In the full fortnight separating the Orioles from their last victory, they’ve rendered the unfortunate commonplace and flirted with the absurd. As the losses pile up, so do the implausibilities.
This weekend in Chicago, their catcher made an error attempting to throw a runner out stealing second -- on a walk. Their pitchers allowed homers on consecutive days to a player who hadn’t homered twice in his past 205 games. Their manager called them “embarrassing,” “overmatched” and could do little but wake up the next morning, run out more or less the same lineup, and hand the ball to a rookie starter. They haven’t gotten a hit with a runner in scoring position since Wednesday, a full five-day drought. They’ve weathered injuries to their best player, watched their bullpen crumble behind their ace, lost by nine, seven, three, four and five, by two four times and by one twice.
These are the darkest days of the Orioles’ rebuild, now in its third season. The O’s are mired in a 13-game losing streak after dropping Sunday’s series finale, 3-1, to the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. It is their longest skid since September 2009, when they also lost 13 straight, and third-longest since moving to Baltimore in 1954. It has now spanned four series, four different cities and the records of eight different pitchers and come amid a stretch of 20 losses in 22 games.
“We have to continue to push,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’re in almost every game. It was a tough road trip. The majority of the games are right there for us in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. We are not quitting. Guys are competing, so I’m happy about that. But we could use a three-run homer, big time, in a big spot.”
Sunday’s result crystallized in the bottom of the seventh, when Chicago used run-scoring Nick Madrigal and Yoán Moncada hits to jump ahead by two against Dillon Tate. Tate had been tasked with preserving a 1-1 tie, after the two teams traded DJ Stewart and Billy Hamilton solo homers for 6 1/2 innings. Hamilton’s second homer in as many days -- he hadn’t hit multiple homers in a season since 2018 -- was one of the few dents on Keegan Akin, who struck out four over 4 2/3 innings in his first start of the season. But the rookie left-hander was outpitched by Lucas Giolito, who struck out 12 across seven frames of one-run ball.
“We’re in the game, another close game, we just don’t quite score enough runs,” Hyde said. “Despite that seventh inning, I thought we threw the ball really well. We held a really good club to three runs on the day. But we’re lacking the big hit in the big spot.”
For Hyde, this assessment has become a refrain. The Orioles managed two hits besides Stewart’s solo homer Sunday, both by Cedric Mullins, and watched their only real threat dissolve against Giolito in the sixth. They are hitless in their last 25 at-bats with runners in scoring position, their longest drought since an 0-for-29 stretch in 2019, 1-for-their-last-32 and 4-for-their-last-64 in those situations. They started three players Sunday with single-digit RBIs, four with an OPS south of .700.
Meanwhile, the fact that Akin required 94 pitches to record 14 outs in a start Hyde characterized as “outstanding” speaks to the quality of pitching the O’s are receiving lately from everyone else. The last Baltimore starter to win a game was John Means, when he no-hit the Mariners on May 5. Since then, Baltimore’s rotation is 0-13 with a collective 7.11 ERA, and its bullpen owns a 6.09 ERA in that span. Sunday’s loss did not feature that level of implosion, but did feature fundamental mistakes -- including difficulty holding runners and sloppiness throwing to bases, both done by Tate in the seventh -- that seem to be afflicting the roster writ large.
So where does it end? The Orioles return to Camden Yards on Monday to open an eight-game homestand against the Twins, Indians and Mets, three clubs with playoff aspirations and reigning and previous Cy Young winners. Then they go to St. Petersburg for three, Cleveland for four, and play 13 straight against the Astros and Blue Jays.
Every day, exciting developments occur at the Minor League level. This week brought a slew of promotions, including for No. 2 prospect Grayson Rodriguez and No. 6 prospect Jordan Westburg. Top overall prospect Adley Rutschman homered Sunday at Double-A Bowie. But for the big league Orioles, April saw them hover around .500, and May saw them sink to the bottom of the standings. June looms one day away, and promises no letup.
“I think the mood [in the clubhouse] is OK,” Akin said. “I don’t think we’re playing bad baseball. We just have to get on the right page and go from there.”