Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports
The Baltimore Orioles have faced incredible social adversity this season, having dealt with the race-fueled protests in Baltimore and in turn playing a game without an audience. It’s perhaps surprising that they have been on top of the AL East at this point in the season given these rather tumultuous troubles off of the diamond, but they remain in a tight battle for supremacy with the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays as the calendar barrels toward the All-Star break.
Recently, and most notably after their most recent loss 8-1 to the Texas Rangers, it seems as though the Orioles are faltering. This, however, seems as though it was bound to happen as they don’t particularly deserve to be a first-place team. The Rangers are well-known to be a mediocre team this season, but the Orioles gave them an easy win. The Orioles’ loss should not only show that they are not the elite team that their record purports them to be, but that the entire upper echelon of the AL East isn’t as competitive as it might appear.
In the case of the loss to the Rangers, the Orioles had numerous chances to create runs. In the fifth inning, the Orioles loaded the bases with a single out and only recorded a single run as a result. That inning ended up being the only situation in which the Orioles showed any threat offensively. The Orioles stranded far too many men on the bases and couldn’t neutralize the Rangers’ bats when they needed to.
Every team has bad days, but there are no excuses for a loss like this. The Orioles want to be an elite team, but they simply aren’t. The entire AL East has ultimately been comprised of average and below-average teams this season. Should they stay in first place, it won’t be because they’ve performed like a first-place team, but because of a serendipitous string of atrocious performances by the other teams in their division.
Christopher Nicastro is a Boxing Beat Writer for www.RantSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter, ‘like’ Rant Sports on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.
