Tuesday Bird Droppings: Where David couldn’t beat Goliath

Good morning, Camden Chatters.

We are now at that wonderful point where we only have to look one week into the future to see an escape from 2018 Orioles baseball. Only six games remain on their schedule. They played their final Monday game of the season last night, playing patsy to the dominant Red Sox, who trounced the O’s for their franchise-record 106th win of the year.

The Orioles are now 60.5 games worse than the Red Sox, putting them on the brink of dubious major league history. I wrote about some of that history in my game recap, so take a gander.

Now that the Red Sox have achieved their milestone and clinched home field throughout the playoffs, they might rest their stars and use a lineup full of backups and role players in tonight’s game. That said, the Red Sox backups and role players are still better than the Orioles’ regular starters, so it might not help the O’s pull out a win. We’re just counting down ‘til it’s all over, folks.

Links

Orioles Adam Jones makes 1st left field start - MLB.com
Who says it’s too late in Adam Jones’ career to learn something new?

Orioles summon John Means to Boston - School of Roch
John Means is the newest roster addition. If he gets into a game, he’ll be the 15th player to make his MLB debut for the Orioles this season, a franchise record.

O’s bullpen is finishing strong, providing hope for 2019 - Steve Melewski
Hey, the Orioles’ bullpen might have some promise next year. Now, if they can just figure out the offense, defense, starting pitching, baserunning, coaching, and fundamentals, this team might have a shot.

The Ex-Oriole report: A final look at how the former 2017 Orioles fared in 2018 - BaltimoreBaseball.com
Been wondering what’s going on with all the players the O’s traded in July? And all the other players who were on last year’s team but are gone now? This story has you covered.

Ex-Radford reliever Ryan Meisinger is 2-0 as Orioles rookie | Colleges | roanoke.com
Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that even though the Orioles are historically bad, they still have players who are living their childhood dream by playing in the big leagues. That’s why I appreciate stories like this.

Fenway homecoming for Baltimore Orioles' John Andreoli of Shrewsbury - Telegram.com
See above.

Orioles birthdays and history

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You share your big day with three Orioles right-handers from the past decade. They include Tyler Wilson (29) — now pitching in Korea for the LG Twins — who lived up to his team’s name by having twins last month. It’s also the birthday of 2016 righty Vance Worley (31) and 2009-11 righty Brad “3 E’s, 1 N” Bergesen (33), most memorable for injuring his shoulder while filming a TV commercial for the Orioles.

On this day in 1983, the Orioles clinched the AL East on their way to a World Series title. Spoiler alert: this year’s Orioles will not be doing the same.

Four years ago today, in Derek Jeter’s final game at Yankee Stadium, his former manager Buck Showalter gift-wrapped a historic final moment for him. In a tie game in the ninth, Showalter brought in Evan “5.79 ERA” Meek instead of using a good pitcher. Sure enough, Meek gave up a Jeter walkoff single (in what was Meek’s final major league appearance), launching a thousand stories in the national media fawning over Jeter’s heroics. The O’s had already clinched the division by then, so, whatever. But still.

The Orioles have assured they won’t be one of the two losingest teams in modern history. But they’re still in danger of tying the third-place 1916 Athletics if they lose all six of their remaining games. If the Birds can somehow go .500 in their final six, they’ll clear both the A’s and the 1935 Braves, but don’t count on that happening.