Thursday Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles didn’t lose twice in one day

Hello, friends.

With a split of Wednesday’s doubleheader to close out the Orioles season series against the Red Sox, the O’s kept themselves at 60.5 games back in the American League East. They have four games left and if they win them all, they will have 50.

As the Orioles are about to play the defending World Series champion Astros, that’s not a particularly likely scenario. Houston has clinched their division as well as the #2 record in the AL, so they don’t have a lot to play for, but they don’t need anything to play for to beat the Orioles. They’re just better than these guys. The Astros won their 46th game on June 15, for crying out loud - three months and 11 days before the O’s won their 46th.

If you weren’t watching yesterday’s two games against the Red Sox, that’s probably better for your sanity, but you certainly missed a couple of eventful meaningless games. Check out Paul Folkemer’s recap of the 19-3 pasting that the Red Sox did of the Orioles in the afternoon and Alex Church’s recap of the 10-3 victory the O’s pulled off in the nightcap, which included a tremendously satisfying Craig Kimbrel implosion.

There’s not much left now. Will Chris Davis play again this season? Will the O’s do the right thing and give fans every chance to see Adam Jones this weekend? Who is even going to pitch in these final few games? The O’s have had to resort to using “openers” out of desperation lately. It is generous to say that they are limping to the finish line. It’s more like they collapsed on the course.

Around the blogO’sphere

Chris Davis is having merely one of the worst seasons ever (Fangraphs)
Although it was dodgy for a while there, the verdict is in and Davis has avoided having the worst player season ever.

Updating the O’s rotation (School of Roch)
There kind of isn’t a starting rotation right now, but still, there’s only one TBD listed for the final series, as long as a cut on Yefry Ramirez’s hand doesn’t get worse.

If Showalter is on the way out, Orioles need to know they can find someone better (Baltimore Sun)
The Orioles don’t need to know any such thing as they go about trying to replace Buck Showalter or not. They need someone with different strengths as they head into this new era for the franchise.

In difficult season, Cobb shows Orioles real class (Baltimore Baseball)
Hopefully next season he can show them a better ERA. The headline missed a golden opportunity to say “genuine class” which, as I learned from an episode of The Simpsons, is an anagram for Alec Guinness.

Once again, DJ Stewart is overcoming struggles to swing hot bat (Steve Melewski)
Hoping Stewart gets to play a good bit over the last four games as well.

The worst DRS we’ve ever seen (Fangraphs)
To my surprise, it’s NOT the 2018 Orioles, although they do crack the top ten list.

Birthdays and anniversaries

In 1996, now-Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar spit on umpire John Hirschbeck. After the game, he gave a quote to media that led to Hirschbeck having to be restrained from entering the O’s locker room the next day.

A pair of former Orioles have birthdays today. They are: 1978 outfielder Carlos Lopez, and 1961-66 reliever Dick Hall. On his birthday on this day in 1970, Hall was the winner in relief for his tenth win of the season, becoming the first pitcher since 1919 to end the season with more wins than walks. Hall walked only six batters in 61 innings.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include: Founding Father Samuel Adams (1722), singer-songwriter Meat Loaf (1947), not-as-good-a-third-baseman-as-Brooks Robinson Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt (1949), actress Gwyneth Paltrow (1972), rapper Lil Wayne (1982), and singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne (1984).

On this day in history...

In 1066, William the Conqueror, who at that time was just William II of Normandy, set sail from the mouth of the Somme with his invasion force, leading to the Norman conquest of England.

In 1590, Pope Urban VII died. This is noteworthy because he had been chosen as pope just 13 days previously, making his the shortest papacy in history.

In 1777, Lancaster, Pennsylvania was the capital for one day as a result of the Continental Congress abandoning Philadelphia to escape the invading British.

In 1956, Air Force Captain Milburn G. Apt became the first person to achieve Mach 3. On the same mission as this feat, the X-2 plane went out of control and crashed, killing Apt.

In 1962, Rachel Carson’s The Silent Spring was first published.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on September 27 - or at least, until something happens later when the Orioles play the Astros, even if nobody can say that what happens will be good. Have a safe Thursday. Go O’s!