Labor Day Bird Droppings: Where the Orioles have confirmed they’re the worst

Hello, friends.

Another day has dawned with the Orioles in last place in the American League East. The nuclear disaster that is the O’s season continues with the O’s now trailing the division-leading Red Sox by 53.5 games and even the fourth place Blue Jays by 22.5 games. With 25 games left to be played, the Orioles are very close to guaranteeing a last place finish.

The crummy series they just played this weekend against the Royals comes a lot closer to settling who will get the #1 pick next year, too. When it’s a race for the bottom, getting swept by the closest competition moves the needle a lot. The Orioles now find themselves 5.5 games behind the Royals in the cellar of all of MLB. Outside of these two sad sack squads, every other MLB team has at least 54 wins.

If you missed the latest O’s loss, a 9-1 defeat on Sunday afternoon, make sure to check out Stacey’s recap of one more ugly, stupid, pointless 2018 defeat. They are bad and they should feel bad. They probably do feel bad.

In the 137th game of the 1988 season, those Orioles also lost, a 6-1 defeat at the hands of the Red Sox. They were out-hit 13-5 in the contest and committed two errors. This dropped their record to 48-89. That’s now eight games better than the 2018 Orioles through as many games.

The 2018 O’s are on pace to win just 47 wins on the season. That is seven wins fewer than the legendarily bad 1988 Orioles. On the bright side, the Orioles need just one win in their last 25 games in order to top the win total of the 1962 New York Mets, the worst team to ever play. I think that they will probably be able to avoid finishing the season 0-25 from now on - although if any team was going to do it, it would be the 2018 Orioles.

Though a federal holiday often signals that there will be daytime baseball, this Labor Day will not provide any such entertainment for us - or at least not Orioles baseball. They don’t play until 9 tonight as they are out west to start a three game series against the Mariners.

Around the blogO’sphere

Royals put distance between themselves and Orioles in race to rebuild with speed, defense (Baltimore Sun)
The Sun’s take on the weekend’s sweep is that the Royals are already more successful at doing what the Orioles now say they are doing. There was certainly nothing in those three games to counter that argument.

Showalter with more on the closer role (Steve Melewski)
Mychal Givens brutally blew a save on Saturday night. Buck Showalter never named Givens the closer and does not name a potential other closer either.

Orioles broadcaster Ben McDonald looks back on being the prize for losing (Baltimore Baseball)
The only time before that the Orioles picked #1, they picked Ben McDonald. He’s going to have that in common with somebody new next June, probably.

Keegan Akin named Eastern League pitcher of the year (Baysox.com)
Before you get too excited, consider that the last Baysox pitcher named the pitcher of the year for the Double-A Eastern League was Brad Bergesen. Akin had a good year, though, so congratulations to him.

A look back at the best 2017-2018 free agent signings (Beyond the Box Score)
Unsurprisingly, nobody who the Orioles signed makes the cut here. Had they chosen better, they might have had a better starting rotation. Then again, there was probably no saving this team with a couple of free agent signings, no matter how good the new guys were.

Birthdays and anniversaries

There are a few former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 2010-14 reliever Troy Patton, 1987-90 utility infielder Rene Gonzales, the late Morrie Martin of the 1956 Orioles, and the late Sandy Consuegra of the 1956-57 Orioles.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include: Essayist Malcolm Gladwell (1963), actor Charlie Sheen (1965), and gold medal snowboarder Shaun White (1986).

On this day in history...

In 1260, the Mamluks and the Mongols waged the Battle of Ain Jalut in what is today Israel. The Mongols were decisively defeated for the first time and this ultimately marked the farthest that they were able to expand their territory.

In 1651, Oliver Cromwell brought an end to the Third English Civil War by defeating King Charles II’s loyalists in the Battle of Worcester. The king was deposed as he fled the country. Seven years to the day later, Cromwell died, leading eventually to Charles’s return and the resumption of his reign.

In 1783, the United States of America signed the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain, officially ending the Revolutionary War.

In 1838, later abolitionist Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery by jumping on a train in Baltimore.

In 1939, France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in response to Germany’s invasion of Poland. The same day, the newly-formed Allies began a naval blockade of Germany that lasted for the remainder of World War II.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on this Labor Day - or at least, until something happens later when the Orioles play the Mariners. Have a safe holiday. Go O’s!