O's From the Booth 6/1 - O's Skid Reaches 6 as They Limp into Tampa

Well, not so good evening again O's fans.  I was unable to post the other night after the O's were swept in Toronto.  There was not much good to talk about anyway and the news for the team has not got much better since then.  

Nick Markakis as we all know by now is on the Disabled list for the first time in his career.  He has played in at least 160 games the last 3 seasons.  That will come to an end.  What all seemed to be going right for the O's is quickly spiraling the opposite direction.  All the breaks are not going our way unless you are talking about bones.  

Mark Reynolds and Endy Chavez both come off he DL and Markakis goes on. Nolan Reimold continues to be a mystery as to whether he will ever return.  Brian Roberts seems to be making process so we will see what happens.  Zach Britton is supposed to be back in the next week or so. I am hopeful his return will spark the starting pitching staff that is in bad need of some help.  

The O's and Wei-Yen Chen limped there way into Tropicana field tonight and were greeted very rudely. The Rays smacked Chen around for 5 runs and 5 hits in the 1st inning.  This included a 2 RBI single by former Oriole Luke Scott and a 3 run shot by veteran Hideki Matsui.  It was 5-0 before the O's knew what happened.

Chen never gave up another hit and was able to get through 5 2/3 to help Buck savor the Orioles bullpen. The O's loaded the bases twice but were unable to do anything with it. With the bases loaded in the 6th inning I may have witnessed the worse base running I have ever seen.  

J.J. Hardy flew to deep center field and the Orioles were going to be on the board. Nope, Steve Tolleson was thrown out at 2nd trying to tag up before Bill Hall crossed home plate. Are you kidding me? Down 5-0 and you are tagging up from 1st base, REALLY!!!!!!  This is just not smart baseball.  

When things are going bad, they really go bad. I feel really bad for this team right now.  They have played hard all year long and all was headed in a positive direction.  The injuries are just catching up to them.  The Orioles have made more roster moves than any team in the majors. They seem to have a different line up every night due to injuries. They have really played well battling this season but it is just getting too tough for them.  They are very lucky that the rays ran in to a hot White Sox team or we would be 4 games out by now.  

The AL east is all bunched up right now.  Every team is plus on the runs scored side and every team is over .500.   I don't know how the next few weeks are going to go. We will just have to wait and see.  

Maybe we can get Britton and Roberts back and get on a roll again.  Maybe we can get the next two games in Tampa as they do not hit that well.  If we can score some runs early and get good pitching we can win.  I know this sounds elementary but is so true.  

Maybe we can make some kind of trade to the desperate Cubs to bring over Matt Garza and Alfonso Soriano.  Man, that would help tremendously.  I don't know, I am just rambling.  I am just frustrated as it just seems like bad luck for the O's.  

They have played too well to this point to have all this go wrong.  Baseball gods please look down on the O's and help them through this rough stretch.  If we can somehow steel the last two games we can head into Boston in first place.  Lets do this!!!!  Go O's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!