| 02 June 2010
In a season that has only been miserable for fans and whoever else that watches the Orioles, watching last night's game was painful to say in the least.
The Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday lost for the 37th time in 52 games, losing to the Yankees 3-1.
As we all know, the Orioles can't score runs at all and at this point need to play a flawless game or have a shutout thrown by one of their pitchers to win at all.
With the score tied at one in the seventh inning and with two men on along with two outs, Alex Rodriguez hits a groundball - hit fairly hard - to third baseman Miguel Tejada. Well, Tejada seemingly has the ball and could easily finish the play with a strong throw to first base.
However, Tejada's throw is short to first base and Ty Wigginton can't scoop up the ball.
It gets past Wigginton and two runs come in. From there, was academic for Baltimore - they face the Yankees' Joba Chamberlain in the eighth and closer Mariano seals the deal in the ninth.
Sadly, Brian Matusz got saddled with the loss, his sixth on the season against two wins. After getting shelled in his last few outings, Matusz stepped it up at the always-intimidating-Yankee Stadium and came through for the Orioles, going 6 2/3 innings and only giving up a run. Corey Patterson hit a solo homer in the 6th for Baltimore; however, they would only muster five hits on the night.
New York's favorite whipping boy, Javier Vazquez, won his fourth game of the year for the Bronx Bombers. He went seven innings and gave up a run on four hits.
At this point, what can the Orioles do? Nothing. They'll just have to use the personnel they've got and hope for the best. The season is lost, but hopefully a few guys will start to play to their abilities and start a turn around.
However, something -- if anything -- has to be done to stop the Orioles down a road to nowhere. Sadly, whether it involves firing Trembley, the long time hitting coach Crowley, releasing under-performing guys or what not, some kinds of message has to be sent. There has to a shake-up done to let the players and staff letting them know that mediocrity can't be accepted any longer.
Every other team in American League East HAS 30 wins. The talent may not be there for Baltimore to compete right now; however to be 22 games under .500 and 17 games out of the division lead is inexcusable on June 2nd.
I cannot imagine the status-quo being in the place for another four months.
Finally, columnist Peter Schmuck penned an article for the Baltimore Sun
yesterday more or less telling the Orioles that they should let Dave Trembley go and offer another position in the organization if they don't intend to let him stay throughout the year. His article is a must-read; however, I don't see Trembley just up and quitting - just that I expect he'll be released at some point.
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