The Baltimore Orioles are no longer just reeling. They’re in full-out freefall mode at this point.
“Just not many things went right tonight,” said manager Brandon Hyde, who is undoubtedly not long for the job, with the O’s, projected in spring training to be headed toward a third straight playoff berth, sitting at 15-28 after an inexplicable 4-3 loss to the Washington Nationals on Friday night in Camden Yards.
The Orioles dominated early on, knocking Nats starter MacKenzie Gore out after three and two-thirds, in which he gave up 10 hits and walked two.
Problem there for the O’s being, they only managed two runs, leaving the bases loaded in three of the first four innings, with 15 left on base for the game.
A reporter brought that last number up to Hyde in the postgame presser, and his response is telling:
“Kind of in disbelief, honestly.”
The Nats, who have now won three of four from the O’s this season, got the go-ahead run in the ninth off Baltimore closer Felix Bautista on a Nasim Nunez infield single that scored a hustling Jose Tena all the way from second.
An hour and a half earlier, with Gore out of the game following a labored 102-pitch outing, the O’s were one swing away from putting the game away.
“I think Gore’s got Cy Young stuff. To get him out of the game into the fourth, that’s really impressive,” Hyde said. “We just didn’t get enough hits or moving the baseball with runners in scoring position. That was the issue tonight. I felt like we were dominating the game with how many runners we were getting on base, and the score was 2-1.”
I keep reminding O’s fans that their local rivals were famously 19-31 in 2019 before getting things turned around, sneaking into the wild card and then winning out to take home the 2019 World Series title.
Davey Martinez was very much on the hot seat in late May of that year, survived, has a ring, and he’s still on the job in DC.
Hyde will get a little more time to get the 2025 Orioles season turned around, if only because, the schedule isn’t favorable for GM Mike Elias to make a change anytime soon.
The O’s head out of town after the Sunday series finale with the Nats for a week-long road trip that begins on Monday at Milwaukee, and then the team returns for a seven-game homestand that starts the following Monday.
The next break in the schedule isn’t until Monday, June 2.
If my thinking on this holds, Hyde has 16 more games to right the ship.
It would help if he could get the team to go 10-6, but even .500 ball would feel like a step.
The clock is ticking …
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Chris Graham
