BOSTON — At this point, the most pain Jordan Westburg feels is emotional rather than physical. His fractured hand, which has kept him off the field since late July, is getting stronger each day. But to watch the Orioles struggle without him each night from the dugout?
“I hate to see them lose. I hate to see them down,” the infielder said.
At this point in the year, the constraints of the calendar are felt with only 16 games left in the season. There’s no illusion in the clubhouse that this stretch of the second half of the year — Baltimore falling to 25-25 in 50 games — has been anything but woeful.
“Losing sucks,” Westburg said. “Morale’s down when losing, and we’re kind of doing a lot of it recently. I’m not going to spare words. We haven’t been playing well, in all facets of the game. So, yeah, it sucks. Morale’s down a little bit. Guys, I think, are searching and putting a lot of pressure on themselves to right the ship, but I mean, deep down I think we all have this confidence that we’re a good ballclub.”
Other players admit morale has taken a hit. The energy is down. But the fight they’re beginning to show in their words, they hope, can translate to the field. The time for “rah-rah” speeches is over. They have to do it on the diamond.
The prevailing message is one not to panic, but there’s an urgency that wasn’t present earlier. What Westburg and the Orioles are preaching is resilience. The team is in line for a playoff spot and could earn its second division title in as many years.
As such, Westburg urged his teammates not to forget what got them to this point Tuesday afternoon in the visiting clubhouse at Fenway Park. He can’t play — although he’s getting closer — so he leaned on his words, rather than his actions, to prod Baltimore in the right direction.
“We have the pieces to make a run,” Westburg said. “We have the pieces to finish strong in the regular season, and so I think it comes down to just trusting ourselves and really going out there and just worrying about putting a good product together on the field, pitch by pitch. If we get down early, who cares? We’re going to find a way. That needs to be the mentality. And if we’re up, all right, let’s step on somebody’s throat.”
The sentiment is felt throughout Baltimore’s clubhouse. The Orioles understand that, if they’re going to make noise in October, their offensive productivity and the fortification of their pitching staff are paramount.
There were signs of that Tuesday when the Orioles sealed a 5-3 victory against the Red Sox, a return to form that came after a 12-3 shellacking that showed all the team’s worst tendencies from the second half of the season.
Veterans and young players alike acknowledged the frustration that has built since mid-July, but many see the potential for a positive outcome.
Infielder Gunnar Henderson, whose major league career has mainly included winning in bunches, felt this stretch could be beneficial. Last year, the Orioles finished the regular season without suffering a series sweep, and Henderson said it felt as though the Orioles weren’t “tested early” before they crashed out of the American League Division Series in three games to the eventual World Series champions, the Texas Rangers.
“I feel like we’re getting tested right now,” Henderson said, “and going to try to get through it and keep playing ball, and I feel like it sets us up for the right time.”
Can the Orioles pass this test?
“Shoot, we haven’t really all clicked at the same time, and I feel like, if we’re all clicking at the right times, it’s going to be a scary offense,” Henderson said.
Right-hander Craig Kimbrel agreed. Having been through stretch runs for much of his 15-year career, Kimbrel has experienced almost every streak possible. There have been pre-postseason slides that give way to a long October, and there have been early exits despite dominant seasons.
“It can be a good thing. You’d much rather be doing this now than being kicked in the face in the postseason, right?” Kimbrel said. “Some of these guys have tasted that. I think there’s a lot of guys in this clubhouse that have felt the taste of defeat, and it doesn’t taste good. But, at the same time, you learn from it what you can do better, and going through this stretch we’re going through now, hopefully we have guys who are getting their minds and their bodies in good places to put us in good places to finish strong.”
If some of the injured players return before the postseason, a bounce back would feel even more attainable. That group could include Westburg, infielder Ramón Urías, right-handers Grayson Rodriguez and Jacob Webb, and left-hander Danny Coulombe.
Regardless of their statuses, those who are playing see the final days of the 162-game season as an opportunity. The Orioles have played their worst brand of baseball of late, but they’re still firmly in the mix for the American League East title.
“We can look at ourselves and, really since the All-Star break, say we can do a lot of things different,” Kimbrel said. “Nothing we can change between now and then, but today until the end of the year, there’s a lot of things we can change. So, there’re things that everyone can look back at and be frustrated about, but the good thing is we can do something about it, and that can be encouraging, and there’s no better time of the year to get hot and feel like you’re playing good ball than right now. So, should be encouraging for us as well, to say, ‘Hey, we can still do it,’ and if we do, we’re in a good place.”
After Monday’s blowout loss to the Red Sox, manager Brandon Hyde said he hadn’t pulled his team in for a meeting. “Our guys know,” he said, and the players who spoke Tuesday agreed the task ahead is clear.
Left-hander Cole Irvin said most of the conversations among players about their recent performances happen outside the clubhouse.
“There’s more personal conversations, one on one, dinner-setting-type conversations more than it is ‘rah-rah.’ We know the ‘rah-rah’ isn’t going to change anything,” Irvin said.
“We understand the situation that we’re in,” he continued. “But we’re coming to the ballpark expecting to win and ready to go. I’d be concerned if it wasn’t that way, you know? It would be a lot harder for me to come in and be able to focus on what I personally need to do for the day if the clubhouse is different. The fact we have a clubhouse that’s still promoting growth and still promoting abilities and areas to get better, that should tell you the state of the clubhouse. We know we’re not done yet.”
There is a little more than two weeks remaining for a strong finish to occur. And, as Rodriguez envisions reinforcements, including himself, returning to Baltimore, he figures most teams won’t want to face Baltimore in the postseason.
In the first half of the season, when the Orioles were clicking, that was surely the case. The wavering performances since the All-Star break have left more questions about the state of the clubhouse and their chances of making a run. Irvin said there is no panic, but Cedric Mullins admitted the morale is “not at its best but not terrible, either.”
Westburg was more bullish. As he stood in front of his locker, his hand still not fully healed, he redirected the focus to what made the Orioles one of the best teams in baseball over the first half of the season.
“I think, right now, what needs to happen as a whole is there needs to be a little bit of, ‘OK, we don’t care what the noise is, we don’t care what happens during the game, we’ll just find a way,’” Westburg said. “So, hopefully, we can do that.”
