This could end up as the finale of the 2024 Orioles season.
It is October 2 and this could end up being the last day of the year where there is an Orioles game. I would enjoy if this was not true. It’s marginally more fun than if the O’s had been bad and their last game was September 29, but only marginally, and it’s hard to appreciate the margin right now when the O’s lost a disappointing Game 1 of the series and we all have to convince ourselves that the offense will wake up in time to avoid another hasty postseason exit.
One thing that is probably going to be important if the Orioles are going to move the season along at least one more day is for their stars to come out. In Game 1, the quartet of All-Star hitters, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Anthony Santander, and Adley Rutschman, combined to go 1-15, with one walk thrown in. That was four of the five top hitters in the lineup and they didn’t do much. It’s a tough way to win.
Guess what? They’re four of the top five hitters in the lineup again! This is pretty much the only choice the Orioles have. Put their best players at the top and hope they come through. The one guy where I’ll agree there’s some more pointing towards trying something else is Rutschman, since he’s been struggling for about three months and maybe should be even lower in the lineup than he is. But the O’s, who have persisted in saying he’s not injured in any way, stick with him in the middle of the order.
We all know it was a struggle for the Orioles in September, and it was always going to be hard to expect that to suddenly turn around once the postseason began. The Royals struggled in September too, even worse than the O’s did. Kansas City can’t even point to turning around in the final week of the regular season. Their offense was brutal all month. It was brutal yesterday too, except for one Witt at-bat. So here we are.
It would be nice if the Orioles can give us something to be excited about for a little while rather than having things sink promptly into dread and resignation.
Orioles lineup
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Jordan Westburg – 2B
- Anthony Santander – RF
- Colton Cowser – LF
- Adley Rutschman – C
- Ryan O’Hearn – DH
- Ryan Mountcastle – 1B
- Cedric Mullins – CF
- Ramón Urías – 3B
It would be very nice if the Orioles can somehow have Zach Eflin duplicate or come close to the results that Corbin Burnes accomplished in Game 1. That should have been enough for the Orioles to win yesterday and it should be enough for them to win today. Eflin had a 2.60 ERA in nine starts with the O’s. Those are great results. The Royals offense is down too.
Royals lineup
- Michael Massey – 2B
- Bobby Witt Jr. – SS
- Vinnie Pasquantino – DH
- Salvador Perez – C
- Yuli Gurriel – 1B
- MJ Melendez – LF
- Hunter Renfroe – RF
- Kyle Isbel – CF
- Maikel Garcia – 3B
The Orioles lineup should be better than this lineup. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a good pitcher going for the other team or not. Yesterday’s Cole Ragans was a good pitcher and so is today’s Seth Lugo. The bottom line is that the O’s have to find a way to do something, and if they can’t, then that’ll be a quick end to another disappointing October experience for the team and for us.