For everything to strike at once is something. The pitching, the hitting, the fielding — although the last wasn’t an issue Saturday — have all hit a speed bump, throwing the Orioles out of sync and into a spin.
There will be clunkers over the course of 162 games, and sometimes those clunkers will stack up on one another. That’s what is happening this week, with Baltimore matching its longest losing streak of the season by dropping its fifth straight game with Saturday’s 6-1 defeat to the New York Yankees.
Baltimore did so in anemic fashion — the four runs it has scored across the last five games are their fewest in a five-game span since 2002. And, with the defeat, the Orioles snapped a streak of 22 straight series without a series loss to an American League East foe.
“We’re looking for a spark,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’re just having a tough time getting any sort of traffic on the bases.”
The Yankees made a statement during the first two games of the series. They blasted their way to a lead and held Baltimore’s offense off balance. They caught up on the Orioles’ two-game American League East advantage and have the chance to enter the All-Star break with a division lead should they play similarly in the series finale.
The statement made by the Orioles was entirely different. They looked like a team backing into the All-Star break on fumes, with a lack of confidence at the plate that has rendered them nearly lifeless.
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“I don’t think we’re going to dwell on what we’ve done as of late,” right-hander Grayson Rodriguez said. “I think we’re going to look at the first half more in general; [tied for] first place in the AL East, so that’s hard to do. We’re going to keep grinding, day in and day out, and show up to the field tomorrow.”
Ryan O’Hearn attempted to light the spark for which Hyde is searching. When O’Hearn slid into third base with a triple in the fourth inning, he quickly popped to his feet and yelled to the dugout. His sprinkler celebration turned into more of a wave, a signal to bring him home.
The Orioles did score O’Hearn but not with a hit. It took Ryan Mountcastle’s groundout to ensure the leadoff triple turned into a run.
Beyond that, Baltimore was disjointed on offense. For the second straight day, a Yankees starter worked deep into the game. On Friday, right-hander Gerrit Cole struck out seven in six innings. On Saturday, right-hander Luis Gil earned his team-high 10th win with seven more strikeouts in six innings.
“Cole’s one of the best pitchers in our generation, and Gil is having a heck of a year,” Hyde said. “Both those guys threw well. Really well. We’re just expanding a little bit. We’re a little overly aggressive early in the count on balls that we can’t drive.”
Baltimore’s pitching staff didn’t inspire, either, even with Rodriguez on the mound. Several times this season, when the Orioles have needed a strong start to buck a losing streak, Rodriguez has been the guy. He entered with 11 wins and exits Saturday with a 3.88 ERA. Of his 17 starts, Rodriguez has allowed two runs or fewer in 12.
But Rodriguez stumbled in his last outing of the first half as the Yankees hit him around early and added on late. In the first inning, New York grabbed a four-run lead through Gleyber Torres’ RBI single and Austin Wells’ three-run homer.
That 33-pitch first inning put Baltimore in a hole immediately. And, considering the Orioles had scored more than four runs twice in their previous 11 games entering Saturday, a four-run edge felt imposing, even with nine innings remaining to make up that deficit.
Rodriguez rebounded with a four-pitch second inning and worked scoreless third and fourth frames, but Juan Soto and Aaron Judge took him deep in consecutive plate appearances in the fifth. For Judge, it was the continuation of a dominant series that includes two homers, a double and five walks — having reached base all eight times to that point.
“I kind of let the fans down today,” Rodriguez said. “This was a big game for us. I wish I could’ve thrown the ball a lot better.”
But, even had Rodriguez held the Yankees to that four-spot in the first, there’s little fire among the Orioles’ hitters lately. They are 1-for-31 (.032) with runners in scoring position since Tuesday, when this losing streak began, and they’re 15-for-92 (.163) since June 30.
Before the game, executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias called this a funk. He recognized this as the worst stretch of the season, yet he also emphasized that teams go through their ups and downs.
But this is sure a trough.
“We’ll get through this,” Mountcastle said. “We’re a really good team. We’ve got a really good lineup, one through nine, and it’s one of the best in the league. So we’ll get it going soon.”
