Orioles SCHIZOPHRENIC ROAD TRIP Recap

Once again, the Orioles prove why they are one of the biggest teases the city of Baltimore has seen. Amazingly, they enter Friday 1.5 games out of a wild-card spot, but this was not the O's team we were promised years ago. #Birdland #BaltimoreOrioles #MLBonX 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Welcome back in, folks, to another episode of the Charm City Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollyhan. We're back here on this Thursday evening, and I'll tell you, folks, if they're going to continue to sit a game and a half back out of a wild card spot, we're going to continue to come on here and talk about the Baltimore Royals. And we will continue to do it because they are still, amazingly, obviously a game and a half out of a wild card spot alive here in the postseason. The problem is I have a tough time believing, and I've said this the whole way, and it continues, though, to occur. So maybe, just maybe, the American League really is that putrid this year that they can actually go through an entire season of being below 500, and by the time the last week in September rolls around, they could hold a wild card spot or sit like a game out of a wildcard spot. I mean, that could very well be obtainable. It is amazing to say, but quite literally that is where this team is at. And we recap the road trip. A road trip that, uh, believe it or not, saw the Orioles go into it at 34 and 39 and then leave it a game worse than when they started the dang thing. Because you're now sitting here looking at a team, you're looking straight dead into the face of a team that is 38 and 44, six games below 500. Again, six games below 500. Again, amazingly still in position to actually make a postseason spot. But I'll tell you what. I don't know if there was ever a greater example of one team perhaps taking another team lightly. You can look right at that Dodgers and O's series. I mean, that last Sunday game, you know, where the Orioles really did beat the Dodgers to a pulp and miraculously win that series. I mean, the Dodgers, I don't know if they gave them the gift, if they were just feeling generous, maybe felt bad for the O's, but they managed to win a series on this road trip, sit at 3-3 with an opportunity. I mean, we are talking about an Orioles team that if they handled business against the Angels, they not only would have creeped closer and closer to potentially potentially get back to 500, but they could right now be holding one of those wild card spots. I mean, legitimately, that's where we are. The team that holds the final spot in that American League wildcard is the Houston Astros at 40 and 43. The opportunity has quite literally been staring at you right in the face this entire way. You know, we are now over halfway through the season. You're 38 and 44. And you're basic I mean, you are a joke. This team is a joke. Minus 25 in the run differential. If one thing goes wrong, if one thing's maybe going right, like halfway, like you see the offense, you know, putting up some runs, then the bullpen stinks. If the starting pitching struggles, the offense might late have a comeback, but the offense can't completely pick up the starting pitching half the time. The starting pitching is the one thing that if it falters, the lineup cannot cannot come back from a deficit recently. They've had examples of it throughout the season, but the majority of it of the time, and especially if they go down early, they cannot bite back. That happened the other night against the Angels. It happened against the Mariners. And the Mariners series, I gotta tell you, that was just a series in which the Mariners flexed their muscles and they just straight up outpitched you. And they showed you why. Because the Mariners actually have an identity. And I know they're sitting 41 and 41. They're exactly 500, but the Mariners have an identity. They built through a specific, and when they built through that point, they found gems in their offense, and they've been able to do just enough. And obviously, Cal Raleigh last year, who's not having a good year this year, uh Rodriguez, who obviously is a big hitter for them. But they built through the starting pitching, they've gotten great pitching in the last couple years, and that has been their backbone. Where the Orioles' main focus was in their offense. And they have a decent offense. Not a great all, but it can be a great offense. It can be among one of the best offenses in baseball, but it's just not consistent enough. And then you look at where they needed to be better, which was in the margins, which is where the Mariners are better, which is how the Dodgers, how the Dodgers are better. Where winning is truly done within the margins, within the little things. And that's something the Orioles just cannot get right because that bullpen is a travesty. Seeing Kittridge go out there. I mean, my God, Andrew Kittridge is a shell, an absolute shell of what he wants of where he was last season for the Orioles. An absolute shell. I mean, we're talking about a guy who can go out there from time to time and give you a performance out of the bullpen, but a majority of the time, you know, he is what his ERA says he is. Keegan Aiken, why he's still on this roster makes no sense. Keegan Aiken should have been gone two years ago. They should have been looking for a replacement for Keegan Aiken. But Kittridge and Aiken on this team, Kittridge, who has a six-flat ERA, Aiken, who's just a joke at 6'1-7. You got Hellesley out there who I mean, I is he 100% ready to come back? Maybe he needed more time down there, and then now you got Rico Garcia out there fumbling around like he was the other night. The the only the guys in this bullpen who I have anything nice to say about, and I'm not going to completely Hellesley's coming back, but and he's he really struggled out west, but Garcia's been fine for the most part. Canoe's been fantastic, Wells has shown up, Wolfram's been fine as your left E reliever. But Aiken's a joke, Kittridge is a joke. Enough is enough. You get an early lead, you know, after falling behind two nothing, so they finally come back in a game to get a lead, especially early in said game, and what happens? You build a 5-2 lead, and then in the eighth, it goes kaput. It goes absolutely kaput. You can't get outs against an Angels team that has been looking to rebuild for the last, I don't know, five years, three years. They're not a serious winning team. You should be better than the Angels. Of course, let's face it, with the way the American League is, you know, and where the American League West is, I mean, the Angels are seven games out of uh the top spot in the American League West, and in the wild card, they're only five and a half back of a wild card spot. One of those teams turns it around and has a good week. Like say you play seven games in a week, the Angels go 41 and 48, they get lucky here and there. They're sitting where the Orioles are right now, game and a half back out of a wild card spot. Or maybe in a wild card spot if things break your way. The math there wouldn't obviously make up with everyone else, but I'm just using that as an example that they can bounce back into this race. Anyone can in the American League. And if you're the Orioles, you're sitting here looking at it, and you gotta be saying, Man, we've got a gift to a man. We have a gift right in front of us. It's staring right at and this is how I felt coming into the series against the Angels. The opportunity to actually put yourself in a position to get A into a wild card spot and B back to 500 is staring at you right in the face. And the reason why I keep bringing up 500 is because you want to win more than you lose. To a man that's the name of the game. And they don't even I mean, they act like they don't care. It's like they get to they get to a certain point and then it's like you pull the rug out from under them and they get complacent. I mean, this team is full of a bunch of scrubs at this point. Heartless. I gotta wonder where your heads are at. There's no urgency. You get on a roll for a couple days, you get to a three-game win streak, and it's like, oh, we can take it easy. No, you have to work hard. I I don't get it. I honestly do not understand it. Anthony Santander, Austin Hayes, Cedric Mullins. I I guess throw means in there as well. But those were the veteran guys for however many years. You know, from twenty-one to twenty-four and into last year. And in twenty-three and twenty-four, you watch what they did every single day. You watched how they prepared as big leaguers. And no, they weren't MVP candidates. I mean, Santander was a tremendous home or home run hitter. And Cedric Mullins was awesome at the top of the lineup, lead-off role. But you weren't gonna confuse him with some of the bigger left-handed hitting American League players. You weren't gonna confuse him with Jordan Alvarez. And Austin Hayes was Austin Hayes. But at the very least, I think a lot of these guys coming up, the the one thing I will say, if I can look at all this, is a lot of these guys coming up, I mean, did they even take anything from them in the way they prepared, in the way they went out there every single day and handled their business? Because I gotta wonder if you guys are just a bunch of cocky jokers. Because that's what it comes back to. Oh, we're too good enough. No, you're not. You stink. You're a joke. This team is a joke in and of itself. And I'll tell you one thing. This ownership group, how these fans, with the season that they're going on and where it trajects to, and where the farm and all the building you did when you were absolute garbage from 2018, 19, you got lucky with the COVID 2020 season, but in 2021, then you started turning things around, and for your rebuild to turn out like this, to where it's like, what was the point in thinking there was going to be a better tomorrow? Because if you're the if you're the fans, what was the point in that? If this was the product that you were gonna get, when it was time for these guys to come up, when it was time for these guys to take the reins on this team, what was the honest to God point in all of that, in the belief? Because you watch it, how many times you put on a game, they have a tough time selling out the crap? I mean, it looks like a minor league ballpark. It really does. And I get it's a weekday game, but you know, I mean, it's a summertime. Summertime baseball. Hell, for postseason games, they have a tough time selling out the crap. Post season home games. What makes you think if this fails, they have to go through another one of these god forbidden rebuilds, what makes you think in ten years those fans will be there? In five years those fans will be there. And you know, I'll say this. I was down in eastern Maryland yesterday. Uh, over the week not yesterday, over the weekend, Father's Day weekend. And as I'm walking around through the town, I'm thinking to myself, you know, I mean, there's no Orioles memorabilia, no like O's flag hanging out. You know, it could be a bunch of transplant people coming from, you know, the northern states coming down here and obviously building a nice home and whatnot. But anyways, if it's full of a bunch of Marylanders, like I assume it might be, people have lived there their whole lives, there's nothing out there that's like, hey, this is the team we support. You know, a community-based thing. And when you're a good team, typically that's what happens. I kept thinking to myself, man, and I know, you know, obviously it's June and the scenery changes in October, but wouldn't it be nice to walk around town here and, you know, maybe people are, you know, stopping in for something to eat and gathered around the TV in a bar or something like that. And I'm thinking about all these pockets of towns, you know, down the Chesapeake. And thinking about, man, I bet you they're longing, I bet you some of these businesses would really like you know, a lot of these uh establishments would really like it if they could get a crowd of people in on a Saturday in October sitting around, you know, filing around the TV, pouring out into the streets, watching the Baltimore Orioles in the postseason. And the excitement that that would bring. And it's like because I mean I'm thinking here thinking to myself, I you know, this is a franchise that has a that had a rich history, a rich baseball history. And it's become such a joke. And don't sit there and tell me, because I had someone the other day sit there and tell me, you know, well, it's amazing people complaining a lot of these social media groups. Why don't you do something about it and call up the front office? Number one, it's a s it's a group on social media, what do you want them to do? Throw we want me to throw a parade? Number two You want me to sit there and call up the front office to complain about a team that number one they should already know is a joke in and of itself, because you should be looking at the butts in your seats right now and the people coming to the ballpark that should tell you, in and of itself, what an absolute travesty this team is. I mean, this team is so pathetic, it's not even it's it's it's not even worth your time and energy to sit there and put it on the TV and watch it. I mean, it really isn't. Because let's face it, they have zero, zero right in getting people to draw interest to them. And honestly, for for Rubinstein, for Elias, for Albanes, and for Rubinstein, listen. That was the Angelos that brought in Elias. And here's the biggest thing. In the middle of this whole point, this whole rebuild, you've seen the change in ownership. I gotta wonder if there's something philosophical f philosophically different between Rubinstein and Elias. And I would have thought we would have had that answer by now, and one wo and well, not one, but Elias would have been gone. And now probably Elias will be gone at the end of the year, and I'll take Albernaz with him. But I'll tell you what. To sit there for the first three years as an owner and watch this slop, this pap, this team that just is such a tease. They are such a tease. It's not even funny. It's embarrassing. And now they're gonna welcome in the Washington Nationals for three games. A Nationals team that, you know, they had themselves a lovely past three days blowing leads lit in late games to the Phillies. And the Nationals, who don't have much of a bullpen, and them and the Orioles can sit there and play which team has a worse pitching staff out of the pen. Your starters for each game, probable starters, are this. Tomorrow night, Trevor Rodgers, who's 4-7 with a 5-3-0 ERA this year. He's 0-3 with a 5-2-9 ERA versus the Nationals since 23. He didn't appear, didn't start in any of the games a little over a month ago in DC. He's gone 17 innings, giving up 10 runs on 17 hits, 5 walks, and 8 strikeouts. Now he's also 2-5 with a 5-5-2 ERA at home this season. He's pitched into the sixth in his last three starts, though, so if there's anything to hang your hat on, I suppose that's it. Andrew Alvarez, who is a 12th round pick in the 2021 draft for the Nationals, he'll make the start. He's 1-0 with a 3-3-4 ERA. Pitched three innings, gave up two runs on three hits with a walk and five strekouts versus the O's earlier in the year. He has a 2-8-9 ERA and three appearances and two starts this season on the road. So, Trevor Rogers, who has looked better of late, hopefully all those numbers of 5-3-0s and 5-2-9s and 5-5-2 ERAs and all those stats I just gave you, hopefully that's put aside. But you're going up against a Nationals team that has a damn good offense. One of the best offenses in baseball. You're going to have to be that much better than them. Game two, Brandon Young, who's 6-2 with a 3-0 seven ERA this year. He's been their most reliable starting pitcher. And I would not have said that earlier in the year. He did only go, though, 3-2 thirds innings versus the Nationals in May, allowing two runs on five hits with three walks and three strikeouts. He's 2-1 with the 2-8-0 ERA at home this season. Foster Griffin, who's 8-2 with a 3-1-5 ERA, is 5-1 with a 3-1-8 ERA on the road this season in 9 starts. That should be an interesting matchup right there. And again, if the Nationals grab an early lead, which you expect them to, the O's need to show a little fight in this. And game three will have Kyle Bradish hit the mount. He's 5-7 with a 3-6-4 ERA. He's 2-0 with a 0.47 ERA. This isn't honestly. 2-0 with an 0-4-7 ERA in three starts against the Nationals since 23. I mean. How do you like those numbers? Hopefully that continues, but that's the one thing that's like, man, if they get into a rubber match, hopefully he can go out there and outshine Zach Lattell. But more on Bradish. In 19 innings, he gave up a run on 12 hits with five walks and 19 strikeouts in those three starts. And then is Zach Lattell. 6-6 with a 5-4-0 ERA. He gave up no runs on two hits in five innings with two walks and three strikeouts versus the O's in May. 2-2 with a 4-2-5 ERA on the road in six appearances this season. Now to be honest with you, against the Nationals, a lot of those numbers I gave you you can kind of throw out the window because of how good that offense is. But I'll tell you this much. The Orioles throughout this season, so I mean March is an outlier, they were two and three that month. But here are their numbers. They were 13-13 in April, and they sat 15 in 16 after the last day of April. May saw them go 13 and 16 to end up 28 in 32 at the end of May. And then June is why they're at 38 in 44. If they can end up with a winning month of June, potentially you can actually maybe sit in a wild card spot. Maybe you can get the fans behind you a little bit more because you could hold a wildcard spot. Maybe you could even get back to 500. But again, the urgency has to be there. Because honestly, you got to turn it around heading into July. You've got to give people a reason to believe. And this is not what we all signed up for. Just being, oh, well, you're at least better than some of the worst teams in the American League. That's not what we signed up for. We signed up for a team that could sit where the Yankees are, that could sit where the Rays are in the American League East. That's what we thought we were getting four years ago and five years ago when everyone was raving about this farm system. But what you've gotten is a team that is so inept from the top down. Can't take advantage of the opportunity. I've never seen it. I've never seen this before. This is ridiculous. And coming home, they should be hanging their heads in shame coming off the tarmac at BWI. We'll talk to you later.