. Jace Peterson - RF
3. Adam Jones - CF
4. Danny Valencia - DH
5. Chris Davis - 1B
6. Trey Mancini - LF
7. Caleb Joseph - C
8. Renato Nunez - 3B
9. Breyvic Valera - 2B

That’s the lineup and defense in support of today’s starter, Alex Cobb. They will initially be going up against Yankees starter Sonny Gray, who has pitched poorly of late, except for the last time he faced the Orioles a month ago.

The Orioles must go 31-24 to avoid finishing with 100 losses. Forget about that. If they go .500 from here out, they will have a record of 58-104. They need to win at least 23 more games to end up better than the 1988 Orioles, and they are currently on pace to finish the season with 48 wins (six fewer than 1988) if you round to the nearest whole number.