O's final regular season homestand begins with a blowout loss

Of their 67 losses this year, only three have come by 10 runs or more for the Orioles. Chasing an AL East title this week and beginning the final regular season homestand was not a good time for that to happen.

But it did for the third time in 2024 as the San Fransico Giants beat the Orioles 10-0 at Oriole Park. The O's have now been shut out twice in the last four games, three times in eight games and eight times for the year.

The Orioles got blown out last night by a struggling team. One that began this series at 72-78 losing four in a row, five of six, 10 of 14 and 15 of their past 22 games. Last Thursday through Saturday, San Francisco was shut out three times in a row for the first time since June 23-25, 1992. The Giants were 3-9 with no series wins against AL East opponents.

Since Aug. 11 they had been 11-20 and scoring just 3.5 runs per game before winning last night. But they took an early 3-0 on the Orioles with former Oriole Mike Yastrzemski driving in two runs and they poured it on late scoring six runs in the ninth charged to Craig Kimbrel.

The Orioles keep saying they remain a confident team and can soon turn this around. But when? There are just 11 games left.

They are now four games out in the division and lead Kansas City by 2.5 games for the No. 1 AL wild card berth. 

FanGraphs.com now gives the Yankees a 91.8 percent chance to win the division and the O's chances are 8.2 percent.

So we're saying there is a chance.

But they're going to need some runs for that, and they have just 21 runs the last 11 games, scoring two or less seven times. 

Before Tuesday's game, executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias expressed confidence in the Orioles, even with all the injuries and all the recent losses.

“A lot of the people doing so are young and inexperienced. A lot of the people are pressing to make up for other people’s absences or their own slumps. Baseball is not kind to you when you try harder sometimes. Players can talk about it better than I can. It’s a game that can backfire on you when you get out of yourself. It’s been a difficult period, but I think we’re all sick of it and we’re ready to get it behind us. I really believe that we’re going to rally here down the stretch, kind of get our identity back and hopeful that we’re able to put together a really good appearance in the playoffs.”

But the Orioles have now lost four of five, seven of nine and eight of the last 11. They are 26-29 since the All-Star game and 31-36 since July 1.

"This is a group that has accomplished a lot together up until very recently,” Elias said, “and it certainly hasn’t shaken my belief in any of them.”

Fewer homers is an issue: In the last few weeks, the Orioles have been scoring less, homering less and winning less.

Through Aug. 11 they were 70-49 (.588), averaging 1.5 homers per game, scoring 5.1 runs per game and producing a .772 team OPS. Pretty robust.

Since Aug. 13 (they were off on Aug. 12), they are 14-18 (.438), hitting 1.1 homers per game, scoring 3.9 runs per game and with an OPS of .660.

But here is another key homer stat: When the Orioles hit two or more in a game this year, they are 55-12, for a win percentage of .821.

But in this second span they are doing that so much less. Through Aug. 11 they hit two or more homers 49 percent of their games, wining 82 percent of those games. But since Aug. 13 they hit two or more in just 28 percent of the games.

We can look at last night and see they came up short against left-hander Blake Snell who has a 1.33 ERA his past 13 starts. But they haven't faced 11 Snells those past 11 games.

The Orioles believe they can turn it around and say they are still confidence in their clubhouse. Now they need a bunch of wins to back that up.