“So we’re aware of the fact that we’re in a slump as a team right now, as an organization, all of us, and we’re working on that, but we don’t want to lose sight of where we are and how we got here,” Elias said.
Every point of evidence suggests the Orioles are not going to change how they approach and try to win each game. The processes they’re sticking to now were honed long before the team had such high expectations, and are what in many ways helped them earn those expectations.
If the Orioles have any hope of maintaining their advantaged status in the race for the American League playoffs, they will need Rutschman to return to himself.
To overcome the first true struggles on a baseball field he’s ever had, Basallo had to suppress one of his uncommon talents: his recall of how he’s pitched.
At all levels of the Orioles’ farm system below Triple-A, many games will feature a starter and a second, planned pitcher who will pitch bulk innings behind him.
That stretch from late May to mid-June when the bad news came quickly on so many elbow injuries will be hard to top in terms of season-defining stretches for these Orioles. It feels like we just had another, though.