Sunday Bird Droppings: The Orioles “haven’t been swept” streak is in danger

Hello, friends.

The Orioles offense is not in a good place right now. It was easy not to see this before yesterday’s game, since the team had scored 10 runs on Monday night and seven runs in a losing effort on Wednesday night, but now they’ve scored just one run or zero runs in four of their last eight games. That includes yesterday’s 1-0 loss to the Twins. There is no excuse to have scored one run in two games against the Twins! Check out Tyler Young’s recap of the game.

Another way to look at the current swoon is that the Orioles have scored just four runs in their last 27 innings. That is a tough way to be winning games, and indeed, the Orioles haven’t. They’re now on a four-game losing streak. Everyone who was comforting themselves with the knowledge that the Orioles had not lost more than three straight will have to confront the current unpleasant reality. This team can fall down hard against the two weakest division leaders in MLB.

The Saturday loss knocks the Orioles below a .600 winning percentage as the season hits the halfway mark. They’re on pace to go 96-66 over the full season. This would be a near-certainty to get the Orioles into the playoffs eventually, if likely not enough to win them a bye. However, they’re going to need to rebound from their current 5-8 over the last 13 games pace if they’re to stabilize at this point rather than fall farther.

Though Kyle Bradish was good yesterday, in the process lowering his season ERA to 3.58, most of the rotation is not good. That includes today’s starting pitcher, Cole Irvin, who brings a 7.18 ERA over his eight games pitched. It’s a real “reverse lock” kind of mismatch since the Twins starter is Sonny Gray, whose ERA is less than 40% of Irvin’s. Note that this finale starts at 12:05pm Eastern, and note also that its only TV broadcast will be on Peacock. If you don’t get that, you’ll have to listen on the radio.

Losing the first two games of this series against the Twins has put the Orioles in danger of being swept for the first time since they were in Detroit last May. As has been noted here and elsewhere, that’s the entire duration of Adley Rutschman’s career, plus one series, since the last time the O’s have been swept. It’s a nice streak that I hope they can find a way to continue. Hope is about all that I can do because the reality of right now is not pretty.

Around the blogO’sphere

MASN has played the same 2020 Orioles game for 4 straight rain delays, and we don’t know why (The Baltimore Banner)
The Banner’s Andy Kostka actually got a comment from MASN about its latest embarrassment - that answered little to nothing about what has happened or why. There is, at least, a sense of why the game ever became a classic: It is Keegan Akin’s first MLB win.

Why this was deemed a game of significance in the first place is still unknown despite the MASN spokesman’s statement, along with why it made its way into the rotation in 2023, and why it was THAT SAME GAME four times in a week. Cheers to The Banner for digging into this, and shame on the relevant MASN decisionmakers who are responsible for it.

Amid some debate, Jackson Holliday is now No. 1 prospect on MLB Pipeline (Steve Melewski)
The Orioles themselves haven’t given us much to cheer about this week, so happy Jackson Holliday headlines are certainly welcome.

Jackson Holliday talks about being No. 1 prospect (Orioles.com)
Jake Rill got to chat with the 2022 #1 overall pick shortly after being minted Pipeline’s top prospect. He sounds like he has a good head on his shoulders.

Hyde talks about roster move - Chris Vallimont’s contract selected (School of Roch)
There was a need for an emergency long reliever on the roster since Bruce Zimmermann pitched on Friday, so the Orioles juggled the roster to get Vallimont here.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 2013, the Orioles acquired Scott Feldman from the Cubs for Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop. Feldman’s performance tailed off here. Arrieta went on to win a Cy Young in Chicago. Let’s hope Mike Elias does a better job of in-season addition to the starting rotation.

There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2018-19 pitcher Pedro Araújo, and 1963 six-game reliever Pete Burnside. Burnside passed away last year at age 92.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: first Black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1908), civil rights activist Medgar Evers (1925), Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas (1932), race car driver Richard Petty (1937), singer-songwriter Michelle Branch (1983), and actress Margot Robbie (1990).

On this day in history...

In 1644, the Royalists were defeated in the English Civil War’s Battle of Marston Moor, in which a combined army of Parliamentarians (including future leader Oliver Cromwell) and Scottish men sent the Royalists packing from the north of England.

In 1776, the Continental Congress approved the resolution that formally severed ties with the United Kingdom. The text of the Declaration of Independence that proclaimed American independence to the wider world was approved two days later and has come to be the celebrated day.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed a variety of public forms of racial discrimination, including segregation.

In 1976, South Vietnam was officially wiped off the map as it was annexed by North Vietnam, creating a single country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on July 2. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!