If you didn’t stay up to watch, consider yourself lucky.
One step forward, one step back. The pattern continues for the 2024 Orioles, as every well-played win is immediately followed by a sloppy, frustrating defeat in which they do almost nothing right.
And so the story unfolded again with the O’s limping to a 6-4 defeat in the middle game against the Dodgers. Corbin Burnes capped a horrendous month of August with another ugly outing, getting no help from a porous Birds defense that committed three crucial errors. Some early O’s offense fizzled out, and Baltimore missed a golden opportunity to pull into a first-place tie with the Yankees.
We’ll start with the Orioles’ one good inning, the top of the second, when the Dodgers defense gifted them a three-run rally in what should have been a 1-2-3 inning for starter Walker Buehler. After retiring the first batter, Buehler induced a Ryan O’Hearn routine grounder to third, but Max Muncy bounced the throw past first to put O’Hearn at second. Next, Buehler whiffed Cedric Mullins on a pitch that bounced, but catcher Will Smith just…forgot to throw the ball to first. Like, it didn’t roll away from him or anything. He just had vapor lock while Cedric was running to first, and by the time he remembered to throw, Mullins beat it out.
The Orioles’ hottest hitter of late, Ramón Urías, brought both free runners home by lacing a double into the right-field corner while a mic’d up Eloy Jiménez celebrated gleefully on the MASN broadcast. Two batters later, Urías scored on a James McCann RBI single to more delighted cheering from Jiménez. Eloy is so happy to be away from the White Sox, you guys. Colton Cowser continued the fun with a double, but Adley Rutschman stranded two runners in scoring position by popping out harmlessly on a very hittable 2-0 pitch.
Still, the Orioles handed a multi-run lead to their ace, and if this were any month but August, Corbin Burnes most likely would have made that lead stand up. The current version of Burnes, unfortunately, is a 180-degree turn from the pitcher who delighted O’s fans with his consistent brilliance for months. And disaster soon befell him yet again.
It’s a shame, because for the first two innings, Burnes’s stuff looked markedly improved from his last two ugly outings. The break on his curveball looked extra sharp, his sinker had some late life, and he set down six batters in a row with ease. He did give up a homer to Shohei Ohtani, but I mean, who hasn’t? Even that wasn’t a bad pitch, as Ohtani reached across the plate with a flailing swing and somehow powered it over the wall to his pull side.
But the bottom of the third? Big yikes. Instead of a shutdown inning, it was a meltdown inning. The Dodgers rallied for four runs to take the lead. In fairness to Corbin, he was burned by bad defense, with Urías allowing an Enrique Hernández grounder to roll under his glove for a one-out error. But Burnes only has himself to blame for everything that happened next. Ohtani and Mookie Betts roped back-to-back singles, scoring Hernández, then pulled off a double steal to put two in scoring position.
Burnes got a big out on a strikeout of Gavin Lux — which would have ended the inning if not for the earlier error — but, fatefully, hung a 2-2 curveball to Home Run Derby champion Teoscar Hernández. He did not miss. And 431 feet later, his no-doubt blast landed in the left-field seats for an Earl Weaver Special, giving L.A. a 5-3 advantage.
Brutal. Burnes, in his first 22 starts of the season, never gave up five runs in a game. Now he’s done it four times in his last five starts. (If it’s any consolation — and it isn’t — only one run was earned.) I don’t even know what to say at this point, except that Burnes needs to wash away this horrific August, fast. If his struggles continue, the Orioles will be screwed come postseason time, and Corbin’s potential free-agent payday will take a major hit.
Burnes hung around long enough to go five innings, but the Dodgers scored another unearned run in his final frame. Ohtani, after reaching on a fielder’s choice, broke for second base and ended up at third when McCann couldn’t handle the pitch. (With that steal and his earlier homer, Ohtani joined the 42-42 club. This just in: he’s pretty good.) Then with two down, Gunnar Henderson booted a Muncy grounder to short that would have ended the inning, bringing home Ohtani. Burnes certainly was bad tonight, but his teammates didn’t give him the least bit of help with the leather.
It’s not only the pitching and defense that struggled for the O’s. Their offense, too, was nothing to write home about. They did score three in the second, yes, but only because the Dodgers defense couldn’t convert routine outs. O’Hearn added an RBI double in the fifth, which was nice. But the Birds had more traffic on the bases that they couldn’t take advantage of. They stranded runners on base in every inning from the second to the seventh. After chasing Buehler from the game in the fifth, they were shut down by a parade of five Dodgers relievers.
Just an all-around ugly game for the Orioles. Don’t they realize that lunatics like me are staying up at an unreasonable hour on the east coast to watch them? It’s like they don’t even care.
Of more concern than my lack of sleep, though, is that the O’s continue to look like a wildly flawed team that just can’t get into any kind of groove, and right now their expected #1 postseason starter can’t get anyone out. It’s not ideal.