Have we ever considered just...finding a new hobby? This whole baseball thing isn’t really working out for us. And it’s certainly not working out for the Orioles.
The O’s once again looked like a team that has no familiarity with the sport, foolishly running themselves out a third-inning rally en route to a one-loss in Cleveland, 3-2. The defeat dropped the Birds to 1-5 since the All-Star break and 1-7 in their last eight games.
These 2025 Orioles are really something. Sure, they can’t pitch. Sure, they can’t hit.
But don’t forget that they are also unspeakably bad at fundamentals.
Let’s dive right into the third-inning disaster that tanked their chances of winning. The O’s started the inning against Guardians starter Slade Cecconi with a Ramón Urías walk and a Cedric Mullins double, putting runners at second and third with nobody out. Seems like a great rally, right? Hard to screw this one up, wouldn’t you think? Haha, yup! You would think! (cackles maniacally until sobbing)
What if I told you that not only did the Orioles fail to score, but that neither runner would even still be on base within two batters? How does that happen, you wonder? I’m so glad you asked.
Jacob Stallings slapped a bouncer to third baseman José Ramírez, who was drawn in on the infield grass. Urías, even with the play directly in front of him, inexplicably broke for home, and Ramírez threw him out by the length of approximately two football fields.
OK, I have three questions about this play:
- What?
- Why?
- Come on, seriously?
No, but here are the three questions I really do have about this play:
- Why is Urías breaking for home on a routine grounder to a drawn-in third baseman? What did he think was going to happen? Even if the O’s decided the runners would be going on contact, there should be an exception for a ground ball to third. The runner should be able to use common sense.
- If the contact play was on, then why didn’t Mullins advance to third base? There’s no reason for him to hold at second. If the lead runner is going to sacrifice himself then at least the trailing runners should advance.
- Come on, seriously?
With that, the second-and-third, no-out rally changed to a first-and-second, one-out rally, and it promptly got even less impressive. Before even throwing a pitch to Jackson Holliday, Cecconi whirled to second and caught a snoozing Mullins in a rundown for the second out. Oh my goodness. Remember the first couple weeks of the season when Cedric was the best thing going for this team? Now he can’t hit, can’t field, and has apparently forgotten how to run the bases. Your 2025 Orioles!
Holliday followed with a strikeout, and just like that, the inning was over. Cecconi did a little strut off the mound, as if escaping the jam had anything to do with his own skill rather than the Orioles’ utter incompetence.
It sure would have been nice to score one or two of those runs in a game the O’s eventually lost by one. But that’s what this team does best: find ways to lose. The Orioles ultimately scored just twice in this game, on a Ryan O’Hearn fourth-inning sac fly and a Holliday sixth-inning dinger. Spoiler: it wasn’t enough.
Zach Eflin was back from the IL to start for the Orioles, and he had one job: to audition to be traded. Just pitch well in these next two starts, Zach, even if the O’s don’t win (which they usually don’t). It’s all about increasing that trade value. And he took a step toward doing so tonight, delivering a performance that started out spectacular and ended up solid.
Eflin, whose last start before his injury was June 28, showed no rust in the early goings, mowing down the first nine Cleveland batters he faced, striking out two. This was vintage 2024-era Eflin. During his second time through the lineup, though, the Guardians caught up to him. The pesky Steven Kwan drew a leadoff walk, and with one out, future Hall of Famer José Ramírez put a great swing on a low and outside pitch to yank it into the right-field corner. The double put two in scoring position for Kyle Manzardo, who plated them both with a go-ahead single to center. In a flash, Eflin’s modest perfecto, no-hitter, and shutout were all gone.
Those were the only runs Eflin allowed in his five innings of work. He exited after 84 pitches. Was this outing enough to move the needle for a contending team that’s interested in acquiring a pitcher? We shall see. Eflin is scheduled to have one more start before the deadline.
The game remained 2-2 until the eighth, when Colin Selby (who I guess is a late-inning reliever now?) committed the common Orioles sin of letting the #9 hitter beat him, in this case a two-out double by .172-hitting Bo Naylor, who promptly scored on a Kwan RBI single. The Guardians took the lead, the O’s limped through a futile ninth, and that was the ballgame.
The trade deadline can’t get here soon enough. The less of this current roster that remains after July 31, the better.
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