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The battle between the two worst teams in baseball continues on Saturday night. There is no escape, and there are two more games the next two days after this. Who is truly the worst between the Orioles and Tigers? The answer seems to be the Tigers, although that doesn’t mean that the Orioles won’t find a way to lose the next three games.
In the race for draft standings, the nearly-as-woeful Marlins are creeping into the picture as well. There are three games separating the O’s and Marlins in the standings now, so if things go the other direction and the Orioles sweep the Tigers while the Marlins continue to lose, the O’s might even slip another place in the 2020 draft.
This fact is probably not why Mike Elias has chosen to recall reliever Tayler Scott from Bowie now that Bowie’s season has come to an end, but with Scott having a 21.60 ERA in six Orioles games, it’s not hard to joke that he’s part of an emergency tanking plan. A guy giving up 16 earned runs in 6.2 innings really takes some work.
The Orioles aren’t all in on tanking, of course. They’d probably rather win than lose. They’re not batting Chris Davis leadoff every game and they’re not exploding the pitching staff with bullpen games every game. That would be some awful baseball even by this team’s standards. Still, if they can goose a game lost here and there while maintaining with a straight face the idea that they’re auditioning players for roles next season...
The O’s Saturday lineup against Tigers starter Daniel Norris, who is a lot better than Friday’s Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann, though still not good:
- Hanser Alberto - 3B
- Jonathan Villar - 2B
- Trey Mancini - 1B
- Anthony Santander - RF
- Renato Núñez - DH
- Austin Hays - CF
- Mason Williams - LF
- Austin Wynns - C
- Richie Martin - SS
It’ll be Gabriel Ynoa starting for the Orioles as they try to stave off the 100-loss marker for another day. The Tigers, already at 103 losses, are the right team to play to try to keep the triple digit loss milestone at bay.
If things end up particularly grisly, the O’s are within striking distance of setting a new team record for runs allowed in a season. They currently sit at 900 runs allowed; the worst since the team moved to Baltimore is 913 runs allowed by the 2000 Orioles. It’s only a matter of time before they set that record. Hopefully today is not the day.