The Orioles could do more than play out the string on a lost season. When the New York Yankees arrived Thursday night at Camden Yards, it marked the first of seven matchups with the division foe over the last 10 games of the year.

In that sense, Baltimore could play spoiler to New York’s postseason hopes, although the Yankees entered the series opener with a 4.5-game lead in the American League wild-card race. A tremendous collapse would be required to shake the Yankees from the October picture.

And, with the way the Orioles played in their 7-0 loss to left-hander Max Fried and the Yankees, there may be no reason to even consider the consolation prize of pettiness, of playing purely to prevent joy for a rival fan base.

The fans in Baltimore have experienced enough joy-sapping play this season. That much is sure. The spiral continued to begin the final homestand of the season and, by the end of this year, the Orioles will look upon nights such as this with angst.

The Orioles have suffered 15 shutout losses this season, their most since 2018, a season in which the club lost 115 games.

“We need our key guys to turn it around this winter and into next year,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said, without any guarantee he will be here next year to see a turnaround. “And there’s probably a variety of things that need to get turned around with some of those guys. And they will. I’ve got faith in those guys. I’ve got faith in the staff. That’s really going to be the No. 1 thing for us this winter is in house getting these guys moving on the right track.”

The bullpen is one thing — it was stripped down at the deadline, leaving fringe major leaguers in place to sink or swim. Some have swum. Others have sunk under the weight of runs. The four against right-hander Chayce McDermott in the seventh inning pushed a close game out of reach.

The offense, however, is where more of the critique is due. Fried was superb — there’s no getting around the Cy Young-caliber stuff the southpaw brings to the Bronx. He spun a career-high-tying 13 strikeouts in seven innings. The 28 whiffs Fried induced were the most of his career.

“He’s one of the best guys in the game,” outfielder Tyler O’Neill said. “He’s got eight or so pitches, and he’s able to locate them, good movement, deceptive windup, so it’s always a battle facing him.”

Unlike the bullpen, this lineup wasn’t entirely pulled apart.

Yet the top four hitters — some of whom are expected to be regulars, including Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and O’Neill — combined to go 2-for-12 with five strikeouts against Fried. Henderson and Ryan Mountcastle recorded those knocks, and Coby Mayo notched the third against Fried.

But, between Mayo’s second-inning single and Mountcastle’s sixth-inning hit, Fried retired 12 straight batters. And, with runners on first and third with two outs in the sixth, O’Neill struck out. That has been a theme for the Orioles, who entered Thursday with the fourth-highest whiff rate in the majors (26.8%).

“We’re so used to seeing him [Fried] hammer the right-handed hitters on the inner half, and it was completely different tonight,” Mansolino said. “He just hammered down and away with that sinker. And he painted.”

A clutch hit in that situation would’ve gotten the Orioles back into the game. Instead, McDermott allowed four runs for a second straight outing since returning to the majors as a relief pitcher. He walked three and allowed two hits in the seventh.

Left-hander Cade Povich’s five-inning start was full of shaky command as well, with four walks and five hits leading to three runs. He conceded a two-run double to Amed Rosario in the first inning and allowed an RBI single to Austin Wells in the fifth before handing the ball to the bullpen.

Povich will likely pitch once more before this season is over. As he thought back on his second year as a major leaguer, he saw the ups and downs. On that roller coaster, Thursday was merely average.

“If you take away a couple of games, I think some of the numbers start to look a little better,” said Povich, who holds a 5.06 ERA with those games included. “But I think the biggest thing I’ve learned and seen is, set aside those games, it’s more so the big innings that I’ve had throughout the year. Whether it be just finishing guys earlier, ending at-bats earlier, kind of compressing those bigger innings, I think, allows numbers to be better, allows you to go deeper into games, allows pitch count to go down, allows stress to be taken off of the bullpen, allows the bats to kind of come in and find a groove.”

That is all true. Then again, even the stoutest of pitching efforts wouldn’t have done much this night.

Fried deserves plaudits. But the overwhelming manner in which he mowed through the Orioles was stark enough to remind Baltimore how swing-and-miss prone the offense can be.

And while the pitching carries weight — and the putrid start for the rotation is a large reason Baltimore has been eliminated from postseason contention — the lineup will face long months of looking in the mirror, too.

News and notes

• Orioles right-hander Shawn Dubin, a relief arm picked up off waivers last month, said the MRI for his elbow discomfort was encouraging and he will not require offseason surgery. Dubin said he first felt discomfort in June with the Houston Astros, and it returned Friday in Toronto. The resulting MRI didn’t reveal anything of major concern, although his season is over anyway.
• First baseman Lewin Díaz, who produced well for the Orioles in spring training two seasons ago and wound up posting an .804 OPS at Triple-A Norfolk in 2023, has found success in Korea this year. With 142 RBIs for the Samsung Lions, Díaz broke the record for RBIs by a foreign player in KBO. He’s also powered 48 homers.

This article has been updated.