Orioles are now officially out of playoffs, crucial offseason is six games away

For the Orioles, what was inevitable became final and official at 1:07 a.m. today. Their playoff hopes for 2015 officially ended when Houston won 3-2 at Seattle. They began Monday with an elimination number of two that was reduced to one with their loss and to zero with Houston's victory.

The unofficial end is in the eye of the beholder. Some may go back to late July. The Orioles headed to Yankee Stadium trailing the first-place Yankees by four games. They were swept three straight and fell seven games out. There were the sweeps by Minnesota, one in early July and four losses in a row to the Twins at Camden Yards from Aug. 20-23.

Believe it or not, when the Orioles beat the Mets at home on the night of Aug. 19, they were just five games out of first place. They were 5-1 in the first six games of a 10-game homestand. But then came that sweep by the Twins and the Orioles would lose 15 of 18 games between Aug. 20 and Sept. 7. They ended that stretch 13 games out of first place.

The problems have been discussed often in the comments section of this blog - the starting pitching has been among the worst in the league and the offense is incredibly inconsistent. The Orioles have scored three runs or less in 21 of the last 37 games. They are 12-59 this year when scoring three run or less.

The Orioles did at least end their 29-inning scoreless streak last night. It happened when Ryan Flaherty hit a three-run homer to left off Toronto's Marco Estrada in the second inning.

"I don't think we were concentrating as much on that (scoreless stretch) as wins. Right now, that is all that matters and we didn't get one today," Flaherty said after the Blue Jays rallied late for the 4-3 win.

Flaherty said he was not sitting on a certain pitch in that at-bat, but he got an off-speed pitch from Estrada to hit his ninth homer of the year.

"Not really, just a pitch to hit," he said. "Runners in scoring position, if he throws something good to hit, I'm going to swing. He threw a changeup and he threw it probably a little higher and more over the plate than he wanted to. I was able to put a good swing on it."

But the O's offense fell dormant again after that homer. The Orioles had just one more hit the rest of the night and that was a flare to left by Matt Wieters in the fourth inning.

Now 76-80, the Orioles must go 6-0 to finish with a winning season or 5-1 to finish at 81-81.

Looking to the offseason, what are the two or three things you most want to see the from the Orioles front office this winter?