Baltimore's bats go cold with inopportune rough patch

BALTIMORE -- The homestretch of the first half presented the Orioles with an opportunity to extend their American League East lead over the Yankees by a sizable amount.

Instead, Baltimore began the final week before the All-Star break by playing one of its worst all-around series of the 2024 season thus far. The slump came at an inopportune time, too, with divisional rival New York -- only two games back in the AL East -- set to come to town for a three-game series this weekend.

The O’s were shut out for the second straight night, taking an 8-0 loss to the Cubs on Thursday. Chicago outscored Baltimore 21-2 during the three-game set and became the first opponent to complete a sweep at Camden Yards since Tampa Bay from Aug. 27-29, 2021.

“We just didn’t do a whole lot of anything this series, and we didn’t play well at all in any aspect,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’ve got to play a lot better going forward.”

Both of the Orioles’ runs came during Tuesday’s opener, when All-Star Jordan Westburg homered in the second inning and another run scored on a double play in the third. Baltimore’s scoreless streak sits at 24 consecutive innings.

It’s the first time the O’s have been blanked in consecutive games since June 2021, when they fell on back-to-back days vs. Houston (June 23, 2021) and at Toronto (June 24, 2021).

The Orioles ran into a trio of tough Cubs starters in Jameson Taillon (two earned runs allowed in six innings on Tuesday), All-Star Shota Imanaga (six scoreless on Wednesday) and Justin Steele (seven scoreless on Thursday). While all three had success, Steele was the most impressive.

The left-handed Steele needed only 70 pitches to navigate seven frames, retiring 21 of the 24 batters he faced. Ryan Mountcastle and Jorge Mateo each hit a two-out double in the fourth and fifth, respectively, and Anthony Santander hit a one-out two-bagger in the seventh. Yet, Baltimore couldn’t capitalize.

“He’s got a really good cutter that he can throw to both sides and a little bit of a two-seamer there to [Cedric Mullins] and a sweeper he can throw to left-handers,” Hyde said of Steele. “But we just had a tough time pushing him out over the plate. Our right-handers were getting jammed constantly. Just not very good at-bats.”

That could be said about many of the Orioles’ plate appearances against Cubs pitchers this week. Before Thursday’s finale, Hyde reiterated that he felt his hitters were getting “too big” and pressing a bit in prime scoring opportunities.

Baltimore went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base. For the series, the O’s finished 0-for-17 with RISP and stranded 19 baserunners.

The pitching matchups won’t get easier this weekend. The Yankees are set to deploy right-handers Gerrit Cole (the defending AL Cy Young Award winner) and Luis Gil (an AL Rookie of the Year front-runner) and lefty Carlos Rodón.

Still, there’s optimism from the Orioles regarding the potential to finish the first half strong.

“No matter what, we stay positive as a team,” said right-hander Albert Suárez, who allowed four runs in five innings and took the loss. “We’re probably going to have a good weekend, because we’re a team that knows how to make adjustments. I’m positive about that.”

“Tomorrow is another day. The Yankees are coming,” said Santander, who learned of his first career All-Star selection before the game. “Coming back here with the right mentality, working hard and going out there and competing from the first pitch.”

As long as the O’s (57-36) win at least one game against the Yanks (56-39) this weekend, they’ll be alone in first place in the AL East at the break. New York can only take over first by sweeping the pending three-game set at Camden Yards.

“We’re a good team. It’s been a rough few days,” Hyde said. “We just got flat-out beat and didn’t play well. We got beat. We got beat by starters. We didn’t do much against their bullpen. We didn’t play very good defense, for us. And we didn’t throw the ball very well, besides [Corbin Burnes on Wednesday]. So we’ve got to play a little better.”